Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences and Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2014 Jan;29(1):23-32. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2013.07.004. Epub 2013 Aug 24.
The long-controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium (PE) asserts that speciation causes rapid evolution against a backdrop of stasis. PE is currently undergoing a resurgence driven by new developments in statistical methods. However, we argue that PE is actually a tangle of four unnecessarily conflated questions: (i) is evolution gradualistic or pulsed? (ii) does trait evolution occur mainly at speciation or within a lineage? (iii) are changes at speciation adaptive or neutral? and (iv) how important is species selection in shaping patterns of diversity? We discuss progress towards answering these four questions but argue that combining these conceptually distinct ideas under the single framework of PE is distracting and confusing, and more likely to hinder progress than to spur it.
长期以来备受争议的间断平衡理论（PE）认为，物种形成导致快速进化，而背景则是停滞。PE 目前正在复兴，这得益于统计方法的新发展。然而，我们认为，PE 实际上是四个不必要的混淆问题的纠结：（i）进化是渐进的还是脉冲式的？（ii）特征进化主要发生在物种形成时还是在谱系内？（iii）物种形成时的变化是适应性的还是中性的？以及（iv）物种选择在塑造多样性模式方面有多重要？我们讨论了在回答这四个问题方面所取得的进展，但认为将这些在概念上截然不同的想法合并在 PE 的单一框架下是分散注意力和令人困惑的，这更有可能阻碍而不是促进进展。
