What does it mean for a species to be in stasis?

1 Answer
Jan 16, 2017

If a species is in stasis, it is not undergoing evolutionary change over a long period of time.

Explanation:

In modern biology, stasis means that a species is not undergoing any reactive evolutionary change over a long period of time. Essentially, that species is not evolving.

Stasis is also a term used when describing fossil records of evolution, in a theory called "punctuated equilibrium". This theory proposes that once a species appears in the fossil record, the species becomes stable and displays little evolutionary change. The species has become populous and stable enough to display little to no evolutionary change over a long period of time; the species has entered a state of stasis.