“The history of most fossil species include two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism:
1) Stasis – most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless;
2) Sudden appearance – in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed’.”
Gould, S.J. (1977)
“Evolution’s Erratic Pace”
Natural History, vol. 86, May