Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 2
FOSSILS AND STRATA Part 3
"7 - The Cambrian and Precambrian Problem, " at the end of this chapter.
STROMATOLITES The only macrofossils that are of widespread occurrence in the Precambrian are stromatolites. These are reef-like remnants usually thought to have been formed from precipitated mineral matter on microbial communities, primarily blue-green algae, growing by photosynthesis. So stromatolites are remnants of chemical formations and never were alive! The "3.8 billion-year-old" Isua outcrop in Greenland was previously believed to contain the oldest evidence of life. Then in 1981 it was discovered that the evidence was nothing more than weathered crystals of calcium magnesium carbonates:
"Further analysis of the world's oldest rocks has confirmed that microscopic inclusions are not the fossilised remains of living cells; instead they are crystals of dolomite-type carbonates, rusted by water that has seeped into the rock." *Nigel Henbest, " 'Oldest Cells' are Only Weathered Crystals," in New Scientist, October 15, 1981, p. 164.
Two years later, an update report in New Scientist on "the world's oldest (Precambrian) rocks" in Greenland said this:
"Geologists have found no conclusive evidence of life in these Greenland rocks." *Chris Peat and *Will Diver, "First Signs of Life on Earth," in New Scientist, September 16, 1983, pp. 776-781.
Evolutionists used to claim that "heat in the rocks" destroyed the fossils below the Cambrian level, but more recent studies reveal that that is just not true. If the animal life was there, we should be able to find it. But instead, almost nothing is to be found below the Cambrian strata.
BARRENNESS EVERYWHERE There are great stretches of Precambrian sedimentary rocks that could and should have preserved the common ancestors of the diverse and complex Cambrian life--if such evolutionary ancestors ever existed
"The introduction of a variety of organisms in the early Cambrian, including such complex forms of the arthropods as the trilobites, is surprising . . The introduction of abundant organisms in the record would not be so surprising if they were so simple. Why should such complex organic forms be in rocks about 600 million years old, and yet be totally absent from rocks in the previous 2 billion years? . . If there has been evolution of life, the absence of the requisite fossils in the rocks older than the Cambrian is puzzling." *Marshall Kay and *Edwin Colbert, Stratigraphy and Life History, p. 102.
*George says that the problem would be easily solved if Creation was acceptable, but assuming an evolutionary basis of the emergence of life--the Cambrian explosion is an evolutionary crisis.
"Granted an evolutionary origin of the main groups of animals, and not an act of special creation, the absence of any record whatsoever of a single member of any of the phyla in the Precambrian rocks remains as inexplicable on orthodox grounds as it was to Darwin." *T. Neville George, "Fossils in Evolutionary Perspective," in Science Progress, January 1960, p. 5.
Thus we find in the rocks evidence not of evolution, but of sudden creation.
For additional information see the quotation supplement, "7 - The Cambrian and Precambrian Problem, " in the appendix.
CAMBRIAN-PRECAMBRIAN SUMMARY To summarize the situation: (1) In the Cambrian and on up, we find millions upon millions of varied types of fossilized life forms. Below the Cambrian, we find next to nothing; and most of that is clearly inorganic materials. Nearly all of those Precambrian deposits are spheres or rods from colloidal salts which have dried out, or similar inorganic substances.
In the Cambrian, we find that, even in its deepest fossil-rich deposits, the fossil remains of life forms show themselves to be separate, distinct, diversified, and enormous in quantity. Scientists have remarked on how there seems to be a sudden vast quantity of living creatures as soon as the Cambrian begins. All this favors the concept of Creation and a Genesis Flood, not that of slowly-occurring evolution over millions of years.
6 - NO TRANSITIONAL SPECIES
THE GAP PROBLEM In this section we will deal with three specific problems, but we will frequently intermingle them in the discussion:
(1) There are no transitional species preceding or leading up to the first multi-celled creatures that appear in the Cambrian, the lowest stratum level.
(2) There are no transitional species elsewhere in the fossil record.
