[4] Since 2001, many researchers in evolution (such as Tracy Aze,[5] Anthony Barnosky, Michael J. Benton,[4] Douglas Erwin,[6] Thomas Ezard,[5] Sergey Gravilets,[7] J.B.C.
Jackson,[6] Paul N. Pearson,[5] Andy Purvis,[5] Robert D. Westfall,[3] and Constance I. Millar[3]) have started to use the term "Court Jester hypothesis" to describe the view that evolution at a macro scale is driven by abiotic factors more than the biotic competition called the Red Queen hypothesis.
The court jester hypothesis builds upon the punctuated equilibrium theory of Stephen Gould (1972)[8] by providing a primary mechanism for it.
[2] The 2001 paper by Barnosky that is one of the first to use the term appropriate for the Court Jester side of the debate: the Stability hypothesis of Stenseth and Maynard Smith (1984), Vrba's Habitat Theory (1992), Vrba's Turn-over pulse hypothesis (1985), Vrba's Traffic light hypothesis and Relay Model (1995), Gould's Tiers of Time (1985), Brett and Baird's Coordinated Stasis (1995), and Graham and Lundelius' Coevolutionary Disequilibrium (1984) theories.
It refers in evolution theory to the arms race of evolutionary developments and counter-developments that cause co-evolving species to mutually drive each other to adapt.