saltationism
nounEtymology From saltation + -ism.
1
The belief that evolution operates by the sudden development of new species or biological features from one generation to the next.
Evolutionary theory
- Gould has misled himself by his own rhetorical emphasis on the purely poetic or literary resemblance between punctuationism, on the one hand, and true saltationism on the other.1986, Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton & Company, published 2015, →ISBN:
- Related terms
- gradualism, punctuationism