FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF PLANTS

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF PLANTS

SERVICEBERRY LEAF Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada The serviceberry (Amelanchier) is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs, widely distributed in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Most of the species occur in North America, and one single species grows in Europe and Asia. The serviceberry leaf fossil pictured once again shows that evolution is merely a figment of imagination. Serviceberry trees have always remained as serviceberries; they have not come into being by gradual changes from any other species of plant—which effectively silences Darwinists.

MAGNOLIA LEAF Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada 95-million-year-old fossil specimens of magnolia trees reveal the same structure and features as ones living today. Magnolia trees that lived 95 million years ago, those that lived 50 million years ago, and those living today are all identical. This fact alone is enough to invalidate Darwinists' claim that living species evolved from one another via gradual changes. Living organisms have not undergone evolution, but were created.

SERVICEBERRY LEAF Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Serviceberry is a small deciduous tree with alternate or finely serrated leaves, 2 to 10 centimeters (0.7 to 3.9 in) long and 1 to 4 centimeters (0.3 to 1.5 in) across. The fossilized serviceberry leaf pictured has also the same features, but lived 54 to 37 million years ago, during the Eocene period. This is obvious evidence that this tree has not undergone any evolution. With its leaves and flowers, serviceberry retains the same features as the day it was first created.

ELM LEAF Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada The fossilized elm leaf pictured lived 50 million years ago. In its structure and appearance, this fossil reveals that elms have not gone through any changes for 50 million years. If a living species undergoes not the slightest change for 50 million years, it is by no means possible to say that this species has evolved. This logic, as revealed in this elm leaf, is valid for all other living species. They have not come into existence by evolving via random coincidences, but were created.

SERVICEBERRY LEAF (left) WITH SEQUOIA STEM Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada This serviceberry leaf, fossilized together with a sequoia stem, is 50 million years old and reveals that for all that time, both species have remained the same. In the face of such fossil findings, Darwinists can never explain how plants first originated. Pierre-Paul Grassé explains that mutation—one of evolution's conjectural mechanisms—and chance can never explain the occurrence of plants: The opportune appearance of mutations permitting animals and plants to meet their needs seems hard to believe. Yet the Darwinian theory is even more demanding: A single plant, a single animal would require thousands and thousands of lucky, appropriate events. Thus, miracles would become the rule: events with an infinitesimal probability could not fail to occur . . . There is no law against daydreaming, but science must not indulge in it. (Pierre-Paul Grassé, Evolution of Living Organisms, Academic Press, New York, 1977, p. 103.)

MAGNOLIA LEAF Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada The magnolia tree, named after French botanist Pierre Magnol, is a large genus comprising about 210 species. The fossil pictured is about 50 million years old. Magnolias, as shown by other 95-million-year-old fossils, have always remained as magnolias since the moment they existed. They have neither evolved from any other plants, nor turned into any other species. Fossil record remains to be one of the most important proofs of this fact.

GINKGO LEAF Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Biologist Francis Hitching states that the millions of fossil specimens gathered so far do not support Darwin's theory of evolution: If we find fossils, and if Darwin's theory was right, we can predict what the rock should contain; finely graduated fossils leading from one group of creatures to another group of creatures at a higher level of complexity. The "minor improvements" in successive generations should be as readily preserved as the species themselves. But this is hardly ever the case. In fact, the opposite holds true . . . (Francis Hitching, The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong, New Haven: Ticknor and Fields, 1982, p. 40.) Just as Francis Hitching said, the fossil pictured shows that ginkgo leaves have remained the same for 50 million years, also showing the inaccuracy of Darwinist claims.

MAGNOLIA LEAF Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada So far, many plant fossils have been uncovered. All of them share a common characteristic: They are all flawless and identical to plants alive today. For instance, it is an established fact that billions of years ago, algae—which evolutionists present as primitive cells and claim to be the ancestor of all plants—had the very same characteristics as they do today. Besides, it is impossible to explain the occurrence of photosynthesis by chance. Turkish evolutionist Ali Demirsoy expresses this impossibility: Photosynthesis is a rather complicated event, and it seems impossible for it to emerge in an organelle inside a cell (because it is impossible for all the stages to have come about at once, and it is meaningless for them to have emerged separately). (Prof. Dr. Ali Demirsoy, Kalitim ve Evrim [Inheritance and Evolution], Ankara: Meteksan Publications, p. 80.)

HORNBEAM LEAF ON STEM Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Hornbeams of between 30 and 40 different species occur across much of the North Temperate regions, with the greatest number of species in East Asia, particularly China. Only two species occur in Europe, and only one in eastern North America. Fossil findings reveal that hornbeams alive today and those that lived tens of millions of years ago were no different. Hornbeams, which have survived for millions of years without any changes, challenge Darwinist claims and proclaim Creation as an obvious fact.

SOAPBERRY LEAF

Age: 50 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada

Through almost unceasing propaganda, Darwinist publications try to show evolution as a scientific theory, inculcating the lie that "Evolution is scientific." However many scientists—including evolutionists—point out that Darwin's theory is far from being supported by any scientific evidence. One of them, the Turkish evolutionist Cemal Yildirim, expresses how evolution lacks scientific support:

No scientist (whether be Darwinist or neo-Darwinist) can suggest the notion that the theory of evolution is proved. (Cemal Yildirim, Evrim Kurami ve Bagnazlik [The Theory of Evolution and Bigotry], Bilgi Publishing, January 1989, pp. 56-57.)

As Darwinists also confess, although there exists not a single scientific finding supporting evolution, countless fossils prove that living species were created. One of these is the 50-million-year-old fossilized soapberry leaf pictured here.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF PLANTS

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF PLANTS

HACKBERRY LEAF Age: 45 million years Period: Eocene Location: Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA Hackberries are generally medium-sized trees, reaching a height of 10 to 25 meters (33 to 82 feet). Like all other plants, hackberries have always remained as hackberries, as is testified by the fossil record. All hackberry fossils unearthed to date reveal that the hackberries of today are identical with those that lived tens of millions of years ago. This exact similarity refutes the theory of evolution.

FERN Age: 300 million years Period: Westphalian B., Duckmantian, Upper Carboniferous Location: Crock Hey Open Cast Quarry, Wigan, Lancashire, United Kingdom Fossil record proves that plants, like all other living beings, have undergone no evolutionary process. Ferns that lived 300 million years ago are completely identical to contemporary ones, in both their structure and appearance. This identity renders evolution impossible, revealing Creation as a scientifically obvious fact. All-Mighty God created all living beings flawlessly and completely, with all their current features intact, which fact is also supported by the fossil record.

BEECH Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Beeches, of the Fagaceae family, are native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America. Fossil record affords one of the most striking evidence proving that these trees have never undergone evolution. Beeches, whose traces always appear with the same features in the fossil record, have not undergone the slightest change for tens of millions of years, which shows that these trees did not gradually evolve from any other plant. With His superior wisdom, our Lord created the beech perfectly, as with all other living species, and with no prior examples.

ZELKOVA LEAF Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Having accepted evolution as their primary dogma and "pushing" plants to comply with their evolutionary scenario—despite their total lack of qualifications to do so—Darwinists are reluctant to admit that fossil record runs against their theory. Furthermore, they make meticulous efforts to hide this fact from the public. One of the evidence showing that fossil plants go against evolutionary explanations is the 50-million-year-old fossil zelkova leaf pictured. Zelkovas that are 50 million years old are identical to contemporary ones. This piece of information alone is enough to render the theory of evolution invalid.

GINKGO LEAF Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Ginkgo tree dates back some 250 million years. The first to name these plants as "the living fossils" was Charles Darwin. Aware that ginkgo leaves posed a threat to his theory, Darwin definitely never expected that this threat would be supported by millions of other living fossils that would come to light in the following years. While one single living fossil specimen made Darwin reach a deadlock, Darwinists today must explain millions of flawless specimens. The 50-million-year-old ginkgo leaf pictured is just one of these examples.

ELM LEAF WITH SECTION OF BRANCH Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada In the fossil record, there exists not a single specimen revealing that one species of plant has come into being by evolving from another species by a series of minor changes. Countless fossil specimens unearthed reveal that every plant has been created with features of its own, and that it has remained unchanged as long as the species existed. One of the findings that prove this fact is this 54- to 37-million-year-old elm leaf fossil.

ROBINIA (right) AND BIRCH LEAVES Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Today, Robinia live mainly in North America, Europe and regions of Asia that enjoy temperate climates. Birches that belong to the family Betulaceae are also widespread in temperate climates. Fossils of these plants evidence that birches have not gone through any evolutionary process. For tens of millions of years, Robinia and birch trees have remained in their original form to reveal that evolution is a lie and Creation is an obvious fact.

WILLOW Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Willows are deciduous trees that belong to the Salicaceae family. Like all other plant species, willows have remained unchanged for millions of years. In other words, they have not gone through evolution. Willows, simply refuting Darwinists' claims of gradual evolution, once again verify that God created them, together with all living beings. The 54- to 37- million-year-old willow leaf fossil pictured is one important piece of evidence.

FERN Age: 300 million years Period: Upper Carboniferous Location: Crock Hey Open Cast Quarry, Wigan, Lancashire, United Kingdom Living organisms that remained unchanged for hundreds of millions of years refute all Darwinist claims regarding the origins and development of life. Darwinists claim that living beings undergo constant genetic change that results in evolution. Fossils, on the other hand, reveal that living beings have never changed since the first moment they appeared. The meaning is clear: Living beings have not evolved, but were created by Almighty God.

