Gradual change versus leaps

There are two versions of evolution theory.  The main version proposes that many tiny changes over millions of years made new creatures.  It is called the Modern Synthesis or Neo-Darwinian evolution.

But "major transitions in biological evolution show the same pattern of sudden emergence of diverse forms at a new level of complexity."  "The principal 'types' seem to appear rapidly and fully equipped with the signature features of the respective new level of biological organization.  No intermediate 'grades' or intermediate forms between different types are detectable."²⁰

Since the fossil record does not show tiny changes between one type of creature and another, a few evolutionists proposed a modification to evolution theory.  It says that change occurred by occasional leaps (punctuated equilibrium), not gradually.  However, each hypothetical beneficial mutation could only make a slight change.  Any more than that would be so disruptive as to cause death.  So punctuated equilibrium is not really about big leaps.  It envisions a lot of slight changes over thousands of years, then nothing happens for millions of years.  Evolutionists say with a straight face that no fossils have been found from a leap because thousands of years is too fast in the billions of years of "geologic time" to leave any.  On the other hand, without fossils there is no evidence that any leaps ever happened, and of course there is no evidence that leaps or gradual changes beyond variation are happening today in any of the millions of species that still exist.