In the late 1960s, Curator Emeritus Niles Eldredge was a graduate student with a passion for trilobite eyes. He had been taught to expect slow and steady change between the specimens of these Devonian arthropods he collected for his dissertation. Only his trilobites were doing one of two things: staying the same, or evolving in leaps.

Several years later, Eldredge, along with co-author Stephen Jay Gould, turned his observations into a theory known as “punctuated equilibria”: the idea that species stay relatively the same, or at equilibrium, throughout the fossil record save for rare bursts of evolutionary change.

A former Chairman and Curator of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, Eldredge remains at the hub of evolutionary discussion and debate, as well as one of the world's experts on trilobites, specializing in mid-Paleozoic phacopids. He has also analyzed the relationship between global extinctions of the geologic past and the present-day biodiversity crisis, as well as the general relationship between extinction and evolution.

#trilobites #fossils #extinction #evolution #punctuated equilibria

Learn more about Trilobites: http://www.amnh.org/our-research/pale...

VIDEO CREDITS:

VIDEO:
AMNH/J. Bauerle

PHOTOGRAPHY:
Niles Eldredge
AMNH/D. Finnin
AMNH/S. Thurston
Courtesy of Euan Clarkson
Courtesy Archives of Michigan
Nicole Bechard
Ashley Dace
JJ Harrison
Andy Secher
Martin A. Shugar

ILLUSTRATION
AMNH/Niles Eldredge
Northern Arizona University/Ron Blakey
The University of Edinburgh/ Euan Clarkson

MUSIC:
“Gleaming” by Aaron Ashton/Warner Chappell Production Music
“Innovative Technologies” by Kriso Lindberg/Warner Chappell Production Music
“Squaring the Circle” by Lars Kurz/Warner Chappell Production Music

SOUND EFFECTS
Freesound/Digifishmusic, exuberate, hanstimm,
timgormley, toiletrolltube, UCL Sound

SPECIAL THANKS
Niles Eldredge
Andy Secher
Martin A. Shugar

This video and all media incorporated herein (including text, images, and audio) are the property of the American Museum of Natural History or its licensors, all rights reserved. The Museum has made this video available for your personal, educational use. You may not use this video, or any part of it, for commercial purposes, nor may you reproduce, distribute, publish, prepare derivative works from, or publicly display it without the prior written consent of the Museum.

© American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY