C. Proyect,
Oh I forgot. Punctuated equilibrium has become the saving grace
of those who want to anti-scientifically idealize nature. In their minds
nature chugs along in perfect balance and order until "deus ex machina"
some mighty event comes along. Nonsense. We have no idea what killed the
dinosaurs. The fossil evidence suggests that they may have died off
suddenly. *That* is what real scientists cop to if pressed. The rest of
the arguments pro-catastrophe and anti are circumstantial. Paleontologists
are probably the least disciplined scientists that there are.
The dinosaurs could have died from disease or have been
out-competed by creatures small and large after plate movement brought
species into contact that had not been previously. There is a similar
mystery with the enormous mammals such as saber-toothed tigers. These
have been found to have ranged far south enough to avoid drastic climate
change, yet they all died. The novel combination of animals created
during the geological changes to central America may have been the cause
of that extinction. In either case it's paramount not to assume that
concepts like balance, cycles and self-correcting systems are anything but
human. As long as we understand that our concepts are effectively
metaphors for trends in infinitely more complex natural behavior, we don't
lose sight of science for speculation.
peace