(3) The species that appear in the fossils are frequently found in many different strata.
(4) The great majority of the species found in the fossils are alive today.
NO TRANSITIONS The Cambrian explosion is the first major problem with the fossil record. The lack of transitions is the second. But of all the problems, this lack of transitional creatures, halfway between different species, is, for the evolutionist, probably the biggest single crisis in the geologic column. Indeed, it is one of the biggest of the many crises in evolutionary theory!
"Evolution requires intermediate forms between species, and paleontology does not provide them." *D.B. Kitts, Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory (1974), p. 467.
Throughout the fossils, we find no transitions from one kind of creature to another, instead, only individual, distinctive plant or animal kinds.
"It is a feature of the known fossil record that most taxa appear abruptly. They are not, as a rule, led up to by a sequence of almost imperceptible changing forerunners such as Darwin believed should be usual in evolution." *G.G. Simpson, in The Evolution of Life, p. 149.
And, to make matters worse, in the fossil record we find the very same creatures that we have today, plus a few extinct types which died out before our time! Neither now nor earlier are there transitional forms, halfway between true species.
"When we examine a series of fossils of any age we may pick out one and say with confidence, 'This is a crustacean, or starfish, or a brachiopod, or annelid, or any other type of creature as the case may be." *A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis, p. 100.
In the rock strata, we find horses, tigers, fish, insects, but no transitional forms. For example, we find large horses and small horses, but nothing that is part horse and part something else.
After giving years to a careful examination of the fossil record, comparing it with that of species alive today, a famous biologist on the staff of the Smithsonian Institute wrote these words:
"All the major groups of animals have maintained the same relationship to each other from the very first [from the very lowest level of the geologic column] . . Crustaceans have always been crustaceans, echinoderms have always been echinoderms, and mollusks have always been mollusks. There is not the slightest evidence which supports any other viewpoint." *A.H. Clark, The New Evolution: Zoogenesis (1930), p. 114.
"From the tangible evidence that we now have been able to discover, we are forced to the conclusion that all the major groups of animals at the very first held just about the same relation to each other that they do today. " *Op, cit., p. 211.
FOSSIL GAPS This glaring fact is a repudiation of evolutionary theory. Evolutionists even have a name for the problem: they call it "fossil gaps." No creatures that are half fish and half bird, or half pig and half cow are to be found; only distinct animal and plant types such as we know today.
For example, let us imagine that you wanted to do research on the ancestry of the horse. You would search the fossil collections, and you would read the thousands of pages written about what others have found. When you were finished, you would find that all that horses have ever been--now and earlier--is just horses! They have evolved into nothing else, they came from nothing else; they have always just been horses; no more, no less. Just as today, you would find that, in the past, there have been varieties of horses--big ones and little ones--but they all were still horses, with no half-horse-half-cow transitional forms among them.
A related problem is the fact that great numbers of fossils span across many strata, supposedly covering millions of years. This means that, throughout the fossil record, those species made no changes during those "millions of years."
THE OCTOPUS Here is an excellent example of what we are talking about: The squid and octopus are the most complex of the invertebrates (animals without backbones). Checking carefully through the fossil record, you will find only squid and octopi; nothing else. There was nothing evolved or evolving about them; they were always just squid and octopi. (You will also find an extinct species, called the nautiloids. But they seem to have been even more complex!)
Checking into this more carefully, you will find that octopi first appear quite early in the fossil strata. The reason for that would be simple enough: When an octopus is frightened, it may curl up in a cave or corner someplace, or it may shoot out quickly using jets of water. For this reason, some octopi would be buried early, while others would be buried in higher strata.
Checking still farther, you will find that the octopus is found in nearly every stratum from bottom to top! Many octopi continued to jet their way to the top of the waters as they rose.
(Later, after the Flood was finished, the balance of nature worked against the nautiloids and they were devoured by their enemies. Today there are none. Darwin's "survival of the fittest" (the fittest will survive better than the others) apparently did not apply to the nautiloids, which were distinctly different than the octopi and squid, but apparently more capable than either.)
