Page 62 - Darwinism Refuted

Marrella: One
of the
interesting
fossil creatures
found in the
Burgess Shale
fossil bed.

sharpened the suddenness and scope of this biological revolution. The
magnitude of this change in Earth's biota demands an explanation. Although
many hypotheses have been proposed, the general consensus is that none is
wholly convincing. 62
These "not wholly convincing" hypotheses belong to evolutionary
paleontologists. TIG mentions two important authorities in this context,
Stephen Jay Gould and Simon Conway Morris. Both have written books to
explain the "sudden appearance of living beings" from the evolutionist
standpoint. However, as also stressed by TIG, neither Wonderful Life by
Gould nor The Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals
by Simon Conway Morris has provided an explanation for the Burgess
Shale fossils, or for the fossil record of the Cambrian Age in general.

Simultaneous Emergence of All Phyla
Deeper investigation into the Cambrian Explosion shows what a
great dilemma it creates for the theory of evolution. Recent findings
indicate that almost all phyla, the most basic animal divisions, emerged
abruptly in the Cambrian period. An article published in the journal
Science in 2001 says: "The beginning of the Cambrian period, some 545
million years ago, saw the sudden appearance in the fossil record of
almost all the main types of animals (phyla) that still dominate the biota
today." The same article notes that for such complex and distinct living
63
groups to be explained according to the theory of evolution, very rich
fossil beds showing a gradual developmental process should have been
found, but this has not yet proved possible:

This differential evolution and dispersal, too, must have required a previous
history of the group for which there is no fossil record. 64

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