[Oztrich Boy]

From the time of Darwin's book in 1859 until 1972 the evolution supporters were greatly troubled by stasis in the fossil record followed by burst of new species.

Not really

the periods during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured in years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retain the same form

written in 1869 by a chap called Charles Darwin, you may have heard of him.

[tongass kid]

Yep, really. Stephen Jay Gould in “opus 200” 1991 Natural History August 12-18 defends is theory of PE. He clearly writes about what he and Nile were attempting to accomplish in developing the theory. Opus 200 is now a classic and the debate continues. Evolutionary biologist continue to have problems with PE because of time constraints. The debate with biologist continues with Gould and Eldredge in Nature Vol 366:233-227 November 1993.