[tejtm]

Evolution happens on the time scale of "birth" to reproductive age for the organism in question. I know of no corporeal entity still considered adolescent after a century.

I have never even worked with an evolutionary biologist but the concept of "punctuated equilibrium" has been around for quite a while.

[] my sloppy use of "birth" includes cells budding, seeds sprouting and the rest of the messy details.

[] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium

[cronix]

Extremely out of my league here, but it seems logical to me that if there is a mutation, it only initially happens in a single organism. Like a single specific bear might mutate, but certainly not all of them at the same time. That organism then needs to mature (if not already) and reproduce to spread the new mutation. It seems it would take several generations of successful breeding and on top of that successful passing on of the mutated gene to have the mutation actually spread beyond just the initial one. Reproduction rate of the organism would also play a huge factor I'd imagine, like a mouse can have hundreds of offspring in a single year due to a 21 day gestation period compared to a human.