Checking still farther, you will find that octopi and squid in all strata are identical to octopi and squid today.
In chapter 13, Natural Selection, the marvelous eye of the octopus is discussed in greater detail.
For additional information see quotation supplement, "8 - No Transition Amid the Gaps."
ABRUPT APPEARANCE
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MISSING LINKS The links are missing. Nearly all the fossils are just our present animals, and the links between them are just not there. Few scientists today are still looking for fossil links between the major vertebrate or invertebrate groups. They have given up! The links just do not exist and have never existed.
Evolutionists know exactly what those transitional forms should look like, but they cannot find them in the fossil record! They are not to be found, even though thousands of men have searched for them since the beginning of the 19th century! Everywhere they turn, the paleontologists (the fossil hunters) find the same regular, distinct species that exist today, plus some that are extinct.. The extinct ones are obviously not transitional forms between the regular species. For example, the large dinosaurs are not transitional forms, but are just definite species which became extinct in ancient times--probably by the waters of the Flood.
(Contrary to the lurid paintings of dinosaurs which evolutionists like to display as proof of their theory--extinction of a distinct species is not evolution, and provides no evidence of it.)
The search to find the missing links and fill the gaps between the distinct kinds has resulted in enormous collections of fossils. Recall to mind the earlier statements by Sunderland and *Kier that 100 million fossils have been examined by paleontologists around the world. Later in this chapter a statement by Gish will be quoted, in which he mentions that about a quarter of a million of them have been selected for placement in special collections.
There is such a mass of fossil evidence, that it is embarrassing to the evolutionary world. Scientists are at last admitting that the gaps never will be filled; the links never will be found:
"There is no need to apologize any longer for the poverty of the fossil record. In some ways it has become almost unmanageably rich, and discovery is outpacing integration . . The fossil record nevertheless continues to be composed mainly of gaps." *T. Neville George, "Fossils in Evolutionary Perspective," in Science Progress, January 1960, pp. 1, 3.
If there are no transitional forms in the fossil record, there has been no evolution!
For additional information see quotation supplement, "11 -Searching for Transitions, " in the appendix.
7 - ABRUPT APPEARANCE
ABRUPT APPEARANCE OF THE HIGHER TAXA Not only do the smaller, slower-moving creatures in the Cambrian suddenly appear in the fossil record, the larger creatures appear just as suddenly! And when these life forms do appear--they appear by the millions! Tigers, salmon, lions, pine trees, gophers, hawks, squirrels, horses, and on and on!
For additional information see quotation supplement, "10 - Connecting the Amphibians to the Fishes, " in the appendix.
Evolution cannot explain this sudden emergence, and competent scientists acknowledge the fact:
"The abrupt appearance of higher taxa in the fossil record has been a perennial puzzle. Not only do characteristic and distinctive remains of phyla appear suddenly, without known ancestors, but several classes of a phylum, orders of a class, and so on, commonly appear at approximately the same time, without known intermediates." *James W. Valentine and *Cathryn A. Campbell, "Genetic Regulation and the Fossil Record," in American Scientist Vol. 63, November-December, 1975, p. 673.
"In spite of these examples, it remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories about the level of families, appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences." *G. G. Simpson, The Major features of Evolution, (1953), p. 360.
"The sudden emergence of major adaptive types as seen in the abrupt appearance in the fossil record of families and orders, continued to give trouble. The phenomenon lay in the genetic no-man's land beyond the limits of experimentation. A few paleontologists even today cling to the idea that these gaps will be closed by further collecting. . but most regard the observed discontinuities as real and have sought an explanation." *D. Dwight Davis, "Comparative Anatomy and the Evolution of Vertebrates," in Genetics, Paleontology, and Evolution, (1949), p. 74.
For additional information see the quotation supplement, "9 - Abrupt Appearance" in the appendix.
