Controversy Catastrophism and Evolution
Subtitle: the Ongoing Debate
By: by Trevor Palmer
Publisher: Springer US; Imprint; Springer
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Boston, MA
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 468
ISBN-13: 9781461549017
Description: In <em>Controversy</em>, Trevor Palmer fully documents how traditional gradualistic views of biological and geographic evolution are giving way to a catastrophism that credits cataclysmic events, such as meteorite impacts, for the rapid bursts and abrupt transitions observed in the fossil record.<br/> According to the catastrophists, new species do not evolve gradually; they proliferate following sudden mass extinctions. Placing this major change of perspective within the context of a range of ancient debates, Palmer discusses such topics as the history of the solar system, present-day extraterrestrial threats to earth, hominid evolution, and the fossil record.