punctuated equilibrium

The students suggested these factors: natural selection, morphological mutations, punctuated equilibrium and allopatric speciation.

Rather, they develop, like animal species, through what evolutionary biologists call “punctuated equilibrium” — long periods of stasis and short bouts of intense variation.

There is a geological term, punctuated equilibrium, that proposes the Earth evolves, not steadily, but with long uneventful intervals ruptured by epochal change.

But, as with most cases of punctuated equilibrium, the organism created by the upheaval will be finely tuned for the world as it is.

Although his comment is a neat summary of punctuated equilibrium, his topic was not biological evolution, but the evolution of how we watch TV.