8 - STASIS
UNCHANGING SPECIES An important principle noted by every paleontologist who works with fossils is known as stasis. Stasis means to retain a certain form, to remain unchanged; in other words--not to change from one species to another! We have here the fact that the animals in the fossil record did not change. Each creature first appears in the record with a certain shape and structure; it then continues on unchanged for "millions of years;" and is either identical to creatures existing now, or becomes extinct and disappears. But all the while that it lived, there was no change in it; no evolution. There were no evidences of what paleontologists call "gradualism," that is, gradual changes from one species to another, There was only stalls.
"The history of most fossil species includes two features particularly inconsistent with gradualism:
"Stasis: Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless.
"Sudden appearance: In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and 'fully formed.'" *Steven Jay Gould, "Evolution's Erratic Pace," in Natural History, May 1977, p. 14.
For additional information see quotation supplement "13 - Stasis," in the appendix.
9 - NO CHANGE FROM PAST TO PRESENT
FOSSILS SAME AS THOSE NOW ALIVE All of the fossils can be categorized into one of two groups: (1) Plants and animals which became extinct, and (2) Plants and animals which are the same as those living today. Neither category provides any evidence of evolution, for there are no transitional forms leading up to or away from any of them. All are only distinct species.
Some creatures became extinct at the time of the Flood or shortly afterward. But all creatures which did not become extinct are essentially identical--both in fossil form and in their living counterparts today! This is a major point. No species evolution has occurred! The fossils provide no evidence of species evolution!
For additional information see quotation supplement, "12 - Fossils Same as Living Forms, " in the appendix..
PYLOGENY OF THE FLYING INSECTS
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10 - NOT ENOUGH SPECIES
SHOULD BE MORE SPECIES According to evolutionary theory, there was a massive number of species changes in ancient times, but we do not find evidence of this in the rocks. In order for one species to change into another, we should find large numbers of transitional species, partway between one species and another. But this is not found. A leading paleontologist explains:
"There are about 250,000 different species of fossil plants and animals known . . In spite of this large quantity of information, it is but a tiny fraction of the diversity that [according to the theory] actually lived in the past. There are well over a million species living today and . . [it is] possible to predict how many species ought to be in our fossil record. That number is at least 100 times the number we have found. " *David M. Raup, "Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology, " in Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, January 1979, p. 22.
(1) The fossil evidence does not have enough different species, and (2) it reveals no successively evolving species in ancient times. But, in addition, the fossil experts admit that far too many "new species" names have been applied to fossils which have been found. Consider this:
CONFUSION IN NAMES At this point we shall mention a technical point that only adds to the confusion as paleontologists try to search for the truth about the fossils. It also gives the impression of far more extinct species in the fossil record than there actually are.
Fossil hunters have the practice of giving different names to the same species if it is found in rocks of different periods!
Dr. Eldredge [American Museum of Natural History, New York City] was asked, `Do paleontologists name the same creatures differently when they are found in different geological periods?' He replied that this happens, but they are mistakes. When asked the same question, Dr. Patterson [British Museum, London] replied, `Oh, yes, that's very widely done.' Next he was asked, 'That doesn't seem quite honest. You wouldn't do that, would you?' He said that he hoped he wouldn't . .
Would not this practice make a lot more species? Dr. Raup [Chicago Museum] said it would; perhaps 70 percent of the species described [in the fossil rocks] are later found to be the same as existing species, so 70 percent of the new species named should not have been [given new names but were], either through ignorance or because of the ground rules used by the taxonomists." L.D. Sunderland, Darwin's Enigma (1988), pp. 130-131.
Obviously, such a practice deepens the problem for the experts. In this chapter our concern will be with underlying facts and principles, yet the doubling and trebling of names for the same fossil species only makes it harder for the experts to extract themselves from their Darwinian muddle.
"An assistant of Dr. Eldredge, who was studying trilobite fossils at the American Museum, explained to the author how he made the decision on naming a new species: `I look at a fossil for about two weeks and then if I think it looks different enough, I give it a new name.' So it is simply a matter of judgment with no firm ground rules." Op. cit., p. 131.