MOUNTAIN ASH BRANCH Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Cache Creek Formation, British Columbia, Canada Mountain ash is a tree of the genus Sorbus, widespread in cooler regions of North America. One of the findings that put Darwinists in an impasse is the fossil of a plant like this, which reveals that the tree in question has never, in any period of history, undergone any evolutionary process. The 54- to 37-million-year-old fossil pictured is one of these findings, proving that mountain ash trees have remained the same for tens of millions of years; and that God created them.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF BIRDS

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF BIRDS

CONFUCIUSORNIS Age: 120 million years Period: Mesozoic Age, Cretaceous      Location: Liaoning Province, China The theory of evolution claims that birds evolved from small therapod dinosaurs—in other words, from reptiles. The fact is, however, that anatomical comparisons between birds and reptiles refute this claim, as does the fossil record. The fossil pictured belongs to an extinct species of bird known as Confuciusornis, the first specimen of which was discovered in China in 1995. Confuciusornis bears a very close resemblance to present-day birds and has demolished the scenario of bird evolution that evolutionists have proposed for decades. In describing the imaginary evolution of birds, evolutionists for years used the bird known as Archæopteryx as evidence. All the subsequent scientific findings made, however, show this claim to be untrue. The Conficiusornis fossil is another piece of evidence showing that Archæopteryx cannot be the supposed forerunner of birds. This bird, from the same period as Archæopteryx (around 140 million years ago), has no teeth. Its beak and feathers have the same characteristics as those of present-day birds. Its skeletal structure is also identical to that of modern-day birds, and it has talons on its wings, as does Archæopteryx. The structure known as the pygostyle, which supports the tail feathers, is also present in this bird. In short, this creature, the same age as Archæopteryx—which evolutionists regard as the oldest supposed forebear of birds, as being half-reptile and half-bird—bears a very close resemblance to modern-day birds. This fact refutes evolutionist theses to the effect that Archæopteryx is the primitive forerunner of all birds.

MESSEL BIRD Messelornis cristata Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Messel Shales, Germany The bird fossil was named for having been discovered in the famous Messel shales. None of the bodily mechanisms of birds, which have a completely different structure from terrestrial life forms, can be explained in terms of any gradual evolutionary model. First of all, wings—the most important feature that makes birds what they are—represent a complete impasse for the theory of evolution. Evolutionists themselves state the impossibility of a reptile being able to fly and indeed, that this claim is contradicted by the fossil record. The ornithologist Alan Feduccia, for example, asks, "How do you derive birds from a heavy, earthbound, bipedal reptile that has a deep body, a heavy balancing tail, and fore-shortened forelimbs? Biophysically, it's impossible." ("Jurassic Bird Challenges Origin Theories," Geotimes, January 1996, p. 7.) The fossilization of birds is generally a very rare and difficult process because of the hollow structure of their bones. Bird fossils that are very well-preserved with all their limbs are frequently encountered, however, in the Messel Formation in Germany. Messelornis cristata, shown here, is one of the species most frequently discovered. This bird, resembling a small crane in size, is generally included as part of the crane family. It has short feathers, long legs and short nails. Its tail feathers, on the other hand, are quite long. The crest on its head resembles a helmet. The total length of the skeleton is 25 to 30 centimeters (9.8 to 11.8 in). Some of the fossils belonging to different bird species obtained from the Messel Formation include: Aenigmavis Messelornis Palaeotis (a kind of ostrich) Parargornis (a kind of flycatcher) Selmes Woodpecker Hawk Flamingo

LIAOXIORNIS Age: 144-65 million years Period: Mesozoic Age, Cretaceous Location: Liaoning Province, China All the fossils unearthed show that birds have always existed as birds, and that they have not evolved from any other life form. Darwinists, who maintain that birds evolved from terrestrial animals, are actually well aware of this, and are unable to account for how wings and the flight mechanism emerged through an evolutionary process and through random mechanisms such as mutation. The Turkish biologist Engin Korur admits the impossibility of wing evolution: "The common feature of eyes and wings is that they can perform their functions only when they are fully developed. To put it another way, sight is impossible with a deficient eye, and flight is impossible with half a wing. How these organs appeared is still one of those secrets of nature that have not yet been fully illuminated." (Engin Korur, "Gozlerin ve Kanatlarin Sirri" ("The Secret of Eyes and Wings"), Bilim ve Teknik, No. 203, October 1984, p. 25.) Powerful wing muscles must be securely attached to the bird's breastbone, and have a structure suitable for lifting the bird into the air and establishing balance and movement in all directions when aloft. It is also essential that bird's wing and tail feathers be light, flexible and in proportion to one another—that they should have a perfect aerodynamic framework making flight possible. At this point, the theory of evolution faces a major dilemma: The question of how this wing's flawless structure could have emerged as the result of a succession of random mutations goes unanswered. "Evolution" can never explain how a reptile's forelegs could have developed into a flawless wing as the result of impairments in its genes—that is, mutations. As the quotation cited on the preceding page states, flight is impossible with just a half wing. Therefore, even if we assume that a mutation of some kind did cause some kind of changes in a reptile's forelegs, it is still irrational to expect that a wing could emerge by chance, as a result of other mutations being added on. Any mutation in the front legs would not endow the animal with wings, but would deprive it of the use of its forelegs. This would leave the creature physically disadvantaged (crippled, in other words) compared to other members of its species. According to biophysical research, mutations take place only very rarely. Therefore, it is impossible to expect such handicapped creatures to wait for millions of years for their half-formed, functionless wings to be completed by small mutations.

CONFUCIUSORNIS SANCTUS Age: 120 million years Period: Mesozoic Age, Cretaceous Location: Liaoning Province, China The French scientific journal Science et Vie made the following comment regarding this bird, now known as Confuciusornis sanctus: "According to Chinese and American palaeontologists examining the fossil . . . they were dealing with a first class discovery. This flying bird, the same approximate size as a water rail, is around 157 million years old . . . older than Archæopteryx." (Jean Philippe Noel, "Les Oiseaux de la Discorde," Science et Vie, No. 961, October 1997, p. 83.) The significance of this discovery is obvious; the fact that Confuciusornis lived during the same period as a life form claimed to have been the supposed forerunner of birds—and the fact that it bears a very close similarity to present-day birds—totally invalidates evolutionists' claims. There are several structural differences between birds and reptiles, one of the most important of these being bone structure. The bones of dinosaurs—regarded by evolutionists as the supposed ancestors of birds—are thick and solid, making them very heavy. On the other hand, the bones of birds—both living and extinct species—are all hollow and thus very light, which is of great importance in their being able to fly. Another difference between birds and reptiles is their different metabolic rates. Reptiles have one of the slowest metabolisms of all life forms on Earth, while birds hold the highest. Due to a sparrow's very fast metabolism, for example, its body temperature may sometimes rise to as high as 48°C (118.4 F). Reptiles are unable to generate their own body heat, warming their bodies by basking in the sun's rays. Reptiles consume energy the slowest, while birds consume it the highest of all. Despite his being an evolutionist, Alan Feduccia strongly opposes the theory that birds and dinosaurs are related, on the basis of scientific findings. On the subject of the dino-bird evolution thesis, he has this to say: Well, I've studied bird skulls for 25 years and I don't see any similarities whatsoever. I just don't see it . . . The theropod origins of birds, in my opinion, will be the greatest embarrassment of paleontology of the 20th century. (Pat Shipman, "Birds Do It … Did Dinosaurs?," New  Scientist, 1 February 1997, p. 28.)

LIAONINGORNIS Age: 140 million years Period: Mesozoic Age, Cretaceous Location: Liaoning Province, China Yet another discovery that invalidates evolutionist claims regarding the origin of birds is the Liaoningornis fossil shown here. The existence of this bird, around 140 million years of age and first discovered in China in November 1996, was announced by the ornithologists Lianhin Hou, and Martin and Alan Feduccia in an article published in Science magazine. Liaoningornis had a breastbone to which the flight muscles were attached, as in present-day birds. It was also identical to birds living today in all other respects. The sole difference was that it had teeth in its jaw. This showed that odontornithes (toothed birds) by no means had the kind of primitive structure claimed by evolutionists. Indeed, in an analysis in Discover magazine Alan Feduccia stated that Liaoningornis invalidated the claim that dinosaurs constitute the origin of birds. ("Old Bird," Discover, 21 March 1997.)

One of evolutionists' most unbelievable claims is the thesis they propose to account for how terrestrial animals supposedly began to fly. According to this tale, one that even primary school children would find ridiculous, the forearms of reptiles that hunted flies eventually turned into wings, and the animals began flying. This thesis, a complete misery of logic, is just one of the countless examples of the desperate straits in which Darwinism finds itself. So great is the logical collapse Darwinists exhibited that they never even consider the question of "How were the flies the reptiles were chasing able to fly?"

The fact is that flies have an utterly immaculate flight system. While human beings cannot flap their arms even 10 times a second, an average fly is able to beat its wings 500 times a second. In addition, both its wings beat simultaneously. The slightest discrepancy between the movements of the two wings would cause the fly to lose balance. Yet no such discrepancy ever arises. The biologist Robin Wootton describes the perfection in the fly's wing:

The better we understand the functioning of insect wings, the more subtle and beautiful their designs appear . . . Structures are traditionally designed to deform as little as possible; mechanisms are designed to move component parts in predictable ways. Insect wings combine both in one, using components with a wide range of elastic properties, elegantly assembled to allow appropriate deformations in response to appropriate forces and to make the best possible use of the air. They have few if any technological parallels—yet. (Robin J. Wootton, "The Mechanical Design of Insect Wings," Scientific American, Vol. 263, November 1990, p. 120.)

One of the main features of the fossil record is that living things remain unchanged over the course of very lengthy periods of geological time. There is no difference between this 50-million-year-old fossil fly and specimens alive today.	Specimens of winged insects are frequently encountered in the fossil record, some of which are 300 million years old. The fossil march fly in the picture is 50 million years old.	The countless mosquito fossils discovered to date show that these animals have always been mosquitoes, that they did not evolve from any other life form, and that they never underwent any intermediate stages.

If the Darwinists' claims were true, then a great many other animals famed for their high speed also would chase flies, and lions, leopards, cheetahs and horses should also one day have grown wings and started flying. Darwinists adorn these claims with scientific and Latin terminology, and millions of people naively believe them. The fact is, though, scientific findings openly and clearly reveal the invalidity of evolutionist claims. Not a single example of a living thing gradually acquiring wings has ever been encountered in the fossil record. Research reveals that any such transition is impossible.

