Page 228 - The Evolution Impasse 2

226 Trilobites

less known when Charles Darwin the low est known fos sil if er ous stra -
wrote his book The Origin of Species. ta," and wrote the fol low ing about
It had been ob served in the fos sils the Silurian Period:
from that pe ri od that life emerged . . . I can not doubt that all the Silurian
sud den ly in the Cambrian, and that tri lo bites have de scend ed from some
tri lo bites and cer tain oth er in ver te - one crus ta cean, which must have lived
brates made a spon ta ne ous ap pear - long be fore the Silurian age, and which
ance. That is why Darwin had to re - prob a bly dif fered great ly from any
fer to the sit u a tion in his book. At known an i mal . . . Consequently, if my
the o ry be true, it is in dis pu ta ble that
that time, the Cambrian Period was
be fore the low est Silurian stra tum was
known as the Silurian Period. Darwin
de pos it ed, long pe ri ods elapsed, as long
touched on the sub ject un der the
as, or prob a bly far longer than, the
head ing, "On the sud den ap pear -
whole in ter val from the Silurian age to
ance of groups of al lied spe cies in
the present day; and that dur ing these
vast, yet quite un known, pe ri ods of
time, the world swarmed with liv ing
crea tures. To the ques tion why we do
not find rec ords of these vast pri mor di -
al pe ri ods, I can give no sat is fac to ry
an swer. 263

Fossils from the Cambrian
Period show that both tri lo -
bites, with their com plex bod -
ies, and oth er liv ing things
with very dif fer ent anat o my
all emerged sud den ly, thus de -
mol ish ing Darwin's con jec -
tures. In his book, Darwin wrote:
"If nu mer ous spe cies, be long ing
to the same gen era or fam i lies,
have re al ly start ed in to life all

Trilobite fos sils from
the Cambrian Period

The Evolution Impasse II