Taxonomists are the men who classify and give names to plants and animals. Among them, the "splitters" are the ones who find it easier to make up new names, than to go to the trouble of properly identifying a specimen in hand.
"We all know that many apparent evolutionary bursts are nothing more than brainstorms on the part of particular paleontologists. One splitter in a library can do far more than millions of years of genetic mutation." *Derek V. Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil Record," Proceedings of the Geological Association, Vol. 87, No. 2, 1976, p. 132. [Chairman Geology Department, Swansea University]
(See chapter 15, Species Evolution, for more on this.) It is well-known among the experts that there are far more splitters out there than lumpers, simply because applying a new name is easier and brings more fame, than going through all the drudgery of researching into who had earlier named it.
*Edward Cope and *Othniel Marsh were two major museum fossil collectors in Western U.S. They fiercely hated one another, and for decades consistently double-named specimenswhich had already been named earlier.
"Sadly, in the later bitter rivalry between Cope and Marsh, Leidy [an earlier fossil collector] was all but forgotten. paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, director of the American Museum of Natural History, recalled that many of the Eocene and Oligocene animals had been given three names in the scientific literature: the original Leidy name and the Cope and Marsh names.' " *R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), pp. 272-273.
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11 - LARGER ANCIENTLY THAN TODAY
LARGER FOSSILS ANCIENTLY it is an intriguing fact that, if the fossil evidence supported any species modification, it would be devolution, not evolution! Ancient plants and animals were frequently much larger than any now living. Not only do we find no crossing over the species line among fossils, but we also discover that species are degenerating with the passing of time. A cardinal principle of evolutionary theory is that creatures must evolve into more complexity as well as bigger size. But the fossil record bears out neither contention. There is clear evidence of the complexity to be found in invertebrates, the supposedly "lowest" form of life.
But there is a size differential as well:
"[Edward Drinker] Cope is known to many students only for 'Cope's Law', which asserts, roughly speaking, that everything goes on getting bigger . . Alas, it is not generally true. Llamas and camels were once the size of hares, it is true, but the modern tiger is smaller than the sabre-toothed tiger of the last ice age . . The horsetails of our ditches are tiny compared with the sixty-foot [18 ml horsetails of the Carboniferous. And where are the giant snails of the early Cambrian or the giant oysters of the Tertiary?" *G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery (1983), p.122.
Extinct creatures were frequently larger than those alive today. Among the fossils we find the following:
Plants: (1) Enormous plants once existed, far exceeding anything alive today. (2) Fifty-foot [152 dm] high ferns, with 5-6 foot [15-18 dm] fronds. (3) Scouring rushes grew to a height of 12 inches [30.48 cm] in diameter. (4) One-hundred-foot [30.4 dm] high scale trees, with trunks 4-6 feet [12-18 dm] in diameter are found only in fossil form. None are alive today.
Small sea life: (5) Giant trilobites up to 18 [45.72 cm] inches long, with none alive today, and the creatures now living and most similar to them are quite small. (6) Fifteen-foot [457 cm] long straight-shelled cephalopods (Endoceras proteiforme), and 9-foot [274 cm] sea-scorpions (Euryprids) once lived. Nothing of such immense sizes is found among them today. Those fossil Euryprids were the largest arthropods that ever lived. (7) Exquisitely shaped fossil crinoids have been found, while none are now living.
Insects: (8) Some insects were 4 to 8 inches [10.1620.32 cm] in length. Dragonflies had a wing spread of 29 inches [73.66 cm], and some centipedes were 12 inches [30.48] in length.
Amphibians: (9) Today's amphibians are small salamanders or frogs. But in the past, there were the giants of Stegocephalia, of which Onychopus gigas alone weighed 500 pounds [226.8 kg].
Larger marine life: (10) How would you like to meet a shark with jaws 6 feet [183 cm] across? That is what sharks were like in ancient times. (11) Basilosaurus was a marine mammal with a 4-foot [12 dm] head, 10-foot [30 dm] long body, and 40-foot (122 m] tail.
