Who was Stephen Jay Gould?
Q: Who was Stephen Jay Gould?
A: Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, taxonomist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation.
Q: Where did he work?
A: Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the latter years of his life, he also taught biology and evolution at New York University near his home in SoHo.
Q: What is punctuated equilibrium?
A: Punctuated equilibrium is a theory developed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge in 1972 which proposes that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability, which are punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution. It contrasts with the idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.
Q: What species did Gould use for empirical research?
A: Most of Gould's empirical research was based on the snail genera Poecilozonites and Cerion.
Q: What book did he write?
A: He wrote a book called Ontogeny and Phylogeny which received wide praise.
Q: What theories did he oppose?
A: He opposed strict selectionism, sociobiology as applied to humans, and evolutionary psychology.
Q: How did he campaign against creationism?
A: He campaigned against creationism through writing essays which were collected into volumes for publication.
