Posts Tagged ‘living fossil’

The Fossil Record

{ April 14, 2009 @ 2:08 pm } · { Author Article }
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[Today’s post is by Dr. Carl Werner, author of Living Fossils, published by New Leaf Press. Living Fossils is volume 2 in the series, Evolution: The Grand Experiment. Dr. Werner writes, “For 10 Tuesdays I will describe the scientific problems that caused me to question evolution and the natural origin of the universe. You may want to subscribe to this blog so that you will get the Tuesday postings in order.”]

Darwin suggested that animals changed slowly from one form into another, over millions of years, to create modern animals. Darwin could not see these changes in the fossil record during his lifetime, but suggested that as the fossil record became more complete, evolutionary ancestors of animals (and plants) would be found.

Modern evolution scientists agree and suggest that over millions of years, a dinosaur slowly changed into a bird, or an invertebrate (such as a jellyfish or starfish) slowly changed into a vertebrate. But there is a problem.

Since Darwin’s time, 200,000,000 fossils have been collected by museums. This large number of fossils allows all of us to judge Darwin’s theory. The problem is that the fossil record does not bear out Darwin’s predictions. Here are the facts: (See Evolution: The Grand Experiment for references to all of these.)

  • Fossil bats: 1000 collected
  • Bat ancestors discovered: 0
  • Fossil pterosaurs: 1000 collected
  • Pterosaurs discovered: 0
  • Fossil turtles: 100,000 collected
  • Turtle ancestors discovered: 0
  • Fossil fish: 500,000 collected
  • Fish ancestors discovered: 0
  • Fossil seals: 1000 collected
  • Seal ancestors discovered: 0
  • Fossil sea lions: 1000+ collected
  • Sea lion ancestors discovered: 0
  • Dinosaurs collected: 100,000
  • Direct dinosaur ancestors discovered: 0 

At some point while reading down this list, I realized that these numbers could not have occurred by chance fossilization processes if evolution had occurred. Statistically, it would have been impossible to suggest that you could find one thousand fossil bats after a 150-year search, but accidentally never find the ancestors of bats if they existed in the past. Same goes for pterosaurs, turtles, seals, etc. In fact, if you reflect on this list of fossil counts, you may begin to suggest that these numbers are in opposition to the theory of evolution and call the theory into question.

This list is not exhaustive, but representative. How could you explain these disparities? For me, these gaps and missing links caused me to question evolution and begin to examine all of the evidence for evolution. Maybe there were other problems out there in the interpretation of the data that supports evolution. This was an eye-opener for me. These numbers were not enough to abandon evolution altogether, but enough to raise doubts, serious doubts.

So began my Grand Experiment to re-evaluate evolution. The year was 1979. I set out on a quest to review the theory from top to bottom and put the theory to the test, given these problems of the origin of the universe (please see post below for March 17, The Big Bang), the origin of life from chemicals (please see post below for March 31, The Origin of Life), and the significant gaps in the fossil record that could not be explained away statistically by chance fossilization processes.

Shellfish in the Times of Dinosaurs

{ March 25, 2009 @ 11:06 am } · { Book Excerpt }
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[Today’s post is excerpted from Living Fossils by scientific researcher Dr. Carl Werner. This book is volume 2 in the series, Evolution: The Grand Experiment, also by Dr. Werner. In this article the author discovers amazing similarities between fossilized species and living species, although both have different genus and species names. Living Fossils is published by New Leaf Press.]

Most everyone is familiar with scallops, or bivalve shellfish (Phylum Mollusca). They are the icon for Shell Oil Company. A scallop shell has 2 main parts – the shell with its “ribs,” and the hinge joint with its “ears.” The delicate ears of the joint tend to break off easily, as anyone picking up scallop shells along a beach knows.

Both a living scallop shell and a fossilized scallop shell are compared in the book, Living Fossils. Both are similar in size and shape and both have 20 ribs, but the fossilized scallop has no ears. Otherwise, the scallops are identical. Their biological classifications, however, are quite different, leading adherents of the theory of evolution to believe this particular sea creature has gone extinct.

So it is with saltwater clams, another familiar variety of bivalve shellfish. The fossilized clam was found at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada in dinosaur rock layers. A fossilized freshwater clam found at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, along with the dinosaur, Coelophysis, matches identically to the modern-day freshwater clam. Trouble is, the genus names are different and the species name for the fossil is undetermined. Mussels and Cockscomb oysters tell the same story: that these shellfish were alive at the time dinosaurs roamed the earth and have not changed dramatically since. This is a fulfillment of the author’s prediciton, “if evolution was not true, I would find modern animals in dinosaur rock layers.

Onward to snails (Phylum Mollusca), the second major class of shellfish living today. Snails are easily recognized by their single-coiled shells. At the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, fossilized snails were found, along with a Stegosaurus dinosaur and a host of long-necked sauropod dinosaurs. Amazingly, the fossil nearly replicates a living snail from the author’s home aquarium.

Saltwater snails, moon snails, slit shells, and even smaller classes of the Phylum Mollusca such as the chambered nautilus, tusk shells, and sea cradles all have nearly identical fossilized ancestors which are identified as extinct due to their different biological classifications. In fact, examples from all five major classes of shellfish living today in the Phylum Mollusca have also been found in dinosaur rock layers. Even lamp shells from the more obscure Phylum Brachiopoda have been found in rock layers.

Could the theory of evolution be just that, a theory?

Unique living creatures defy evolution-based explantion.

{ February 6, 2009 @ 12:10 pm } · { Book Review }
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In 1938, the discovery of a large, unusual fish in South Africa turned the scientific community on end. Dubbed a “living fossil,” the coelacanth shocked scientists around the world who thought this type of fish had died out millions of years prior during the process of evolution.

Living Fossils by Dr. Carl Werner

Living Fossils by Dr. Carl Werner

Living fossils are organisms found preserved in the fossil record which still exist in similar form today. If the cor concepts of the theory of evolution presuppose change over time, then how can these living fossils exist for millions of years, remaining virtually unchanged?

Whether a shark, leaf, frog or crab, living fossils are a challenge for evolutionary theorists and create a fascinating debate among scholars. Do these living fossils indicate a younger earth than some have thought, placing the millions of years timeline of evolution into question? Or do they represent a deep mystery?

Living Fossils, Volume 2 of Evolution: the Grand Experiment by Dr. Carl Werner, M.D., delves into these provocative questions.

  • teaches how science evaluates and classifies the creatures of the world we live in, both past and present
  • unveils the surprises that often force a radical re-evaluation of scientific theory and assumption
  • explores the fossil record, its mysteries and its revelations
  • examines an array of animals and plants that seem virtually “timeless,” from corals to crabs, shellfish to worms.

Included are 700 color images presented in an easy-to-read format. Living Fossils is ideal as a standalone unit study for schools and homeschoolers or can be easily integrated into existing curricula.