ACCORDING TO THE EVOLUTIONIST DREAM —OR RATHER, NIGHTMARE—, THIS SHOULD BE THE CASE Believing in Darwinist claims regarding the origin of flight means believing that cheetahs will someday gain wings and fly, and that tigers will one day turn into giant birds. No rational person could ever accept such an irrational claim.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

COELACANTH Age: 150 million years Period: Upper Jurrassic Location: Solnhofen, Eichstatt, Bavaria, Germany Evolutionists once claimed that coelacanths were an extinct "missing link" or "intermediate form" of creature between fish and amphibian. But since 1938, when a live specimen was caught, it is known that the coelacanth is a deep-water fish that still lives off the African coast. Fossils of the creatures such as the coelacanth disprove evolution's scenario that living things have changed over time. According to the fossil record, the coelacanth dates back 410 million years. Evolutionists thought it was proof of the existence of an "intermediate form" between fish and amphibians. Seventy million years ago, it mysteriously disappeared from the fossil record and was believed to become extinct. But starting in 1938, coelacanths have been caught in the ocean more than 200 times: first in South Africa; then in 1952 in the Comores Islands in southwestern Madagascar, and in 1998 in Sulamesi in Indonesia. The paleontologist, J. L. B. Smith could not help expressing his amazement when he saw a coelacanth that was caught: "If I'd met a dinosaur in the street I wouldn't have been more astonished." (Jean-Jacques Hublin, The Hamlyn Encyclopædia of Prehistoric Animals, New York: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Ltd., 1984, p. 120.) With the discovery of a living coelacanth, it appeared that the claims made about these creatures were nothing but deceptions. Besides, evolutionists had declared this was a creature that lived in shallow water and was a prospective amphibian, waiting to emerge from the water on its leg-like fins. But it is now known that coelacanths are actually deep-water fish that live in the deepest areas of the ocean and almost never approach within 180 meters (590 feet) of the surface. Coelacanths, having lived for some 400 million years, bring evolutionists to an impasse. The fact that these creatures have not changed in all this time disproves the claim that living things appeared in stages and evolved from one another. Additionally, coelacanths demonstrate once again the deep gulf that divides sea and land creatures—which gap evolutionists would like to bridge by an imaginary evolution from one to the other. The anatomical characteristics of a 400-million-year-old fish show that evolution never occurred. Anatomical examination of a coelacanth that was caught alive revealed many features that disprove evolutionists' claims. Four hundred million years ago, in a period when only primitive creatures were supposed to have lived, it was discovered that coelacanths already had many complex features that even today's fish do not have. Among them is the ability to sense electromagnetic fields in their vicinity, which shows that coelacanths have highly developed sense organs. When scientists examined the organization of the nerves connecting the fish's rostral organ with its brain, they accepted that this organ's functions allow the fish to recognize electromagnetic areas. Focus magazine wrote about evolutionists' surprise when confronted by the coelacanth's complex structure and features: "According to the fossils, fish appeared about 470 million years ago. Coelacanths appeared 60 millions years later. This creature should be expected to have possessed primitive features, but its complex physical structure is amazing."

FLYING FISH Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon For Darwinists, chance is a divinity that performs miracles. They claim that all of today's complex creatures evolved through small incremental changes that occurred over the course of millions of years. However, chance can create nothing; it could never have produced the wonderful features and complex structures in living things. Creatures are complex because God created them so; they witness to His supreme artistry. Present-day flying fish manifest God's artistry, just as they did 95 million years ago.

This catshark fossil can be observed on both negative and positive plates. CATSHARK (with its counterpart) Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Byblos, Lebanon Some fossils are called "paired" fossils, when the layers containing a fossil are split open. As a result, the fossil has a positive, raised image on one side and a negative, concave "mold" on the other slab of stone. The 95-million-year-old catshark fossil in the picture is one such two-part specimen. Catshark belong to sharks classification. The catshark shown here belongs to the Scyliorhidinae family. Modern-day catshark are identical to those that lived 95 million years ago, which fact challenges the theory of evolution.

GUITAR FISH Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Byblos, Lebanon Darwinists claim that all creatures have undergone evolution. For this reason, examples of fossils from millions of years ago are very important to show that living things have not changed. Even a single fossil proves this; and the world is full of such examples. One of the fossils showing the invalidity of the theory of evolution is this 95-million-year-old specimen of a guitar fish. The same complex anatomical structure and features displayed by present-day guitar fish are also seen in this one that lived 95 million years ago. One can see the details of the fossil quite clearly. Faced with evidence like this, arguments for the theory of evolution are in the dead end.

SEAHORSE Age: 5 million years Period: Cenozoic era, Miocene period Location: Marrecchio River Formation, Italy Seahorses have always existed as seahorses. The fossil in the picture, 5 million years old, confirms this reality. Seahorses have not gone through any evolutionary process, but were created just like all other life forms.

The illustrated fossils are negative and positive parts of the same fossil. STINGRAY (with its counterpart) Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon The theory of evolution supposes that the first chordates like pikaia turned into fish over time. But no intermediate-form fossil has been found to substantiate the claims about chordate evolution, therefore, there is no fossil to support any claims of how fish evolved. On the contrary, all classes of fish appear all at once in the fossil record, with no preceding ancestors. The evolutionist paleontologist, Gerald T. Todd, in his article entitled "Evolution of the Lung and the Origin of Bony Fishes," lists the following unanswerable questions that this fact raises: All three subdivisions of bony fishes first appear in the fossil record at approximately the same time. They are already widely divergent morphologically, and are heavily armored. How did they originate? What allowed them to diverge so widely? How did they all come to have heavy armor? And why is there no trace of earlier, intermediate forms? (Gerald T. Todd, "Evolution of the Lung and the Origin of Bony Fishes: A Causal Relationship," American Zoologist, Volume 26, no. 4, 1980, p. 757.) The illustrations show the An-Namoura fossil bed in Lebanon and the diggings in this bed. While countless fossils have been discovered all around the world showing that evolution has never occurred, there's no point in denying this fact for the evolutionists. (above)

CATSHARK Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Lebanon This catshark fossil from the Cretaceous period is visible on both of the surfaces of the layer of rock in which it was found. It is 95 million years old and has the same features as today's catsharks. This proves that this creature, contrary to what evolutionists claim, did not come into being from any other species as a result of small changes over time, nor did it develop into any other species.

STINGRAY Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon In over 150 years of digging for fossils, millions of pieces of evidence like this have been found against evolution. Meanwhile, nothing has been discovered to substantiate Darwinist claims. Fossils do not support the theory of evolution, and this fact has even been expressed in evolutionist publications. An article in Science reads as follows: A large number of well-trained scientists outside of evolutionary biology and paleontology have unfortunately gotten the idea that the fossil record is far more Darwinian than it is. This probably comes from the oversimplification inevitable in secondary sources: low-level textbooks, semipopular articles, and so on. Also, there is probably some wishful thinking involved. In the years after Darwin, his advocates hoped to find predictable progressions. In general these have not been found yet the optimism has died hard, and some pure fantasy has crept into textbooks. (Science, 17 July, 1981, p. 289.)

CRAB Age: 38-23 million years Period: Oligocene Location: Lyby, Denmark For 150 years, Darwinists have hoped that "intermediate-form" fossils will be found in the future. But as the fossil record shows, not one has yet been found. The fossils unearthed to date are rich and varied enough to allow an understanding of the origin of living creatures and present us with a definite schema: Various species appeared on Earth all at once, separately with their own distinct physical structures, and without passing through any intermediate forms. The clear significance of this is that God created living creatures. One of the many discoveries that corroborates this fact is the 38- to 23-million-year-old crab fossil shown here. Like other crab fossils found in Denmark, this one was found in one of the nodules that come to the surface of the earth only at specific times of the year. Most of these fossils are called "crab balls" most of which belong to the Oligocene period 38-23 million years ago.

CRINOID Age: 345 million years Period: Middle Mississippian, Middle Osagean Location: Burlington Formation, Pike County, Missouri, USA Pictured is a perfectly preserved 345-millionyear-old fossil crinoid. All the details of this creature show that there is no difference between it and the crinoids still alive today. These creatures have existed for hundreds of millions of years without undergoing any change; this fact alone is important enough to demolish the theory of evolution. Its invalidity becomes clearer every day from the accumulating evidence supplied by the fossil record.

RAZORFISH

Age: 5.3 million years
Period: Lower Pliocene
Location: Marecchia River Formation, Poggio Berni, Rimimini Province, Italy

If Darwinists want to claim that living creatures have evolved, they need to supply an example of an intermediate form to prove their assertions. They must exhibit a half-evolved creature, showing how all its semi-developed organs are in the process of improving themselves and provide a number of examples for each transitional species. But Darwinists cannot show even one example of an intermediate fossil.

On the other hand, there are millions of fossils that preserve the remains of species that are still alive. The approximately 5.3-million-year-old razorfish fossils shown here are yet another proof that argues for Creation, but against evolution.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

SEA URCHINS Age: 150 million years Period: Upper Jurassic Location: Charente Maritime, France Evolutionists claim that fish evolved from invertebrate sea creatures; amphibians and present-day fish from one supposedly "ancestral" fish. Reptiles in turn arose from amphibians; birds and mammals developed independently from reptiles. And, finally, apes and human beings evolved from a common ancestor, now extinct. In order to prove these claims scientifically, it is necessary to find intermediate forms to show the transitional changes between one of these "former" species and their more recent counterparts. But as mentioned earlier, there is no trace of these imaginary creatures. On the contrary, all present-day species have the same characteristics that they possessed millions of years ago. This 150-million-year-old sea urchin is just one of the hundreds of thousands of fossils that prove this.

CRAB Age: 70 million years Period: Cretaceous Location: Belgium At every turn, the fossil record clearly contradicts the theory of evolution. Crabs are members of the Decapoda (10-legged) order of the phylum of Crustacean. Crabs have existed unchanged for millions of years, and therefore they are one of the living beings disproving the story of evolution. The fossilized crab pictured here is 70 million years old and displays the same physiological characteristics as crabs that are alive today. Crabs have not changed in 70 million years' time which disproves the theory of evolution's claim that living species evolved from one another over millions of years. This and similar fossils prove the fact that crabs did not evolve but were created by Almighty God.

BOWFIN Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Messel Shales, near Frankfurt, Germany Bowfins today live mostly in South America. They belong to the class of Actinopterygii and have not changed in millions of years. They also belong to the superorder of Holostei (bony fish), and many fossils have been discovered. These fossils show all the characteristics of present-day bowfin and evidence that they have undergone no change at all over tens of millions of years. This demonstrates that these creatures did not evolve from any previous species, but were created in their present form by the supreme power and intelligence of God. This fossil bowfin from the Eocene epoch, with its structure unchanged over tens of millions of years, challenges the theory of evolution.

