Syracuse University geologists raise questions about controversial theory of species survival

Syracuse University geologists raise questions about controversial theory of species survival

First proposed in 1995 by Carl Brett of the University of Cincinnati and Gordon Baird of the State University of New York at Fredonia, coordinated stasis attempts to describe the emergence and disappearance of species across geologic time by suggesting that species living together in the same environment go through long periods of stability—some six million years—and then undergo a rapid, almost complete turnover, during which old species disappear and new ones emerge. Until 1995, most researchers believed that species emerged and disappeared independent of each other throughout time.