Birds: (12) Diatryma looked somewhat like an ostrich, but was 7 feet [21 dm] tall and had a head as big as a horse. (13) The Phororhacos was nearly 8 feet [24 dm] tall with a skull 23 inches [58.42 cm] across. (14) Dinornis was 10-feet [30.5 dm] tall, and was the largest bird that ever lived.
Larger mammals: (15) The Mongolian Andresarchus had a skull 21/x feet [76 dm] long, and was one of the largest carnivores ever to live. (16) Imagine meeting a long-homed rhinoceros 14 feet [43 m] tall? Another rhinoceros, Baluchiterium, was 13 feet [40 dm] high and 25 feet [76 dm] long.
(17) There were huge wooly mammoths, gigantic hairy mastodons, and 14-foot [43 dm] tall imperial mammoths. (18) Giant armadillos once lived, and ground sloths as big as elephants. (19) Pigs (Enlelodonts) were 6 feet [18 dm] high. (20) One bison (Bison latifrons) had a 6-foot [18 dm] horn spread.
Reptiles: (20) Crocodile-like phytosaurs were 25 feet [76 dm] long, and dolphin-like ichthyosaurs were 30 feet [91 dm] in length. (21) There were 35-foot [171 dm] long marine reptiles (Mosasaurs), and 11-foot [34 dm] marine turtles (Archelon). (22) The Pteranodon had a 25-foot [76 dm] wing spread. (23) And then there were gigantic land reptiles, including the 45-foot [137 dm] Tyrannosaurus rex, the 65-foot [189 dm] long Brontosaurus, the 10-ton [9 mt] Stegosaurus, and the 80-foot [244 dm] long Diplodocus.
Only within the past couple decades have the fossils of the largest land creature and the largest flying creature been found. In the summer of 1972, James A. Jensen, a Utah scientist, discovered the world's largest dinosaur in western Colorado's Uncompahgre National Forest, near the town of Delta.
"Although it has a superficial resemblance to the huge herbivorous Brachiosaurus, Jensen feels that it is different enough to be an entirely new species. Estimates are that the dinosaur was 50 feet [152 dm] tall, 100 feet [305 dm] in length, and weighed 80 [72.5 mt] tons. That would make it approximately three times as large as the largest dinosaur now known, and place it in the range of size of the blue whale, called the largest creature on earth. A land creature the size of the blue whale staggers the imagination." Marvin L Lubenow, "Significant Discoveries Since 1958," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1980, p. 158. [Also see Time, August 21, 1972.]
In 1971, three specimens of the largest bird were found in Texas.
"The largest known flying creature ever to inhabit the earth describes a series of fossil discoveries made by Douglas Lawson beginning in 1971. In a remote section of Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas, Lawson has unearthed the fossil remains of three pterosaursone of them having an estimated wingspan of 51 feet [155 dm], twice as large as any flying reptile previously discovered. By way of contrast, the bird with the largest wingspan, the wandering albatross, measures 11 feet [33.5 dm], and the McDonell Douglas F-1 5A jet fighter has a wingspan of 43 feet [131 dm]." Ibid.
12 - REVIEWING THE BASIC FOSSIL EVIDENCE
THE MISSING TREE The fossil record does not present a "family tree," for there is no trunk and no branches; there are only twigs! If you remove the connecting links of a tree--the trunk and the branches, what will you have left? Only twigs lying all over the ground. That is the picture we find in plant and animal species living today.
That is the same picture we find in the geologic column. No trunk, no branches; only distinct twigs, each one different than the others.
"So far as we can judge from the geologic record, large changes seem usually to have arisen rather suddenly, in terms of geologic time. . fossil forms intermediate between large subdivisions of classification, such as orders and classes, are seldom seen." *Paul A. Moody, Introduction to Evolution (1962), p. 503.
IS IT REALLY A "GEOLOGIC COLUMN"?Since early childhood, we have all been exposed to these charts of rock strata and fossils, with the impressive dates alongside. It is called a "Geologic Column" chart.