SAWFISH Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Hajoula, Byblos, Lebanon The upper jaws of these fish project outward and have sharp protrusions on either side. For this reason, they are called sawfish. All fossilized sawfish in the fossil record are identical to their counterparts alive today. This sameness has persisted for about 100 million years proving that Darwinists' hypothetical claims are invalid and that evolution never occurred.

STINGRAY (with its counterpart) Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon The stingray fossil pictured here is 95 million years old, and there is no difference between it and stingrays living today. This physiological stability throughout 95 million years demonstrates clearly that these living things did not evolve from an earlier, primitive form to a more advanced one. Any claim that they did is wrong; and concrete discoveries and scientific investigations have invalidated this claim.

LOBSTER Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon This fossil lobster, 95 million years old, possesses the same physical structure as lobsters today. Some lobsters display migratory behaviors that are very interesting. In the course of such migrations, lobsters line up so that each one can touch the one in front of it. In this way, a convoy of between 50 and 60 lobsters is formed and moves along the ocean floor day and night for several days. Migrating in a line enhances the lobsters' ability to move. The resistance encountered by a lobster advancing through the sea water individually is halved when another lobster is moving in front of it. (The same principle is exploited by modern-day trucks and race cars.) Because of this linear movement, lobsters can cover more distance in less time, while expending less energy. Some species have been observed to travel as much as one kilometer in an hour.

Friar's Bay in East Sussex (below left) is a rich source where many fossils have been found—mostly ammonites and many other marine creatures with shells. The picture below shows fossil investigation being done in the area. LOBSTER Age: 144-65 million years Period: Cretaceous Location: Lower Greensand, Atherfield, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom The lobster fossil pictured here, between 144 and 65 million years, reveals once again that the theory of evolution is nonsense. Lobsters have existed for tens of millions of years without change, disproving the Darwinists' claim that living creatures have developed from a supposed primitive state into more advanced forms.

Seahorse and Razorfish Period: Pliocene Age: 5 million years Region: Marecchia River Formation, Italy Fossil discoveries have dealt a lethal blow to Darwinism. Darwinists have not a single scientific and rational response to these findings that prove that life forms have remained unchanged for millions of years. One of these fossils that leave Darwinists speechless is the 5-million-year-old sea horse and razorfish fossil illustrated.

SEA URCHIN Age: 150 million years Period: Late Jurassic Location: Madagascar Sea urchins have been alive for about 300 million years, but they have not changed or undergone any process of evolution in all that time. The fossil shown here is 150 million years old. A marine invertebrate, sea urchins have soft bodies encased in a thin shell covered with the spines that protect them from their enemies. They can move these spines; on some species, they are poisonous and reach a length of 30 centimeters (11.8 in). Tube feet protruding from the bodies of sea urchins adhere to rocks so that they can move comfortably along the ocean floor. Fossil discoveries show that sea urchins have possessed all these characteristics since the first moment they came into being and that they have undergone no change at all throughout that time. The explanation is clear: As with other creatures, sea urchins did not evolve, but were created complete with all their characteristics.

CRAYFISH Age: 150 million years Period: Upper Jurassic Location: Solnhofen Lithographic Formation, Zandt, Germany Crayfish, which are also known as freshwater lobsters, are another one of those creatures that have not changed in a hundred million years. Members of the superfamily of Astacoida, they generally live in fresh water that is not too cold. Some species can even live up to 3 meters (9.8 feet) under the ground. The crayfish fossil shown here is 150 million years old, yet is no different from those living today. This once again disproves the claims of evolutionists about the origin of living things and shows that Creation is the only explanation.

HORSESHOE CRAB

Age: 150 million years
Period: Upper Jurassic
Location: Eichstatt, Bavaria, Solnhofen, Germany

The 150-million-year-old horseshoe crab fossil shown here is proof that these creatures have not changed in an interval of more than a hundred million years. These crustaceans are a clear indication that evolution has never happened and that Almighty God created all living creatures.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF SEA CREATURES

FLYING FISH Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Hadjoula, Lebanon Flying fish leap out of the water, propelled by rapid movements of their tail fin and glide a certain distance before gently dropping back into the water. During this airborne movement, the fish can reach a speed of 50 kilometers (31 miles) an hour. There is no difference between flying fish living today and those that lived about 100 million years ago. The species has not undergone the slightest change in all that time, which destroys all the claims of the evolutionists about the origins and history of living creatures. Scientific discoveries have shown that living things have not developed in evolutionary stages but were created by Almighty God.

STURGEON Age: 144-65 million years Period: Cretaceous Location: Liaoning Province, China The sturgeons, of which only two families remain in existence, have always been sturgeons. They have neither developed from, nor turned into any other species. Fossil finds corroborate the fact that like all other creatures, sturgeons have never undergone any process of evolution.

HORSESHOE CRAB Age: 150 million years Period: Late Jurassic Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichsatt, Germany Horseshoe crabs belong to a subphylum of the arachnids calledChelicerata, and are more closely related to spiders and scorpions. The 150-million-year-old fossil of a horseshoe crab shown here demonstrates once again that Creation is a fact and that the process of evolution never occurred.

STINGRAY Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Byblos, Haqil, Lebanon Stingrays are cartilaginous fish and live mostly on the sea floor. Their gills are on the bottom, or ventral side of their bodies and their eyes are on top. Their tail fins and dorsal fins are very small; on some species, they are absent altogether. Stingrays that lived about 100 million years ago have the same characteristics as those still alive today. In all that time, they have not undergone any changes. This suggests that evolution is an untenable theory.

OYSTER Age: 150 million years Period: Late Jurassic Location: Chile "Oyster" is a generic name given to a group of shelled mollusks that live in the ocean, feeding on plankton which they filter through their gills.The shells containing high levels of calcium are generally fossilized easily. The oldest known oyster fossil comes from the Ordovician period (490 to 443 million years ago). Despite the approximately half a million years that have passed since then, oysters have not changed. Those oysters that lived 490 million years ago or 150 million years ago are no different from those alive today. This fact completely nullifies the claims of evolution that creatures evolved in stages, in a succession of tiny changes. The fossil record shows that creatures have not gone through any process of evolution and that Almighty God created them.

CRAB Age: 37-23 million years Period: Oligocene Location: Lyby, Denmark The fossil record is rich enough to permit a general comprehension of the origin of living things and provides us with a definite scenario: Various species of living creatures appeared on Earth all at once, individually and without "evolving" through any intermediate forms. This is one of the proofs that Almighty God created all living creatures. One of these fossils that demonstrates the clear fact of creation is shown here: the nearly 35-million-year-old remains of a crab. This crab fossil was found in Denmark on the Limfjords coast. This type of fossil is quite commonly found in this area. Preserved in nodules, they usually emerge to the surface in winter or after periods of heavy rain. The rounded stones are split open to discover whether they contain fossils. If a fossil is found, it is prepared for exhibition using files and other tools. This fossil demonstrates that there is no structural difference between crabs alive today and those alive roughly 35 million years ago, again proving the invalidity of evolutionist claims. If a creature has not undergone the slightest change in tens of millions of years, it is impossible to speak about the evolution of living things.

SHRIMP Age: 150 million years Period: Late Jurassic Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichstatt, Germany Another scientific discovery showing that there was no process of evolution, as the Darwinists claim, is the fossilized shrimp illustrated here. Since shrimp first came into existence, they have always displayed all the same organs and characteristics as they have today and have undergone no changes in all that time. This shrimp fossil shows plainly that evolution is an imaginary scenario.

STINGRAY AND HERRING Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA In this specimen we see a thorny stingray of the Dasyatidae family and a herring fossilized together. These fossils show that modern-day thorny stingrays and herrings are no different from the ones that swam tens of millions of years ago; they are among the countless proofs that invalidate the theory of evolution.

LOBSTER Age: 144-65 million years Period: Cretaceous Location: Lower Greensand, Atherfield, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom There is no difference between this lobster, which lived tens of millions of years ago, and those that are still alive today. This deals a devastating blow to the theory of evolution. The fossil pictured here of a lobster from the Cretaceous period (between 144 and 65 million years ago) proves that the claims of evolutionists with regard to natural history are completely untenable. Creatures did not evolve; they are created by God, Lord of the worlds.

GUITAR FISH Age: 95 million years Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian Location: Haqil, Lebanon Paleontology has provided numerous proofs that creatures did not evolve but were created by God. One of these proofs is this 95-million-year-old fossilized guitar fish. These fish live in tropical and subtropical waters and have not changed in about 100 million years. Darwinists can give no scientific explanation for a fossil like this, which shows that it did not undergo any process of evolution. Today's guitar fish are no different from those that lived approximately 100 million years ago—which once again underlines the fact of God's Creation.

LOBSTER

Age: 144-65 million years
Period: Cretaceous
Location: Lower Greensand, Atherfield, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom

The lack of any intermediate forms in the fossil record completely undermines the theory of evolution. After years of digging and explorations, not even one fossil has been found to indicate that any primitive, incomplete creature with half-developed organs ever existed. All fossils discovered to date show that all the characteristics of the species in question came to be in complete form and at the same time; that is, that they were created.
One of these many examples is a lobster that lived between 144 and 65 million years ago.

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF LAND-ANIMALS

FOSSIL SPECIMENS OF LAND-ANIMALS

TURTLE Age: 38-23 million years Period: Oligocene Location: Brule Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska, USA Investigations have turned up fossils of turtles that are 300 million years old, on average. The one pictured here is about 30 million years old. Such fossils definitely prove that turtles did not change over all these years but maintained their original form: Living creatures did not evolve, but were created by Almighty God.

