Page 51 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

HARUN YAHYA

Attempts to Salvage Darwinism in
Attempts to Salvage Darwinism in
the Face of the Cambrian Explosion
the Face of the Cambrian Explosi ion
Despite Darwin’s knowledge that fossils of “new” species ap-
peared suddenly during the Cambrian Period, the full importance and
scope of the matter was not realized until 1980. However, when by the
paleontologists Harry B. Whittington, Derek Briggs and Simon
Conway Morris re-examined fossils found in the Burgess Shale in
Canada’s British Columbia, the Cambrian explosion came to light. The
1980s also saw the discovery of two new fossil regions resembling the
Burgess Shale: Sirius Passet in Northern Greenland and Chengjiang in
Southern China. Fossils of utterly different living things that first
emerged during the Cambrian period were found in both these regions.

The Chengjiang fossils were the oldest and best-preserved of these, and
also contain the first vertebrates.
In its February 1999 edition, the well-known scientific publication
Trends in Genetics (TIG) discussed the Burgess Shale fossil discoveries
and accepted that they could not possibly be explained in terms of the
theory of evolution:
It might seem odd that fossils from one small locality, no matter how exciting,
should lie at the center of a fierce debate about such broad issues in evolution-
ary biology. The reason is that animals burst into the fossil record in astonish-
ing profusion during the Cambrian, seemingly from nowhere. Increasingly
precise radiometric dating and new fossil discoveries have only sharpened the
suddenness and scope of this biological revolution. The magnitude of this
change in Earth’s biota demands an explanation. Although many hypotheses
have been proposed, the general consensus is that none is wholly convincing. 16

These ideas, none of which “is wholly convincing,” are those of
evolutionist paleontologists, who offer forced explanations to defend
the theory of evolution in the face of the Cambrian explosion. However,
they are unable to have these alibis accepted, even by one another.

49