Page 44 - Atlas of Creation Volume 2

Moreover, this applies not just to the salamander,
but also to countless species and examples of living fos-
sils today, and you shall be seeing specimens of these in
later chapters of this book. Countless specimens con-

firm the stasis in the fossil record, as stated by the evo-
lutionist Niles Eldredge, a paleontologist from the
American Museum of Natural History:

Stasis is now abundantly well documented as the pre-
eminent paleontological pattern in the evolutionary
history of species. 15

The specimens discovered prove that millions of
years ago, a great many living things had the same
anatomical features as they do today. In fact, as much
so that 84% of the insect family that existed 100 mil-

lion years ago is also alive today. 16 The botanist
Margaret Helder cites Niles Eldredge's views and de-
scribes this magnificent diversity in living fossils
thus:

Characterization of an organism as a living fossil basi-
cally depends upon the degree of similarity the viewer

seeks between living and fossil creatures. If the defini-
tion is in terms of general categories of organism, such 110-million-year-old scorpion and 108- to 92-mil-
as sponges in general, or ferns in general, or even spe- lion-year-old grasshopper fossils show that these
creatures have maintained the exact same struc-
cific groups of ferns, then, says Niles Eldredge, ". . .
tures and characteristics for tens of millions of years
by such a yardstick, virtually everything is a liv- and that they have never changed. In other words,

ing fossil." 17 Whether one allows one's defini- they have never undergone evolution.
tion to be this broad or not, it is safe to
conclude that living fossils are not rare. 18

No doubt, the emergence of these life
forms in large numbers comes as no sur-
prise to any rational individual. If
people can see that God has created

all living things, then they can also
understand the proofs that manifest
themselves in the fossil record.
Throughout the history of life, or-
ganisms did not evolve, but
emerged suddenly and with the

most complex and most perfect fea-
tures.
This goes to show that all living
things are created. It is easy for God
to create a living thing that exists

today with the same astounding
characteristics that He also created
millions of years ago. For those able
to appreciate this, the existence of
living fossils is one of the proofs of
God's creation. The Earth provides

42 Atlas of Creation Vol. 2