saltationism

English

Etymology

From saltation +‎ -ism.

Noun

saltationism (uncountable)

  1. (evolutionary theory) The belief that evolution operates by the sudden development of new species or biological features from one generation to the next.
    • 1986, Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker[1], W. W. Norton & Company, published 2015, →ISBN:
      Gould has misled himself by his own rhetorical emphasis on the purely poetic or literary resemblance between punctuationism, on the one hand, and true saltationism on the other.

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Further reading