Page 143 - The Evolution Impasse 1

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paleontological data show exceedingly put forward the truth that not “even one
rich fossil records. On the basis of the intermediary form” exists and living be-
billions of fossils discovered in various ings which existed for millions of years
regions of the world, some 250,000 dif- have “not changed” at all. Evolutionist
ferent species have been described. They writer Gordon R. Taylor describes this as
bear an extraordinary resemblance to the follows:
1.5 million or so species alive today. 177 One of the most astonishing features in
It seems impossible that any transitional the fossil record is the way in which new
forms will be unearthed by new excava- phyla have quietly appeared and carried
tions, given the absence of any transitio- on without making much impact for a
nal forms so far in such a rich array of while, and then have suddenly diversified
fossil specimens. into numerous life forms. This is called
T. Neville George, a Glasgow Uni- by paleontologists “explosive radiation”.
versity professor of paleontology, admit- (The word is used merely in its basic sen-
se of lines radiating from a point.) 180
ted as much years ago:
George Gaylord Simpson, evolutio-
There is no need to apologize any longer
nist paleontologist at the American Mu-
for the poverty of the fossil record. In so-
me ways it has become almost unmana- seum of Natural History makes the con-
geably rich, and discovery is outpacing fession:
integration. . . . The fossil record nevert- This is true of all the thirty-two orders of
heless continues to be composed mainly mammals. . . The earliest and most pri-
of gaps. 178 mitive known members of every order al-
Niles Eldredge, the well-known Har- ready have the basic ordinal characters,
vard University paleontologist, refutes and in no case is an approximately conti-
Darwin’s claim that the fossil records are nuous sequence from one order to anot-
her known. In most cases the break is so
inadequate, which is why we are unable
sharp and the gap so large that the origin
to find any transitional forms:
of the order is speculative and much dis-
The record jumps, and all the evidence puted.... This regular absence of transi-
shows that the record is real: The gaps tional forms is not confined to mammals,
we see [in the fossil record] reflect real but is an almost universal phenomenon,
events in life's history—not the artifact of as has long been noted by paleontolo-
a poor fossil record. 179 gists. It is true of almost all classes of
Darwinists no longer claim the fossil animals, both vertebrate and invertebra-
record is not adequate on the account te . . . it is true of the classes, and of the
major animal phyla, and it is apparently
that fossil findings have almost provided
also true of analogous categories of
all the samples. Main part of the earth is
plants. 181
already examined and paleontology has

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)