EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -punctuated equilibrium A hypothesis, published in 1972 by N. Eldredge and Stephen J. Gould, proposing that in evolutionary history most change occurs very rapidly in short bursts lasting typically less than 100 000 years and is associated with speciation events.

Detailed explanation-2: -Charles Darwin’s 1859 theory of evolution by natural selection put forward the idea that evolutionary change or divergence accumulates steadily and slowly, in small steps, as one species succeeds the previous one in the struggle for existence.

Detailed explanation-3: -Punctuated equilibrium is a theory that states that evolution occurs primarily through short bursts of intense speciation, followed by lengthy periods of stasis or equilibrium. The model postulates that nearly 99% of a species’ time on earth is spent in stasis, and change happens very quickly.

Detailed explanation-4: -Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within lineages.

Detailed explanation-5: -Macroevolution refers to much bigger evolutionary changes that result in new species. Macroevolution may happen: When microevolution occurs repeatedly over a long period of time and leads to the creation of a new species.