THE FOSSIL RECORD A NEW LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE

The nature of the fossil record has been of considerable debate ever since the first edition of the Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin discussed the poorness of the fossil record at the time it was written in his chapters 6 and 9. The various versions of the creationist movement over the past several decades has continued to stress the lack of “missing links” in the fossil record and comes back to the sudden appearances in the Cambrian (Cambrian Explosion). There is absolutely no doubt that the quality of the fossil record has dramatically improved since the mid-nineteenth century and continues to improve yearly.

The idea that all phyla appeared at once in the fossil succession (Cambrian Explosion, 543MY) has been proven to be completely false by discovery of the Ediacaran (Vendian) fauna 650-543MY that has been found in numerous and an expanding number of localities worldwide e.g., (Flinders Range Australia, Mistaken Point Newfoundland, Winters Coast White Sea Russia, Doushantuo, China, and Charnwood Forest, England). This fauna includes the first sponges (Dougshantuo China), Cnidarian sea pens Pteridinium, Cnidarian sea anemones Nemiana, Cnidarian jellyfish Mawsonites, molluscs Kimberella, Echinoderms Arkarua, arthropods Spriggina, annelid Dickinsonia and even the first shelled form Cloudina.

There are many well established intermediate forms that have also been well documented including those of dinosaur-bird transitions, reptile-mammal transition, whale evolution, horse evolution, and elephant evolution to name a few. The dinosaur-bird intermediates have been one of the most recent additions in that a plethora of different types of feathered dinosaurs have been reported in Liaoning, China including flightless dinosaurs with feathers, flighted dinosaurs some even with two sets of wings.