Page 86 - The Cambrian Evidence that Darwin Failed to Comprehend

The Cambrian Evidence That Darwin Failed to Comprehend

is described as an explosion, a reference to the sudden coming into
existence of living things—the world-wide appearance of complex
organisms with no forerunners behind them.
The evolutionist writer Richard Monastersky describes this
phenomenon, known in the literature as the “Biological Big Bang”:
Prior to the start of the Cambrian period 544 million years ago, ani-
mals had extremely simple bodies capable of limited motion. A zoo at
the close of Precambrian time would have displayed a relatively mun-
dane array of creatures related to jellyfish and coral; the star attrac-
tions would have been wormlike animals, which distinguished them-
selves with their ability to slither across the seafloor.

At the beginning of the Cambrian, however, life took a sudden turn
toward the complex. In a few million years—the equivalent of a geo-
logical instant—an ark’s worth of sophisticated body types filled the
seas. This biological burst, dubbed the Cambrian explosion, produced
the first skeletons and hard shells, antennae and legs, joints and
jaws. 49

In this period there suddenly appeared some 50 separate phy-
la, including the 35 phyla existing today. This is most important, be-
cause all the features of today’s living things—and of even more ex-
tinct ones—first appeared quite suddenly around 530 million years
ago. Formerly, it was claimed that 14 more small phyla emerged aft-
er the Cambrian. But based on the features they possessed, they
were later included in the 35 phyla existing today.
This means that, contrary to Darwinist expectations, there has
been no increase in the number of phyla between the Cambrian and
the present—and that since some phyla have gone extinct, there has
actually been a reduction.
Therefore, the Cambrian Period is more biologically complex
than the present—in terms of the fundamental structures that deter-
mine phyla.

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