Niles Eldredge ; introduction Carl Zimmer

Niles Eldredge is an American paleontologist and biologist renowned for co-proposing the theory of punctuated equilibrium with Stephen Jay Gould in 1972, describing evolution in rapid bursts followed by long stasis periods. He served as a curator in the Invertebrate Paleontology section at the American Museum of Natural History from 1969 until his retirement as Curator Emeritus, specializing in the evolution of mid-Paleozoic trilobites. Eldredge has authored numerous books on evolution, biodiversity, and extinction, including *Unfinished Synthesis* (1985) and *The Pattern of Evolution* (1999).[1][2][3]