Page 86 - The Transitional Form Dilemma

THE TRANSITIONAL-FORM DILEMMA

A platypus

The discoverers of the fossil, Philip D.
Gingerich and his colleagues, had no hesi-
tation in declaring it to represent a
“primitive whale,” though they had
found only its skull.
But in fact, this fossil has absolutely
nothing to connect it to whales. Its four-
legged skeleton resembles that of present-
day wolves. The fossil was discovered in a
stratum containing iron oxide ore as well as fossils of
such land-dwellers as snails, tortoises and crocodiles.
In other words, it was part of the land, not of a one-
time sea bed.
This four-legged land-dweller was declared to be a
“primitive whale” merely for certain details in its teeth and ear
bones! The fact is, though, these features are no evidence on which to
build a relationship between Pakicetus and today’s whales. Even evolu-
tionists admit that positing such theoretical relationships among living
things, by taking anatomical similarities as a starting point, are usually
exceedingly inaccurate. If the platypus—a billed, egg-laying mammal
living in Australia—and ducks were both extinct, then evolutionists,

EVOLUTIONISTS’ IMAGINARY WHALE DIAGRAM

When fossils of the creatures which evolution-
ists place here are examined, it is clear that
there are enormous anatomical differences be-
tween them, but no transitional forms link
them together.