HYENA SKULL Age: 23-5 million years Period: Miocene Location: Gansu Province, China The fossil record has not produced even one single example of a creature in an intermediate stage of development between reptiles and mammals—which evolutionists claim must have lived in the past. As with other classes of living creatures, the origin of mammals cannot be explained by the theory of evolution. As George Gaylord Simpson admitted many years ago: This is true of all thirty-two orders of mammals . . . The earliest and most primitive known members of every order [of mammals] already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known. In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed . . . This regular absence of transitional forms is not confined to mammals, but is an almost universal phenomenon, as has long been noted by paleontologists. It is true of almost all classes of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate. . . . it is true of the classes, and of the major animal phyla, and it is apparently also true of analogous categories of plants. (George Gaylord Simpson, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, New York: Columbia University Press, 1944, pp. 105, 107.) The fossil pictured here, the skull of a hyena between 23 and 5 million years old, corroborates this admission. This fossil proves that hyenas have always existed as hyenas and refutes the theory of evolution. Evey fossil that evolutionists have produced to date as proof of evolution has been either fake or irrelevant. Whenever they unearth the fossil of an extinct creature, they announce it with slogans as "a newly discovered horse" or "the missing intermediate form." But when these fossils projected as a proof are subjected to serious investigation, they are immediately found to have no relevance to evolution. So far, milllions of fossils have been discovered throughout the world, and none indicates that evolution ever occurred on Earth. But these fossils, proving that evolution is unscientific and that Creation is an undeniable fact, are mostly hidden away in musem storerooms and never displayed. The fact that hyenas living tens of millions of years ago are no different from today's members of the species is evidence for the invalidity of evolution. If the evolutionists' claims were true, hyenas should have turned into much different mammals by this time. But no such thing has happened.

RABBIT Age: 33 million years Period: Oligocene Location: White River Formation, Lusk, Wyoming, USA As spiders always breed spiders, bees breed bees, and rays are pawned from rays; rabbits have always existed as rabbits. The fossil record shows clearly that rabbits did not evolve from any other creature and have always been as they are now, from the moment they were created. In the light of the countless fossil finds showing the invalidity of evolution, its adherents must accept that Darwinism has been defeated. The 33-million-year-old rabbit fossil shown here underlines this defeat once more, illustratings the fact that God has created all living things.

SNAKE Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Messel Shales, Germany One thing that evolutionists are at a loss to explain is the origin of reptiles. Between the various classes of reptiles, such as snakes, alligators, turtles and lizards, there are strict boundaries. The fossil record shows that each of these categories has come into existence at once, with very different physical characteristics. One of these proofs to deny that reptiles underwent evolution is the 50-million-year-old snake fossil shown in the picture.

TURTLE Age: 37-23 million years Period: Oligocene Location: Brule Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska, USA Darwinists should be able to explain the development of a turtle's shell. They should be able to show how the structure developed by chance through an imaginary process of evolution, and produce proof of it. But to explain the development of living creatures, Darwinists only resort to stories. They have no proofs to substantiate these stories of evolution. Instead, what Darwinists will always discover are living fossils—for example, the fossil shown here is a 37 to 23-million-year-old fossil of a turtle.

FROG Age: 50 million years Period: Eocene Location: Messel Shales, Germany This frog belongs to the family of Pelopatidae, or mud burrowers. Some members of this family use their back legs to burrow under mud, and others live in an aquatic environment. Darwinists claim that fish are the ancestors of amphibians, but they offer no proof to support this claim. On the contrary, scientific discoveries show that there are such important anatomical differences between the two species that it is impossible for amphibians to have evolved from fish. One of these scientific discoveries is the fossil record. According to the fossil record, the three basic classes of amphibian all appeared at once. The evolutionist Robert Carroll says, "The earliest fossils of frogs, caecilians, and salamanders all appear in the Early to Middle Jurassic. All show most of the important attributes of their living descendants." (Robert L. Carroll, Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 292-293.)

CROCODILE SKULL Age: 54-37 million years Period: Eocene Location: Phosphate Mines, Khouribga, North Africa "Crocodile" is the general name given to creatures in the Crocodylidae family. Most live in tropical regions, and their earliest known examples lived about 200 million years ago. There is no difference between crocodiles living today and those that lived about 50 million years ago (like the fossil illustrated here) or even those that lived 200 million years ago. These fossils prove that crocodiles have not changed in hundreds of millions of years. This fact disproves evolution and also demonstrates that God has created all living creaures. The Djourab desert is one of the many areas of the world where fossils are found. Every one of the many discoveries in this area's 382 fossil fields shows without exception that living species have not changed for as long as they have existed. That is, they have not gone through any process of evolution. Throughout the Earth's history, crocodiles have always been crocodiles. They have neither come from, nor have changed into, any other species.

A view from below of a 37- to 23-million-year-old fossil turtle. TURTLE Age: 37-23 million years Period: Oligocene Location: Brule Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska, USA Thanks to their excellent bony protection, turtles are well preserved in fossil strata. The oldest turtle fossils are about 200 million years old, and in all that time they have undergone no changes. The 37- to 23-million-year-old turtle fossil seen here shows no difference between turtles that lived then and those alive now, in all their perfect detail. Faced with these proofs, there's one important fact that evolutionists ought to accept. David B. Kitts, an evolutionist in the department of Geology and Geophysics at Oklahoma University, says that "Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them." (David B. Kitts, "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory," Evolution, Vol. 28, September 1974, p. 467.)

HYENA SKULL Age: 23-5 million years Period: Miocene Location: China According to the evolutionists' unscientific claims, reptiles are the ancestors of both birds and also mammals. But there are vast differences between these two groups of living things. Mamals are warm-blooded. Tthey produce and regulate their own body temperature, they give birth to and suckle their young, and their bodies are covered with fur. But reptiles are cold-blooded. Tthey do not produce warmth, and their body temperature varies according to the temperature of the ambient air. They reproduce by laying eggs, do not suckle their offspring and their bodies are covered by scales. How could a reptile have begun to produce body heat, developed a system of sweat glands to control this heat, changed its scales into hairs and begun to produce milk? So far, evolutionists have not been able to give one single convincing scientific answer to such questions. This shows that the supposition that reptiles evolved into mammals has no scientific foundation. Besides, paleontologists have not found one fossil of any intermediate form that connects reptiles to mammals. For this reason, the evolutionist Roger Lewin had to admit that "The transition to the first mammal . . . is still an enigma." (Roger Lewin, "Bones of Mammals, Ancestors Fleshed Out," Science, Vol. 212, June 26, 1981, p. 1492.) The photograph shows the excavation in the Junggar fossil field in China. Fossils found at this dig show that living creatures have been created perfectly and complete.

 

CONCLUSION

Why, in his Origin of Species, did Darwin refer to living fossils as causing such a great difficulty? Why, faced with these fossils, did evolutionist scientists feel the need to abandon their claims regarding gradual evolution and manufacture a new theory? Why did the capture of a living coelacanth come as such a disappointment, silencing those evolutionists who had pinned all their hopes on it? What is it about living fossils that has inflicted such a collapse on Darwinists?

It is that living fossils declare the fact of Creation.

The disappointment that Darwinists feel is due to their ideological devotion to their theories. In fact, they have seen their theory demolished, but ignore this, even though they are perfectly well aware of it. That they even resort to deceptive methods to cover it up is one of the greatest proofs of this. Instead of admitting the fact of Creation in the face of living fossils, they resort to irrational, illogical theories devoid of any scientific evidence. They seek to conceal living fossil specimens and eliminate millions of examples, while giving pride of place to hand-made hoaxes—a clear indication of their fears. The way that museums display countless fabricated fossil "reconstructions" and depict highly complex life forms like the coelacanth as examples of intermediate forms, while hiding away in the museum vaults fossils of species that still exist today is most thought-provoking.

How scientific is it to adapt evidence to a theory, when the theory cannot be proven? By what right do evolutionists suggest that their claims are proven and scientific, even though they have no evidence whatsoever? Why does the scientific evidence they come up with embarrass them instead of supporting them? What compels evolutionists to stand by their theory, despite the increasing weight of evidence against it?

The reason is that Darwinism is a false religion and system of beliefs. Because it is a dogma that can never be denied. Because it is the basis of materialist philosophy that maintains that matter has existed for all time, and that nothing exists apart from matter. That is why, although new scientific evidence further disproves the theory with every passing day, such efforts are maintained to keep it alive. Yet these have now come to an end. The deceptive methods of Darwinism and Darwinists have failed. The evidence that demolishes evolution is mounting day by day. New proofs of Creation that dash evolutionists' hopes and force them to produce new misleading explanations are constantly emerging.

That is why living fossils leave Darwinists speechless, and are quietly hidden away in museum vaults. With these methods, Darwinists try to conceal God's sublime artistry. The fact is, however, that God is He Who creates all things, Who knows all that they do, and Who keeps them under His rule at all times. God sees Darwinists as they make their plans against Him. God watches them as they seek to conceal His sublime creative artistry. He writes down all they do as they deny His existence. And, whether they believe it or not, willingly or unwillingly, they will be brought into His presence in the Hereafter.

This is the great truth of which Darwinists are unaware: God will surely baffle and disappoint those who strive against Him. It is the law of God that will truly be victorious.

The existence of living fossils is a sublime proof created by God in order to eliminate all Darwinist strategies and reveal all their frauds. As they strive against the true faith, Darwinists forget that God also creates the evidence for it. They are in a state of defeat from the very outset. The teaching of the theory of evolution in schools, speculation regarding evolutionist claims by various media organizations, and the support gathered from scientists are all temporary phenomena. As revealed in the verse: "Rather We hurl the truth against falsehood and it cuts right through it and it vanishes clean away! Woe without end for you for what you portray!" (Surat al-‘Anbiya, 18), God will eradicate all false beliefs.

Darwinists today are in a state of panic about this. Since that is so obvious, those who imagine Darwinism to be true must quickly try to see all the evidence pointing to the fact of Creation and to avoid being taken in by such a false religion as the theory of evolution. They must realize that God, Who created the world in such a flawless form, also has the power to create the eternal life of the Hereafter, because human beings can be saved only when they see and comprehend this truth. The theory of evolution, which induces people to deny God, their one Savior, and which strives to survive through constant lies and strategies, is a terrible waste of time and a terrible disappointment. Instead of realizing this in a state of great regret in the Hereafter, seeing it in this world, where all the proofs are so evident, will lead to salvation in both this world and in the Next.

