Page 201 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

One of the clearest features of
the fossil record is that living things have
undergone no observed changes during the
geological periods. However a living species first
appears in the fossil record, so it maintains exactly the
same structure until it disappears—or over tens of mil-
lions, or even hundreds of millions of years until it reaches
the present day, experiencing no changes in the meantime.
This is clear proof that living things never undergo any evo-
lution.
One of the first people to announce this truth is the
American paleontologist and natural historian, Stephen Jay
Gould, one of the 20th century’s best-known evolutionist au-
thorities. In 1970 Gould wrote the following about two most
distinguishing features of the fossil record:
The history of most fossil species include two features particularly incon-
sistent with gradualism:
1) Stasis — most species exhibit no directional change during their
tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same
as when they disappear; morpho-
logical change is usually lim-
ited and directionless;

A 25-million-
year-old ter-
mite fossil