Since we proposed punctuated equilibria to explain trends, it is infuriating to be quoted again and again by creationists -- whether through design or stupidity, I do not know -- as admitting that the fossil record includes no transitional forms. The punctuations occur at the level of species; directional trends (on the staircase model) are rife at the higher level of transitions within major groups. — Stephen Jay Gould ["Evolution as Fact and Theory" Science and Creationism, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 124.]