What, then, of Him Who is standing over every self seeing everything it does? Yet still they associate others with God! Say: "Name them! Or would you inform Him of something in the earth He does not know, or are they words which are simply guesswork on your part?" However, the plotting of those who disbelieve seems good to them and they bar the way. Anyone misguided by God has no guide. They will receive punishment in the life of this world and the punishment of the Hereafter is harsher still. They have no defender against God. What is the Garden promised to those who guard against evil like? It has rivers flowing under it and its foodstuffs and cool shade never fail. That is the final fate of those who guard against evil. But the final fate of the unbelievers is the Fire. (Surat ar-Ra'd, 33-35)

 

THE STARTING POINT OF PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM

THE STARTING POINT OF PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM

Those who came after Darwin made enormous efforts to detect in the fossil record examples of the slow and gradual evolution that he foresaw. Darwin had ascribed their absence to the "insufficiency of the fossil record." The fossil record—which, in fact, provided a broad range of specimens even in his own day and shows the existence of all complex life forms as early as the Cambrian Explosion—continued to be the subject of research by evolutionists hoping to discover a miracle. Their objective was to prove Darwin correct, to demonstrate that the fossil record in his time truly was insufficient, and to find examples of intermediate forms, evidence that living things did undergo evolution.

Yet the fossil record constantly produced results at variance with Darwin's expectations. Practically the entire globe was scoured, and the new fossils excavated were no longer "insufficient." Darwin had been wrong when he said that he believed that those who came after him would eventually find the intermediate forms that he expected. The fossil record produced not one single intermediate-form specimen. Instead, it revealed the fact that countless living things had undergone no evolution at all, had remained unchanged for many millions of years, together with all their many complex structures. The fossil record refuted Darwin. The lack of intermediate forms and the fact of stasis very definitely constituted no evidence for gradual evolution.

A fictitious illustration "Intermediate forms," which allegedly bore the features of two different species, never existed at any time.

Some evolutionists clearly saw and admitted that Darwin's model of gradual evolution was untenable in the face of the reality of stasis. They then proposed that evolution "operated in a different way." In 1970, the Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History developed an alternative theory, known as "punctuated evolution," which they published in 1972. Their sole aim was to account for the stasis phenomenon.

Stephen Jay Gould

In fact, this theory was an adaptation of the "Hopeful Monster" theory put forward in the 1930s by the European paleontologist Otto Schindewolf. He had suggested that living things evolved as the result of sudden, dramatic mutations rather than the gradual accumulation of small ones. In citing a hypothetical example of his theory, Schindewolf suggested that the first bird in history had emerged from a reptile egg, through a "gross mutation," in other words, an enormous, though random change in its genetic structure.34 According to that same theory, some terrestrial mammals might suddenly have turned into whales through a sudden and comprehensive alteration.

These claims violate all known laws of genetics, biophysics and biochemistry, and were no more scientific than the fairy tale about a frog turning into a handsome prince. Still, this "Hopeful Monster" theory of Schindewolf's was adopted and defended in the 1940s by the University of California, Berkeley geneticist Richard Goldschmidt. But the theory was so inconsistent that it was soon abandoned.

The impetus that obliged Gould and Eldredge to take up this theory again was, as we have already seen, the lack of any "intermediate form" in the fossil record. Both the "stasis" and "sudden appearance" in the record were so obvious that these two were forced to reconsider the "Hopeful Monster" theory in order to account for this state of affairs. Gould's well-known article "The Return of Hopeful Monsters" was an expression of this forced about-turn. 35

Niles Eldredge

Naturally, Eldredge and Gould did not repeat Schindewolf's theory word for word. In order to give it a more "scientific" nature, they sought to develop some kind of mechanism for the "sudden evolutionary leap" they proposed. (The interesting term "punctuated equilibrium" which they gave to their theory was one expression of this scientific endeavor.) Gould and Eldredge's theory was adopted and fleshed out by some other paleontologists in the years that followed. However, the punctuated theory of evolution was at least as marred with inconsistencies and invalid logic as Darwin's original gradual theory of evolution.

Proponents of gradual evolution ignored stasis. But stasis is constantly seen in the fossil record, proving that living things remained unchanged over millions of years. The only difference between Gould and Eldredge and other Darwinists is that the former two realized that the stasis in the fossil record was an incontrovertible fact that could no longer be left unanswered. Rather than admit the fact of Creation revealed by the fossil record, they felt themselves obliged to develop a new concept of evolution.

Stephen Jay Gould said this on the subject:

But how can imperfection possibly explain away stasis (the equilibrium of punctuated equilibrium)? Abrupt appearance may record an absences of information, but *stasis is data*. Eldredge and I became so frustrated by the failure of many colleagues to grasp this evident point—-though a quarter century of subsequent debate has finally propelled our claim to general acceptance (while much else about punctuated equilibrium remains controversial)—that we urged the incorporation of this little phrase as a mantra or motto. Say it ten times before breakfast every day for a week, and the argument will surely seep in by osmosis: "stasis is data: stasis is data..." 36

Gould, Eldredge and other advocates of punctuated evolution fiercely criticized the proponents of gradual evolution for failing to see the reality of stasis. But in fact, what they were doing was no different from the actions of other Darwinists. Since the fossil record had failed to produce the results they expected, they changed the form of so-called evolution and constructed it in a very detailed manner. The main reason for their anger toward, and intense criticism of, the adherents of gradual evolution was that as long as their professional colleagues failed to accept the stasis in the fossil record, they would cause the theory to lose all credibility in the public eye. For that reason, they attempted to give the impression that they had now "discovered the truth" in the face of the clear facts revealed by the fossil record.

The fact is, however, that the punctuated evolution model is at least as groundless, devoid of evidence, and ultimately discredited as the gradual evolution theory.

Gould's admissions regarding "the mistaken perspective in the past" are criticisms aimed at the supporters of gradual evolution:

We have long known about stasis and abrupt appearance, but have chosen to fob it off upon an imperfect fossil record. 37

As Niles Eldredge describes it, the supporters of gradual evolution ignored one very important fact:

Paleontologists ever since Darwin have been searching (largely in vain) for the sequences of insensibly graded series of fossils that would stand as examples of the sort of wholesale transformation of species that Darwin envisioned as the natural product of the evolutionary process. Few saw any reason to demur—though it is a startling fact that . . . most species remain recognizably themselves, virtually unchanged throughout their occurrence in geological sediments of various ages. 38

Niles Eldredge and the archaeologist Ian Tattershall of the American Museum of Natural History underlined how Darwin's idea of evolution had been disproved by the stasis in the fossil record:

Darwin's prediction of rampant, albeit gradual, change affecting all lineages through time is refuted. The record is there, and the record speaks for tremendous anatomical conservation. Change in the manner Darwin expected is just not found in the fossil record. 39

Elsewhere, Stephen Jay Gould described how stasis, evidence of non-evolution, was ignored by the adherents of evolution:

Stasis, or nonchange, of most fossil species during their lengthy geological lifespans was tacitly acknowledged by all paleontologists, but almost never studied explicitly because prevailing theory treated stasis as uninteresting nonevidence for nonevolution. . . . The overwhelming prevalence of stasis became an embarrassing feature of the fossil record, best left ignored as a manifestation of nothing (that is, nonevolution). 40

All of Gould and Eldredge's efforts were to adapt the theoretical concept of evolution to the actual fossil record. For that reason they suggested that stasis itself was the most important proof of their evolutionary claims. In some way, they viewed the unchanging nature of the fossil record as evidence for change! Since they could not reconcile the fossil record with the theory of evolution, they adapted the theory to the record. This was the mindset that launched the punctuated model of evolution.

This 120-million-year-old fossil tortoise is proof that tortoises are not descended from other living things, never underwent any intermediate stages, and have maintained exactly the same structure for millions of years.

In an article in New Scientist, Tom S. Kemp, curator of the Oxford University museum's zoological collections, described how findings had been turned into evidence for the theory of evolution, just as in the case of punctuated evolution:

In other words, when the assumed evolutionary processes did not match the pattern of fossils that they were supposed to have generated, the pattern was judged to be ‘wrong.' A circular argument arises: interpret the fossil record in terms of a particular theory of evolution, inspect the interpretation, and note that it confirms the theory. Well, it would, wouldn't it? 41

According to the proponents of the punctuated model of evolution, stasis in the fossil record represented the "equilibrium" in the theory defined as punctuated equilibrium. The theory maintains that under environmental pressures, a species can have evolved in as short a space of time as only a few thousand years. It then entered a period of stasis and remained unchanged for millions of years.

Therefore, proponents believed that this claim could account for the stasis in a large proportion of living things. In this way, they thought they had covered up the challenge that the fossil record poses to evolution. But this was a grave deception.

The Punctuation Mechanism

In its present state, the punctuated theory of evolution explains living populations that exhibit no change over very long periods of time as having remained in a kind of "equilibrium." According to this claim, evolutionary changes take place in very narrow populations and at very short intervals that interrupt—or in other words, "punctuate" the equilibrium. Since the population is such a narrow one, natural selection quickly favors large mutations, and the emergence of a new species is thus made possible.

According to this theory, a reptile species, for example, can remain unchanged for millions of years. However, one small group of reptiles that split away from this species in some way is subjected to a series of intense mutations, for some reason that is not explained. These mutations endow those individuals with some advantage (and there is no instance of a beneficial mutation). They are quickly selected within this narrow group. The group of reptiles evolves quickly, and may even turn into mammals. Since this entire process is so very rapid and takes place with a relatively small number of creatures within a narrow time frame, few if any fossil traces are left behind.

As close inspection reveals, this theory was proposed as an answer to the question of "How can an evolutionary process happen so fast as to leave no fossil traces behind?" In reply, the theory makes two fundamental assumptions:

1. The assumption that macro-mutations—in other words, wide-ranging mutations that cause major changes in living things' genetic information—bestow an advantage and also produce new genetic information.

2. The assumption that small animal populations have a genetic advantage.

However, both are at odds with the scientific facts.

The Macro-Mutations Error

As you have just seen, the punctuated model of evolution hypothesizes that the mutations leading to speciation take place on a very large scale or that some individual species are exposed to a succession of serial mutations. However, that assumption contradicts all the observational data from genetic science.

