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Birth and Early Years Of Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was born in New York, New York September of 1941. His father was a court stenographer, and his mother was an artist. Gould showed interest in science at an early age when his father took him to a museum at an early age, from there he saw his first dinosaur exhibit. Gould graduated from Antioch College in 1963 and received a Ph.D. in paleontology at Columbia University in 1967. Shortly after, he joined the faculty at Harvard University, becoming a professor there until 1973. -
Theory of Punctuated Equilibrium
In 1972 Gould and Niles Eldredge published Punctuated Equilibrium, which states that in a biological ecosystem once a species has lived long enough the population of that species will become stable meaning that a species of animal or reptile will change its features to adapt to its surroundings until that species grows confident in surviving and then it will stop evolving. Once a species becomes stable, it will not need to change its features unless there is a drastic change to its environment. -
Ontogeny and Phylogeny
In 1977, Gould published his first technical book called “Ontogeny and Phylogeny.” Gould’s book talked about the relationship between embryonic development and biological evolution. Gould’s book is broken down into two parts. The first part looks at evolutionary transitions of adult forms of an organism; the second part talks about heterochrony and macroevolution and how time and change affect our development. -
The Mismeasure Of Man
In 1981 Gould published a book called “The Mismeasure Of Man.” In his book, he talks about a lot of great and interesting topics. One of the issues brought up is about the intelligence of man and what it means to be intelligent. A while back ago in the 19th-century scientist thought the more significant the skull, the bigger the brain and thus the smarter the person. However, scientist found out later this theory was not correct. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wcSSLo9TIs&t=79s)