Genetic on/off Switches

[Jukia]

. Obviously Gould and Eldredge, being paleontologists, invented their theory to explain the problem with morphology, i.e. the presence of stasis, little fossil species change for long periods of time followed by new fossil forms appearing abruptly in the following layers with no ancestors leading up to them, i.e. the Gould invented term “trade secret of paleontology”.

Using the word "invented" that I put in bold above, now that is some serious editorializing bob b. Lets think of a more appropriate word, shall we, how about "developed"?
And I'm not sure your comment about "no ancestors leading up to them" is accurate either. Betcha neither Gould nor Eldredge thought that critters appeared out of the blue. You know what the issue is, there are gaps in the fossil record. Gaps that keep getting shortened all the time when new discoveries are made. The gaps are there, imagine that, some questions remain. That, as you well know, bob b, is part of science.

 

[bob b]

Using the word "invented" that I put in bold above, now that is some serious editorializing bob b. Lets think of a more appropriate word, shall we, how about "developed"?
And I'm not sure your comment about "no ancestors leading up to them" is accurate either. Betcha neither Gould nor Eldredge thought that critters appeared out of the blue. You know what the issue is, there are gaps in the fossil record. Gaps that keep getting shortened all the time when new discoveries are made. The gaps are there, imagine that, some questions remain. That, as you well know, bob b, is part of science.

“Modern apes, for instance, seem to have sprung out of nowhere. They have no yesterday, no fossil record. And the true origin of modern humans—of upright, naked, toolmaking, big-brained beings—is, if we are to be honest with ourselves, an equally mysterious matter.” Lyall Watson, “The Water People,” Science Digest, May 1982, p. 44.

. “At any rate, modern gorillas, orangs and chimpanzees spring out of nowhere, as it were. They are here today; they have no yesterday, unless one is able to find faint foreshadowings of it in the dryopithecids.” Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981; reprint, New York: Warner Books, 1982), p. 363.

(I have dozens more but since I have already posted them, and yet you persist in ignoring them, what's the point?)

 

[Jukia]

“Modern apes, for instance, seem to have sprung out of nowhere. They have no yesterday, no fossil record. And the true origin of modern humans—of upright, naked, toolmaking, big-brained beings—is, if we are to be honest with ourselves, an equally mysterious matter.” Lyall Watson, “The Water People,” Science Digest, May 1982, p. 44.

. “At any rate, modern gorillas, orangs and chimpanzees spring out of nowhere, as it were. They are here today; they have no yesterday, unless one is able to find faint foreshadowings of it in the dryopithecids.” Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey, Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981; reprint, New York: Warner Books, 1982), p. 363.

(I have dozens more but since I have already posted them, and yet you persist in ignoring them, what's the point?)

I understand that there are gaps in the record, but I interpret those differently than you do.

And do you think that perhaps there have been any significant discoveries in the area of the evolution of modern apes in the last 25 years?

 

[bob b]

I understand that there are gaps in the record, but I interpret those differently than you do.

So did Eldredge and Gould. Evolution (macro) happens so fast it leaves no fossil record, but is so slow it cannot be observed.

Niles Eldredge, curator in the department of invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History and adjunct professor at the City University of New York, is another vigorous supporter of evolution. But he finds himself forced to admit that the fossil record fails to support the traditional evolutionary view.
"No wonder paleontologists shied away from evolution for so long," he writes. "It seems never to happen. Assiduous collecting up cliff faces yields zigzags, minor oscillations, and the very occasional slight accumulation of change-over millions of years, at a rate too slow to really account for all the prodigious change that has occurred in evolutionary history.
"When we do see the introduction of evolutionary novelty, it usually shows up with a bang, and often with no firm evidence that the organisms did not evolve elsewhere! Evolution cannot forever be going on someplace else. Yet that's how the fossil record has struck many a forlorn paleontologist looking to learn something about evolution" (Reinventing Darwin: The Great Debate at the High Table of Evolutionary Theory, 1995, p. 95, emphasis added).

After an immense worldwide search by geologists and paleontologists, the "missing links" Darwin predicted would be found to bolster his theory are still missing.
Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould is perhaps today's best-known popular writer on evolution. An ardent evolutionist, he collaborated with Professor Eldredge in proposing alternatives to the traditional view of Darwinism. Like Eldredge, he recognizes that the fossil record fundamentally conflicts with Darwin's idea of gradualism.
"The history of most fossil species," he writes, "includes two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism (gradual evolution from one species to another):
"(1) Stasis. Most species exhibit no directional (evolutionary) change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking pretty much the same as when they disappear; morphological (anatomical or structural) change is usually limited and directionless.
"(2) Sudden appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors: it appears all at once and 'fully formed'" (Gould, "Evolution's Erratic Pace," Natural History, May 1977, pp. 13-14).

And do you think that perhaps there have been any significant discoveries in the area of the evolution of modern apes in the last 25 years?

Nope.

But of course that is what evolutionary theory would predict. (NOT)

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About that bet of yours : ("Betcha neither Gould nor Eldredge thought that critters appeared out of the blue.")

Would a loser contribution of say $100 to TOL be about right?