"Of COURSE not!", says EvoDude, "For this would be that PUNK EEK stuff that all (well, MOST) of us Evo's have discounted already. That's like a MIRACLE er sumpthin'!"
(Note:Specie A takes MANY small changes to get to Specie B, none of which manage to get 'preserved'.)
That is why a species will be the same in the fossil record for millions of years and dissappear then a few thousand years later re-appear as something "related" to the original.
Where are the "small changes" that make the change?
Were they preserved in Darwin's freezer?
By the above definitions, since there is not data to explain it, the gap is covered by a "guess" not by a Leap Of Faith. (You have to preserve the scientific language.)
My impression is that this is incorrect. I think most "EvoDudes" (and EvoBabes) nowadays would concede that BOTH PunkEq and Phyletic Gradualism occur, and that there are excellent examples of BOTH in the fossil record. I also think that most evolutionists would agree that there are multiple modes of speciation: that there is not one single pattern that occurs every time. This is a consilient observation since the PE versus PG debate is really just about modes of speciation as preserved in the fossil record.