Page 198 - The Evolution Impasse 2

196 Seymouria

New York University, de scribes the the ex tinct am phib i an spe cies
ma te ri al ist dog ma un der pin ning ev - Seymouria. However, it then
o lu tion ists' be lief in mat ter or gan iz - emerged that Seymouria could not be
ing it self it: an in ter me di ate form, since rep tiles
Another ev o lu tion a ry prin ci ple is were liv ing on Earth 30 mil lion years
there fore need ed to take us across the be fore Seymouria first ap peared. The
gap from mix tures of sim ple nat u ral old est Seymouria fos sils date back to
chem i cals to the first ef fect ive re pli ca - the Lower Permian stra tum of 280
tor [DNA or RNA]. This prin ci ple has mil lion years ago. Yet Hylonomus,
not yet been de scribed in de tail or dem - the old est known rep tile spe cies (310
on strat ed, but it is an tic i pat ed, and
mil lion years old) and Paleothyris
giv en names such as "chem i cal ev o lu -
(300 mil lion years old) have both
tion" and "self-or gan i za tion of mat -
been found in Early Pennsylvanian
ter." The ex is tence of the prin ci ple is
stra ta, dat ing back 330 to 315 mil lion
tak en for grant ed in the phi los o phy of
years. 222
di a lec ti cal ma te ri al ism, as ap plied to
It is of course im pos si ble for the
the or i gin of life by Alexander Oparin.
an ces tor of rep tiles to have lived
221
long aft er rep tiles them selves.

SEYMOURIA
SHAPIRO, ROBERT
The crea ture that was long pro -
Robert Shapiro, a New York
posed as the an ces tor of rep tiles was

Evolutionists once claimed that the Seymouria fos sil above was an in ter me di ate form
be tween am phib i ans and rep tiles. According to this sce nar io, Seymouria was the prim -
i tive an ces tor of rep tiles. But sub se quent fos sil dis cov er ies proved that rep tiles were liv -
ing on Earth 30 mil lion years be fore Seymouria. This meant that ev o lu tion ists were
forced to with draw their claims re gard ing Seymouria.

The Evolution Impasse II