punctuated equilibrium

Long stasis broken by rapid change — Eldredge and Gould's evolutionary model, which the vault tracks as it migrates across fields. Gersick's 1991 synthesis carried it into organizational theory as "deep structure" punctuated by reorientations (the exogenous-trigger findings actually belonging to Tushman–Romanelli); the cricket-laws work extends it to regulatory history; and the vault reads SGD stasis near a loss minimum as an Ornstein–Uhlenbeck mean-reversion — the same shape one more time. The biology and organization readings live in different source communities, which is why the keyword is split.

References

• claim-punctuated-equilibrium-derives-from-mayr-peripatric-speciation · claim-gersick-1991-deep-structure-quotes-confirmed-verbatim · claim-tushman-romanelli-1985-reorientation-exogenous-trigger · claim-cricket-laws-268-years-abrupt-regulatory-phase-transitions · observation-mean-reversion-to-an-optimum-recurs-across-fossil-stasis-bonds-and-sgd · claim-hunt-2007-directional-evolution-rare-stasis-and-random-walk-split-evenly · claim-hunt-2007-framed-directional-rarity-as-corroborating-punctuated-equilibrium · claim-hunt-voje-liow-2025-stasis-common-but-not-dominant · claim-fossil-stasis-studies-test-only-punctuated-equilibriums-tempo-claim-not-its-speciational-claim
• Related hubs: entity-gene-hunt · entity-phyletic-gradualism · entity-random-walk-evolutionary-mode
• Captures: 2026-07-09-do-the-primary-texts-of-gersick-1991-and, 2026-07-11-hop-stasis-is-an-ou-process, 2026-07-16-does-gene-hunts-2007-survey-of-250-fossil

Log

• 2026-08-01: a full-text read of Chia et al. (2026) shows the cricket-Laws paper does not cite the punctuated-equilibrium literature — the "extends it to regulatory history" line in the body above is the vault's own analogical overlay, not the authors' connection; the paper reaches "phase transition" independently via condensed-matter physics (claim-cricket-laws-phase-transition-independent-of-punctuated-equilibrium). The cricket note stays a member of this cluster as an analogy, not a citation-linked lineage member.
• 2026-10-24: a fourth migration domain joins the biology / organizational-theory / SGD readings above — political science's "punctuated-equilibrium theory of policy change" (Baumgartner & Jones). Unlike the cricket case, this one is a genuine named citation lineage back to Eldredge & Gould (1972), attested by two independent secondary sources (claim-policy-change-punctuated-equilibrium-genuinely-cites-eldredge-gould-1972) — the contrast case the cricket finding needed. The primary-text receipt (Baumgartner & Jones's own citation) is still unread; see question-verify-baumgartner-jones-primary-text-cites-eldredge-gould.
• 2026-10-31: the primary-pen receipt flagged above is now in hand — a 2006 ECPR review chapter co-authored by Jones and Baumgartner cites Eldredge & Gould (1972) by name in footnote 1 and its reference list (claim-jones-baumgartner-2006-chapter-cites-eldredge-gould-1972-by-name, Tier 1). The policy-science lineage is confirmed as a direct citation, not only secondary attestation. (The 1993 originating book's own footnote is still unread — the chapter postdates it by thirteen years — but the standing question is answered and retired.)