Niles Eldredge is a paleontologist on the curatorial staff of the American Museum of Natural History. He developed the theory of "punctuated equilibria" with Stephen Jay Gould, and his book The Pattern of Evolution offered a comprehensive theory of how environmental change governs the evolutionary process. He is also the author of Life in Balance and The Triumph of Evolution...And The Failure of Creationism and was a coeditor of the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach.