Page 52 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA

Evolutionist justification that the fossil
Evolutionist justification that the fossil
record is insufficient and fragmentary
record is innsufficient and fragmentary
The first excuse for the Cambrian explosion that evolutionists put
forward is the claim that the fossil record is insufficient. Because of their
great age, most fossils of living things from the Precambrian have not
survived, they suggest—for which reason the “surviving” remains give
the impression that living things emerged suddenly.
The fact is, however, that the fossil record is not deficient, as evolu-
tionists would have us believe. Today, many strata belonging to the later
part of the Precambrian and the Cambrian have been unearthed.

Paleontologists have become convinced that if the ancestors of
Cambrian living things had existed during the Precambrian, we would
have found them by now. According to paleontologists James W.
Valentine of California Universty and Douglas Erwin, of the
Smithsonian Institute, the fossil record from the Cambrian period is as
complete as more recent fossil strata, which also display similar features
and time gaps.
Despite that, however, Valentine and Erwin arrive at the following
conclusion, stating that their ancestors or transitional forms are un-

known. “Explosion is real; it is too big to be masked by flaws in the fos-
sil record.” 17
In an article in February 2000, the British geologists M. J. Benton,
M. A. Wills and R. Hitchin wrote that “the older fossil records are ade-
quate to recount important events in the history of life,” 18 thus an-
nouncing that there could be no question of using the insufficiency of
the fossil record as an excuse.

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