A correlative scientific analysis, remarkable for its in-depth thoroughness and worldwide coverage, was published in the December 1983 issue of Creation Research Society Quarterly. Authored by John Woodmorappe, the 53-page article contains 807 references, 17 very detailed charts and graphs, and 35 world maps, and 2 regional maps.
In this lengthy article, Woodmorappe validates several interesting points, among which are the following:
(1) Fossils do not tend to overlay one another in successive strata; instead they tend to be mixed together in successive strata. One third of them span three or more strata levels.
(2) Index fossils do not tend to overlay one another in successive strata; instead they are generally found here and there on what approximates a chance arrangement! They are often clumped at a great horizontal distance from the index fossils they are supposed to overlay. More than 9500 global occurrences of major index fossils were marked on 34 world maps in order to analyze overlay occurrences. Great care was taken to be sure that the data on these maps would be as accurate as possible. After preparing maps for each type of index fossil, Woodmorappe overlay them on a light table in order to compare and tabulate instances in which index fossils were above each other in harmony with classical evolutionary rock strata theory.
Table 3 was then prepared to compare the 34 world maps of index fossils. Thus you can make Xeroxes of these maps and make your own overlay analyses on a light table. Or you can make copies onto overhead projector transparencies and show them to students and other audiences.
"Table 3 has been drafted to show the results of superposing Maps 1-34 against each other. There are 479 cross-comparisons; every fossil versus every other that belongs to another geologic period. It can be seen that only small percentages of all localities of any given fossil overlie, or are overlain by, any other single fossil of another geologic period. Thus fossils of different geologic periods invariably tend to shun
each other geographically, and this in itself maybe taken as prima facie evidence that all fossils are ecological and/a biogeographic equivalents of each othernegating all concepts of evolution, geologic periods, and geologic time. To the Diluviologist, this tendency of any two different 'age' fossils to be geographically incompatible. . allows an understanding of fossils in light of the Universal Deluge [the Genesis Flood]." John Woodmorappe, "A Diluviological Treatise on the Stratigraphic Separation of Fossils," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1983, p. 150.
Table 4 was prepared to show possible multiple fossil overlays, rather than just two as with Table 3. The results of this presentation are disastrous for evolutionary theory.
"There does not appear to be any trend for individual fossils to be exceptionally commonly juxtaposed or non-juxtaposed with others." Op. cit., p. 151.
As we have earlier explained, it is the "index fossils" which are relied on as the proof of the evolutionary theory of fossil strata placement and dating. Here is Woodmorappe's conclusion in regard to these so-called "index fossils:"
"A total of over 9500 global occurrences of major index fossils have been plotted on 34 world maps for the purpose of determining superpositional tendencies. 479 juxtapositional determinations have shown that only small percentages of index fossils are juxtaposed one with another. Very rarely are more than one-third (and never more than half) of all 34 index fossils simultaneously present in any 200 mile (320 kilometer) diameter region on earth." Op. cit., p. 133.
(3) Beginning on page 151 of his article he considers possible causes and Flood mechanisms, as possible solutions to why these fossils are to be found in such a confused pattern.
(4) Woodmorappe concludes with an extensive discussion, on pages 167-171, of why so few mammal, bird, and human fossils have been found.
You may wish to obtain a copy of his article to read through and make transparency charts to share with others. The Creation Research Society Quarterly is one of the best publications in its field.
ASKING THE EXPERTS Let us briefly pause in our examination of the strata/fossil evidence and what it reveals and journey to three of the largest paleontological museum holdings in the world. We will first go to the British Museum of Natural History. *Dr. Colin Patterson is in charge of its large paleontology (fossil) collection.
After publishing his 1978 book, Evolution, *Dr. Colin Patterson of the British Museum of Natural History was asked why he did not include a single photograph of a transitional fossil. In reply, Dr. Patterson said this:
"I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualise such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it . .
