fossil succesion

fossil successionArgument #1 for Common Descent

fossils: case for

What are fossils?

Mineralized remains or impressions of organisms that lived in the past.

Where are they found?

All over the Earth, and at times many are found in the same location.

Darwin thought the sequence of fossil forms that are found in sedimentary rocks supported his idea of common descent.

Why?

When you dig deep into the Earth you notice that there is layering or strata. In general, the further you go down, the older the rocks are.

Sometimes, different fossils are found in different layers. Some strata contain no fossils at all.

fossils: case for

In one there may be a sponge, another a trilobite, the next a frog and then maybe a horse.

Darwin’s thought was that life had changed over the course of history and that these changes made a distinct pattern.

He saw that species would appear and then disappear in the rock layerings. He called this “geological succession”. Today we refer to it as “fossil succession”.

Darwin also noticed that over time, the fossil record went from more simple organisms to more complex.

fossils: case for

branching patternfossils: case for

branching pattern

formation of Earth at bottom of graph

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branching patternpresent day at top of graph


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new dot on graph every time a new organism appears

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the earlier the animal appeared, the lower the dot on the graph

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draw a line upwards until they stop finding

fossils

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place a dot on the top

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the farther apart 2 lines are, the greater the difference between the species

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Darwin then drew connecting branches

between these lineages.

A major lesson Darwin drew from this

diagram: younger fossils forms

arose from older ones.



The second lesson was that

every creature on Earth must be linked to a single common

ancestor in the distant past.

common ancestor

What led Darwin to think that he could just connect the dots?

In order for the branching tree diagram to be accurate, there must be “in between” forms that existed between one branch and another.

in-betw

een

forms

Today, in-between forms are referred to as “intermediate” or “transitional” forms.

Evolutionary biologist say that such forms have been found.


An example evolutionary biologists would point to, is called “mammal-like reptiles”. They appeared 200-300 mya. They are extict, and have mostly reptilian traits, mixed with some mammalian features.

A more recent discovery was a transitional fossil connecting land-dwelling mammals to whales.


Paleontologists see that there are gaps still in the fossil record.

Typical evolutionary trees represent these gaps as dotted lines -- pieces still to be found.

Advocates for Common Descent, argue that the gaps that have been filled make it reasonable to assume that we’ll eventually find the rest.


Arguments for Evolution

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_02

http://biologos.org/questions/fossil-record

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6024&page=15

http://bioweb.cs.earlham.edu/9-12/evolution/index.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/fossil-evidence.html

Counter Arguments against ID:

http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/wells-april-2002.html (Ken Miller - speaking against arguments that ID has made - Cambrian Explostion)

online resources fossils: case for

Most critics would agree that the fossil record shows change over time.

They also agree that, in general (but not always), more complex forms are found higher up the strata.

But overall, they say that the pattern of fossil evidence contradicts the neo-Darwinian picture of evolution, in 2 ways.

the abrupt appearance of the fossils

the stability of animal forms during their time on the Earth

fossils: a reply

Paleontologists have discovered that new life forms have appeared, not in a gradual manner, but very abruptly.

530 million years ago, more than half of the major animal groups (phyla) appeared suddenly. This was during the Cambrian period. Scientists now refer to this sudden and dramatic appearance as “the Cambrian Explosion”.

fossils: a reply

all of a suddenThe Cambrian Period is a fairly short period of time in relation to the rest of the Earth’s history.

Evolutionary biologists doubt that it was enough time for the slow, gradual Darwinian proesses to produce the amount of change that occurs in the Cambrian Explosion.

Many scientists think the sudden appearance of many new life forms contradicts Darwin’s prediction that new forms would emerge gradually over a great period of time.

fossils: a reply

A similar event took place during the Paleocene epoch (65-55 mya).

15 new mammalian orders suddenly entered the fossil record. This is referred to as the “mammalian radiation”.

How different are these mammalian orders?

A few examples of animals from different orders are: bears, bats, horses. They are quite different.

all of a suddenfossils: a reply

The first bat appears during the Eocene epoch. It is clearly a bat, that is capable of flight.

Yet, there is nothing that resembles a bat prior to that.

Critics of fossil succesion also argue that this is true within plants.


fossils: a reply

Critics say the pattern of fossil appearance does not support Darwin’s picture of a branching tree.

It more so gives a picture of independent beginnings.

Darwin once said that the pattern of abrupt appearance, “may be truly urged as a valid argument” against his theory of Common Descent.

all of a sudden

Fossil studies are showing that most animal forms remain the same for their entire life on Earth.

Paleontologist David Raup says, “Instead of finding the gradual unfolding of life what geologists of Darwin’s time, and geologists of the present day actually find is a highly uneven or jerky record; that is, specis appear in the sequence very suddenly, show little or no change during their existence in the record, then abruptly go out of the record.”


a summary

The sudden appearance of new forms of life and the stability of these form over time have led some scientists to doubt that the fossil record supports the case for Common Descent.

fossils: a reply

what about transitional fossils? Let’s think first about a student who only gets 3 questions correct on a test with 100.

If that student went to the teacher and said, “Look at these 3 answers, they are correct. This proves that I understand the concept. It’s just a fluke that I got the others wrong.”

What would the teacher say?

“You’re crazy! It was probably a fluke that you got 3 correct.”

fossils: a reply

In the same way, critics would say that discontinuity is the prevailing pattern in the fossil record. The transitional forms are rare exceptions.

They would argue that Darwin’s theory has failed an important test. Just like you are tested by “celebrations of learning”, theories are tested by how well they match the evidence.

In a majority of cases, Common Descent does not match the evidence of the fossil record.

what about transitional fossils? fossils: a reply

resourcesfossils: a reply

Evolution Exposed by Roger Patterson

Speciation - page 57-67 Homology - page 68-72

Fossils (transitional) - page 73-74 Molecular Homology - page 74-75

Embryology - page 95-96

Refuting Evolution by Jonathan Sarfati

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design by Jonathan Wells

fossil succesion

Technology

case forbranching pattern

common descent

cambrian period

fossil record

cambrian explosion

abrupt appearance

graph formation

sudden appearance