R. A. Fisher, one of the century's best-known geneticists, established a rule, based on experiment and observation, that invalidates this hypothesis. In his book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Fisher reports that any mutation's ability to survive in a population is inversely proportional to its effect on the phenotype.42 To put it another way, the greater a mutation is, the lower will be its chances of remaining permanent in a community.

The reason for this is not hard to see. Mutations represent random changes in a living thing's genetic data. They never have the effect of improving that genetic information. On the contrary, mutated individuals always suffer serious diseases and disabilities. Therefore, the more any individual is affected by mutation, the lower its chances of survival.

The Harvard University evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, one of Darwinism's most passionate advocates, makes the following comment:

The occurrence of genetic monstrosities by mutation . . . is well substantiated, but they are such evident freaks that these monsters can be designated only as "hopeless." They are so utterly unbalanced that they would not have the slightest chance of escaping elimination through stabilizing selection . . . the more drastically a mutation affects the phenotype, the more likely it is to reduce fitness. To believe that such a drastic mutation would produce a viable new type, capable of occupying a new adaptive zone, is equivalent to believing in miracles . . . The finding of a suitable mate for the "hopeless monster" and the establishment of reproductive isolation from the normal members of the parental population seem to me insurmountable difficulties.43

Obviously, mutations do not give rise to evolutionary development—which poses an insurmountable obstacle for the punctuated theory of evolution. Since mutation is destructive, the living undergoing macro-mutations that the proponents of evolution propose will suffer "macro"-destructive effects. Some evolutionists put their trust in mutations occurring in the regulatory genes in DNA. But the destructive effect that applies in regard to other mutations also applies here. The problem is that mutation is a random change, and any random change in any structure as complex as genetic information will have damaging consequences.

In their book The Natural Limits to Genetic Change, geneticist Lane Lester and population geneticist Raymond Bohlin describe the mutation dilemma in question:

The overall factor that has come up again and again is that mutation remains the ultimate source of all genetic variation in any evolutionary model. Being unsatisfied with the prospects of accumulating small point mutations, many are turning to macromutations to explain the origin of evolutionary novelties. Goldschmidt's hopeful monsters have indeed returned. However, though macromutations of many varieties produce drastic changes, the vast majority will be incapable of survival, let alone show the marks of increasing complexity. If structural gene mutations are inadequate because of their inability to produce significant enough changes, then regulatory and developmental mutations appear even less useful because of the greater likelihood of nonadaptive or even destructive consequences . . . But one thing seems certain: at present, the thesis that mutations, whether great or small, are capable of producing limitless biological change is more an article of faith than fact. 44

Observation and experiment show that mutations may alter, but do not improve on, genetic information and that they do damage living things. It is obviously inconsistent for the proponents of punctuated evolution to expect any "success" from them.

The Narrow Populations Error

The second concept that proponents of punctuated evolution stress is that of "narrow populations." They state that a new species forms only in communities containing very few numbers of a plant or animal species. According to this claim, large populations of animals exhibit no evolutionary development and can maintain their stasis. However, if some small groups leave these populations, they become isolated (generally assumed because of geographical causes) and can reproduce only amongst themselves. It is claimed that macro-mutations affect these small groups because they reproduce only among themselves, and so rapid "speciation" thus takes place.

Why do the proponents of punctuated evolution insist on the concept of narrow populations? The answer is obvious: Their objective is to "explain" the lack of intermediate forms in the fossil record. That is why their accounts insist that "Evolutionary changes took place in narrow populations and very rapidly, for which reason insufficient traces have been left in the fossil record."

In fact, however, recent scientific experiments and observations have revealed that in genetic terms, narrow populations are a disadvantage for evolution. Far from developing in such a way as to give rise to robust new species, narrow populations actually produce severe genetic defects. The reason is that in small populations, individuals continually interbreed, reproducing within a narrow genetic pool. For that reason, normally "heterozygotic" individuals become increasingly "homozygotic." Their normally recessive defective genes become dominant, and genetic defects and diseases increasingly emerge within the population. 45

In order to investigate this topic, chickens were observed for 35 years. These observations established that chickens kept in a narrow population became increasingly weaker in genetic terms. Egg production fell from 100% to 80%; reproduction rates from 93% to 74%. But through conscious human intervention—with chickens being brought in from other populations—this genetic contraction was reversed, and the basic chicken population began moving back in the direction of normality. 46

This and similar findings clearly show that there is no scientific validity to the claim that narrow populations are the source of evolutionary development, behind which adherents of punctuated evolution find shelter. James W. Valentine and Douglas H. Erwin have stated the impossibility of new species forming by way of punctuated evolutionary mechanisms:

The required rapidity of the change implies either a few large steps or many and exceedingly rapid smaller ones. Large steps are tantamount to saltations and raise the problems of fitness barriers; small steps must be numerous and entail the problems discussed under microevolution. The periods of stasis raise the possibility that the lineage would enter the fossil record, and we reiterate that we can identify none of the postulated intermediate forms. Finally, the large numbers of species that must be generated so as to form a pool from which the successful lineage is selected are nowhere to be found. We conclude that the probability that species selection is a general solution to the origin of higher taxa is not great, and that neither of the contending theories of evolutionary change at the species level, phyletic gradualism or punctuated equilibrium, seem applicable to the origin of new body plans. 47

Punctuated Equilibrium is a Major Disappointment for Evolutionists

Today, the fictitious mechanism of punctuated equilibrium has been totally discredited in scientific terms. It has been proved that living things cannot evolve through the methods in question. As Jeffrey Levinton from the State University of New York has stated, there can be no way to test the theory of species formation in question if it cannot be seen clearly in the fossil record. On that basis, Levinton concluded that "the totality of the evidence makes it a theory not worth following up." 48

This is of course true. The claim constituting the foundation of the theory has been refuted scientifically. But the important fact is that the fossil record has provided no evidence for punctuated equilibrium; on the contrary, it has demolished it. Millions of fossils in the record have been in a state of "equilibrium" that the evolutionists claim to have lasted for millions of years, as punctuated equilibrium suggests. Yet for some reason, there is absolutely no trace of the intervening evolution that—again according to the theory—should have lasted for thousands of years, at least. The fossil record provides not one single example of the countless living things expected to have undergone evolution. Nor is there a single piece of evidence to show how punctuated equilibrium might work. As the result of their desperate situation, evolutionists try to take one of the greatest proofs of the fact of Creation and use it as a basis for evolution. This clearly demonstrates the terrible position they are in!

There is no difference between this 50-million-year-old fossil trout and specimens living today.

How did such an inconsistent theory ever become so popular? In fact, almost all the proponents of punctuated equilibrium are paleontologists, who clearly see how the fossil record refutes Darwinian theory.

This is why they are literally in a state of panic and trying to keep their theory viable at any cost.

A 150-million-year-old starfish fossil showing taht these echinoderms have not changed at all for million of years.

On the other hand, geneticists, zoologists and anatomists perceive that no mechanism in nature could give rise to "punctuations," for which reason they insist on supporting the gradual Darwinist theory of evolution. The Oxford University zoologist Richard Dawkins strongly criticizes adherents of the punctuated model of evolution and accuses them of destroying the credibility of the theory as a whole.

This inconclusive dialogue between the two sides is actually evidence of the scientific crisis into which the theory of evolution has fallen. What we have is a myth that cannot be reconciled with any experimental, observational or paleontological findings. All evolutionist theoreticians look for grounds to support this myth, depending on their own field of specialization, but find themselves in conflict with findings from other branches of science. Attempts are sometimes made to gloss over this confusion by means of superficial comments such as "Science advances through such academic debates." Yet the problem is that these debates are not mental gymnastics performed for the sake of coming up with any true scientific theory, but are dogmatic conjecture intended to support a false theory. The fact that evolutionary theoreticians inadvertently reveal is that the fossil record cannot be reconciled with the concept of evolution in any way. And stasis, one of the most important elements in the fossil record, is clearly visible. Gould expresses this in these terms:

. . . stasis, inevitably read as absence of evolution, had always been treated as a non-subject. How odd though to define the most common of all palaeontological phenomena as beyond interest or notice! 49

By now, all Darwinists have been forced to admit the fact of stasis in the fossil record, which they are still reluctant to see, deliberately pushing into the background and even refusing to accept as data. The lack of any documentation of fossils undergoing evolution—in other words, the absence of any intermediate forms—has done away with all speculation regarding stasis and clearly reveals this as one of the most significant proofs of the fact of Creation. Punctuated equilibrium has been totally discredited, both by the very mechanisms it proposes and by the fossil record, which it seeks to put forward as evidence.

There is no difference between lobsters living today and this 208- to 146-million-year-old fossil.

34. Stephen M. Stanley, Macroevolution: Pattern and Process, San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Co. 1979, pp. 35, 159
35. Gould, S. J., 1980, "Return of the Hopeful Monster," The Panda's Thumb, New York: W. W. Norton Co., pp. 186-193
36. http://www.blavatsky.net/features/newsletters/2005/fossil_record.htm
37. Stephen J. Gould, "The Paradox of the First Tier: An Agenda for Paleobiology," Paleobiology, 1985, p. 7
38. Niles Eldredge, "Progress in Evolution?," New Scientist, Vol. 110, 1986, p. 55
39. N. Eldredge and I. Tattersall, The Myths of Human Evolution, 1982, p. 48
40. Stephen J. Gould, "Cordelia's Dilemma," Natural History, 1993, p. 15
41. Kemp, Tom S., "A Fresh Look at the Fossil Record," New Scientist, Vol. 108, 1985, pp. 66-67
42. R. A. Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Oxford, Oxford Univesity Press, 1930
43. Ernst Mayr, Populations, Species, and Evolution, Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1970, p. 235
44. Lane Lester, Raymond Bohlin, The Natural Limits to Biological Change, Probe Books, Dallas, 1989, p. 141
45. M. E. Soulé and L. S. Mills, "Enhanced: No Need To Isolate Genetics," Science, 1998, Vol. 282, p. 165
46. R. L. Westemeier, J. D. Brawn, S. A. Simpson, T. L. Esker, R. W. Jansen, J. W. Walk, E. L. Kershner, J. L. Bouzat and K. N. Paige, "Tracking the Long-term Decline and Recovery of An Isolated Population," Science, 1998, Vol. 282, p. 1695
47. Valentine, J., and Erwin, D., "Interpreting Great Developmental Experiments: The Fossil Record," in Development as an Evolutionary Process, Rudolf A. Raff and Elizabeth C. Raff, Editors, New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1985, p. 96
48. http://www.dhushara.com/book/evol/evop.htm
49. Gould. S. J. and Eldredge. N., 1993, "Punctuated Equilibrium Comes of Age," Nature, 366, p. 223

THE COELACANTH SILENCED THE SPECULATION CONCERNING FOSSILS

THE COELACANTH SILENCED THE
SPECULATION CONCERNING FOSSILS

This coelacanth fossil, discovered in the Solnhofen Formation in Germany, is 145 million years old.

