Evolution: quick or progressive?

How are humans a good example of punctuated equilibrium and phyletic gradualism?

At the beginning, up until the 1970s, the human fossil record is a great example of punctuated equilibrium. The fossil record of hominins was pretty poor, but eventually many of those gaps were filled, leading the thought to go from punctuated equilibrium to phyletic gradualism. And what idea you follow is totally dependent on fossil record. A lot of the gaps were filled in the 1980s.

Define punctuated equillibrium

Punctuated equilibrium (also called punctuated equilibria) is a theory in evolutionary biology which proposes that once species appear in the fossil record they will become stable, showing little net evolutionary change for most of their geological history. This state is called stasis. When significant evolutionary change occurs, the theory proposes that it is generally restricted to rare and geologically rapid events of branching speciation called cladogenesis. Cladogenesis is the process by which a species splits into two distinct species, rather than one species gradually transforming into another.

Who came up with punctuated equilibrium?

Gould and Eldredge

What is phyletic gradualism?

This is when we see gradual changes over time (the traditional way we see new species created). You might think that the stark change of the geologic record is simply because there are gaps in the fossil record. So maybe we're just missing these guys. The difficulty of this debate will always depend on what is found.