"[Steven] Gould [of Harvard] and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least 'show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.' I will lay it on the line--there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument. The reason is that statements about ancestry and descent are not applicable in the fossil record . . It is easy enough to make up stories of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reasons why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test." *Colin Patterson, letter dated April 10, 1979 to Luther Sunderland, quoted in L. D. Sunderland, Darwin's Enigma, p. 89.
Let us now leave Dr. Colin Patterson in London, and go to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. It is one of the largest and oldest natural history museums in America, and probably in the world, and houses 20 percent of all fossil species known. Having had opportunity to carefully study these materials for years, *Dr. David Raup the leading paleontologist at this Field Museum, is in a position to speak with authority. He begins a key article summarizing what the fossil evidence reveals by saying:
"Most people assume that fossils provide a very important part of the general argument made in favor of Darwinian interpretations of the history of life. Unfortunately, this is not strictly true." *David Raup, "Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology," in Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, January 1979.
Dr. Raup then quotes a well-known statement by *Charles Darwin that he (Darwin) was "embarrassed" by the lack of fossil evidence for origins (the Cambrian problem) and transitions (the gap problem) in his day--and then Raup declares that the situation today is even worse, for we now have so much more fossil evidence which tells us the same message it told Darwin! Noting that Darwin wrote that he hoped that future discoveries would unearth fossils which would fill the gaps and provide the missing links, Raup then says:
"We are now about 120 years after Darwin, and knowledge of the fossil record has been greatly expanded. We now have a quarter of a million fossil species but the situation hasn't changed much. The record of evolution is still surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than we had in Darwin's time! By this I mean that some of the classic cases of Darwinian change in the fossil record, such as the evolution of the horse in North America, have had to be discarded or modified as a result of more detailed information." *David Raup, in loc. cit.
We will now leave Chicago and journey to one of the largest museums in the nation, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where *Dr. Niles Eldredge is in charge of its massive fossil collection.
While attending a science writers' convention in Gatlinburg, Tennessee in November 1978, Dr. Eldridge was asked by a reporter for evidence from the fossil record of transitional changes from one species to another. A report of his reply was printed shortly afterward in the Los Angeles Times:
"No one has found any such in-between creatures. This was long chalked up to 'gaps' in the fossil records, gaps that proponents of gradualism [gradual evolutionary change from species to species] confidently expected to fill in someday when rock strata of the proper antiquity were eventually located. But all the fossil evidence to date has failed to turn up any such missing links . . There is a growing conviction among many scientists that these transitional forms never existed." *Niles Eldredge, quoted in "Alternate Theory of Evolution Considered," in Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1978.
Drs. *Patterson, *Raup, and *Eldredge spent a lifetime in fossil analysis before giving the above statements. Together, they have been in charge of at least 50 percent of the major fossil collections of the world. They have the evidence, they know the evidence, they work with it day after day. Figuratively, they sit on top of the largest pile of fossil bones in the world. They know what they are talking about. Their conclusion is "no transitional forms."
But WITHOUT transitional forms there can be NO evolution--for THAT itself IS what evolution is all about! Evolution is not copper changing into sulphuer, it is not air changing into sunlight, nor is it wolves changing into German shepherds. It would be a true species change. Evolution is one basic type of plant or animal changing into another basic type of plant or animal (apple trees into oak trees or goats into cows). There should be fossil evidence of those changes. The evidence would be "transitional forms" filling the "gaps" between the basic types. But such transitions are nowhere to be found.
DARWIN'S GREAT CONCERN Over a hundred years ago, *Charles Darwin recognized the importance of the problem of fossil gaps. Realizing that those gaps immensely weakened his general theory, he wrote this:
"This perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record." *Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, 6th edition (1956), pp. 292-293.
Since his time, a major campaign has for decades been underway to close up those "imperfections," but the hundreds upon thousands of fossils which have been found and examined only reveal with deeper clarity and distinctness merely the species we now have today, plus some extinct ones.
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FOSSILS AND STRATA
Part 3
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FOSSILS AND STRATA Part 4