for human fossils, though it is sometimes used for other intermediates, like the dinosaur-bird intermediary Archaeopteryx. While "missing link" is still a popular term, well-recognized by the public and often used in the popular media, the term is avoided in scientific publications. Some bloggers have called it "inappropriate"; both because the links are no longer "missing", and because human evolution is no longer believed to have occurred in terms of a single linear progression. Punctuated equilibrium The theory of punctuated equilibrium developed by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge and first presented in 1972 is often mistakenly drawn into the discussion of transitional fossils. This theory, however, pertains only to well-documented transitions within taxa or between closely related taxa over a geologically short period of time. These transitions, usually traceable in the same geological outcrop, often show small jumps in morphology between extended periods of morphological stability. To explain these jumps, Gould and Eldredge envisaged comparatively long periods of genetic stability separated by periods of rapid evolution. Gould made the following observation concerning creationist misuse of his work to deny the existence of transitional fossils: See also Crocoduck Evidence of common descent Speciation References Sources The book is available from The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. Retrieved 2015-05-13. External links Evolutionary biology concepts Zoology Phylogenetics