Page 14 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

INTRODUCTION

There is no difference be-
tween this 54- to 37million-
year-old fossilized plane
tree leaf and leaves of
the same species alive
today.

fossil is the name given to the re-
mains or traces of a plant or ani-
Amal preserved in geologic strata

since prehistoric times—or in some cases, re-
mains preserved encased in amber. Fossils collected
from all over the world are one of our most important

sources of information about the organisms that have ex-
isted on Earth since the very earliest times, even hundreds of
millions of years ago. Research into fossils enables us to learn
about extinct plants and animals, as well as earlier forms of
species still in existence today. Thanks to this information, we

learn which life forms existed at what epochs in time, what
these life forms' features were, and whether they resembled
present-day species.

According to Charles Darwin's theory of evolu-
tion—whose scientific invalidity has been revealed
by subsequent scientific discoveries—all living
things are descended from one single common an-
cestor. Darwin and his followers claimed that

very different life forms developed from one an-
other as the result of small changes over long
periods of time.

According to the theory's unsupported
claims, random coincidences gave rise to the
first living cells. Subsequently, those cells that
had formed by chance combined together and
over the course of millions of years, became

marine invertebrates. Later still, they devel-
oped spinal cords and became fish. These fish
subsequently emerged onto dry land and gave

rise to reptiles, from which birds and mammals
then supposedly evolved separately.
If this claim were true, then a great many
"intermediate" forms showing the transition
between different species should have once

existed—and at least a few should have been
fossilized. For example, if reptiles really had
evolved into birds, then literally billions of

half-bird, half-reptile creatures must once
have existed. Similarly, there should have been

12 Atlas of Creation Vol. 3