The coelacanth is a large fish some 1.5 meters long. Its entire body is covered with scales, reminiscent of armor plating. It belongs to the Osteoichthyes class of bony fishes, of which the earliest fossils date back to the Devonian Period, 360 to 408 million years ago.

Before 1938, coelacanth fossils were depicted as the solution to a major difficulty for evolutionists. They had not found the slightest trace of any of the millions or even billions of intermediate forms that supposedly must have existed. Evolutionists needed evidence to back up the supposed transition of vertebrates from the sea to dry land. For that reason, they took the fossil coelacanth, whose anatomy they believed was ideally suited to this scenario, and began using it for propaganda purposes. They interpreted the creature's fins as "feet about to walk," and a fossilized fat-filled swimbladder in its body as "a primitive lung." The coelacanth was literally a savior for evolutionists bedeviled by such a lack of evidence. Evolutionists had at last laid hands on "one" of the countless missing links that should have numbered in the millions.

The well known French evolutionist Dr. Jacques Millot, who spent years studying the coelacanth, described how many hid behind it as a lone piece of evidence:

One of the great problems of evolution has been to find anatomical links between the fishes and their land-invading descendants . . . For a long time evolutionists were troubled by this major gap between fishes and the amphibians. But the gap has now been bridged by studies of ancient fishes, and this is where the coelacanth comes in. 21

J. L. B. Smith, posing with the second coelacanth caught off the Comora Islands in 1952.

However, this evolutionist excitement was short-lived, when a living coelacanth specimen was captured by fishermen in 1938. This inflicted a terrible disappointment on evolutionists. James Leonard Brierley Smith, an instructor in the Rhodes University Chemistry Department and also honorary director of various fish museums on the South Coast of England, expressed his astonishment in the face of this captured coelacanth:

Although I had come prepared, that first sight hit me like a white-hot blast and made me feel shaky and queer, my body tingled. I stood as if striken to stone. Yes, there was not a shadow of doubt, scale by scale, bone by bone, fin by fin, it was true Coelacanth. 22

The discovery of this imaginary missing link, once believed to have close links to man's alleged ancestors, in the form of a living fossil, was a most significant disaster for Darwinist circles. The coelacanth, the greatest supposed proof of the theory of evolution, had suddenly been demolished. The most important potential candidate in the fictitious transition from the sea to dry land turned out to be an exceedingly complex life form still alive in deep waters and bearing no intermediate-form characteristics at all. This living specimen dealt a heavy blow to Darwin's theory of evolution.

When the fish was introduced to the press in the middle of March 1939, articles about it appeared in newspapers and magazines all over the world, from New York to Sri Lanka. Full-size illustrations of the creature were printed in the Illustrated London News. Alongside the picture was an article by Dr. E. I. White of the British Museum. Titled "One of the Most Amazing Events in the Realm of Natural History in the Twentieth Century," the article described the discovery as "sensational" and claimed that the discovery was as as surprising as the finding of a living example of the 2.5-meter-long Mesozoic dinosaur Diplodocus. 23

The picture above shows J. L. B. Smith, with a coelacanth caught alive. To the side are letters sent to Smith, from the East London Museum, on the subject and a notice he issued to other coelacanth hunters.

J. L. B. Smith conducted countless investigations into the coelacanth in the years that followed, devoting literally his entire life to it. He led research in various parts of the world in order to find a living coelacanth at the sea bottom and examine its internal organs in detail. (Since the first captured coelacanth was submitted to Smith only long after the event, it had been impossible to preserve its internal organs.)

A second coelacanth was found in later years. However, the fish died soon after being removed from the deep waters in which it lived and brought to the warm, shallow surface waters. Nonetheless it was still possible to examine its internal organs. The reality encountered by the investigating team, led by Dr. Jacques Millot, was very different to that which had been expected. Contrary to expectations, the fish's internal organs had no primitive features at all, and it bore no features of being an intermediate form, nor of a supposedly primitive ancestor. It had no primitive lung, as evolutionists had been claiming. The structure that evolutionist investigators imagined to be a primitive lung was actually a fat-filled swimbladder. 24

In addition, the fish, which had been portrayed as a precursor of reptiles, about to emerge onto dry land, was a bottom-dwelling animal, living in the depths of the ocean and never rising above 180 meters.25 Even raising it into shallow water led to its death. Therefore, according to Millot, this creature that should have represented the "missing link" they were searching for lacked all the primitive characteristics of a life form alleged to be undergoing a process of evolution.26 In other words, the fish was no intermediate form and had lived in the ocean depths with exactly the same complex features for the last 400 million years.

In an article published in Nature magazine, the evolutionist paleontologist Peter Forey said the following:

The discovery of Latimeria [the scientific name of the coelacanth] raised hopes of gathering direct information on the transition of fish to amphibians, for there was then a long-held belief that coelacanths were close to the ancestry of tetrapods. . . . But studies of the anatomy and physiology of Latimeria have found this theory of relationship to be wanting and the living coelacanth's reputation as a missing link seems unjustified. 27

The fossil pictured shows that the coelacanth's scales have been fossilized in considerable detail. To the side can be seen a coelacanth scale. Despite the passage of hundreds of millions of years, no change has taken place in the coelacanth's structure. A 240-million-year-old coelacanth fossil found in Madagascar. (Above left)

All the coelacanths subsequently encountered and studied in their natural habitats again confirmed this fact, and in an even more explicit manner. The idea that the creature had fins undergoing a process of change to enable it to walk was no more than a deception. As the German evolutionist and biologist Hans Fricke, from the Max Planck Institute, said, "I confess I'm sorry we never saw a coelacanth walk on its fins." 28

For Darwinists, the existence and numbers of living fossils was enough of a dilemma all by itself. But when the coelacanth—which they had depicted as an intermediate form and used as propaganda however they chose and portrayed as the "greatest proof of evolution"—turned out to be another living fossil, the problem facing them became a very great difficulty.

This state of affairs did away with all the theories developed by evolutionists regarding living fossils. Darwinists had claimed that in order for a life form to remain unchanged, it had to be "generalized." That is, in order to remain the same, a creature had to be able to live in any environment and feed in every possible way. But with the coelacanth, they were now faced with a highly complex and "specialized" species. The coelacanth lived in deep waters, in a specific environment, and had its own particular way of feeding. This meant that all these claims made by evolutionists were untrue.

How had this fish managed to withstand changes on the Earth during the course of its own history and thus remained unchanged? According to evolutionists, the continents had undergone changes some 250 million years ago—and thus should have had an effect on the coelacanth, which had already been in existence for 150 million years. Yet for some reason, and despite the changes to its environment, the animal exhibited no alterations at all.

Focus magazine described the position as follows:

According to the scientific facts, all the continents were joined together some 250 million years ago. This enormous area of land was surrounded by a single giant ocean. Around 125 million years ago, the Indian Ocean opened up as the result of continents changing places. The volcanic caves in the Indian Ocean, which form a large part of the coelacanth's natural habitat, came about under the influence of this movement of continents. An important truth emerges in the light of all these facts. These animals, which have been in existence for some 400 million years, have remained unchanged despite the many changes in their natural environment! 29

This state of affairs precludes any possibility of further debate and confirms that this fish has remained unchanged for millions of years—in other words, that it never evolved. In his book The Story of the Coelacanth, Prof. Keith S. Thomson has this to say on the subject:

Similarly, for instance, the oldest known Coelacanth (Diplocercides) possessed a rostral organ (the term used by zoologists to refer to the sac filled with a jelly-like substance in the skull, and the six tubes attached to it), a special skull articulation, a hollow spinal chord (notochord) and few teeth. In the same way that this shows that the group has remained almost unchanged since the Devonian Period (for 400 million years), it also reveals that there is a huge gap in the fossil record, since we lack the chain of ancestral fossils showing the emergence of all the common features observed in all coelacanths. 30

New Information Concerning the Coelacanth

Darwinists experienced a huge shock when a live coelacanth was captured, and were thus once again faced with the fact that their theory was an unscientific one.

The latest information concerning the coelacanth's complex structure continues to represent a problem for evolutionists. Professor Michael Bruton, director of the world-renowned South African JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology, says this about the complex characteristics of the coelacanth that have been discovered:

Birth is one of the complex features of this creature. Coelacanths bring their young into the world by giving birth to them. The eggs, the size of an orange, hatch inside the fish. The discovery has also been made that the young are fed thanks to an organ in the mother's body resembling a placenta. As well as providing the young with oxygen and food, the placenta is also a complex organ which removes wastes from respiration and digestion from the babies' bodies. Fossil embryos from the Carboniferous period (360-290 million years ago) show that this complex system existed long before mammals appeared.31

The discovery that the coelacanth is sensitive to electromagnetic currents around it indicates the presence of a complex sensory organ. Looking at the nerves that connect the fish's rostral organ to its brain, scientists agreed that this organ is responsible for detecting electromagnetic currents. The fact that this perfect organ is present in even the most ancient coelacanth fossils, together with its other complex structures, gives rise to a difficulty that evolutionists are unable to resolve.

The problem was described as follows in Focus magazine:

According to fossils, fish emerged some 470 million years ago. The coelacanth emerged 60 million years after that. It is astonishing that this creature, which would be expected to possess very primitive features, actually has a most complex structure. 32

For evolutionists expect a gradual evolutionary process. The appearance of the coelacanth with its complex structures, at a time when they expect fictitious primitive life forms to have existed, is of course astonishing. However, for rational people—able to comprehend that God has created all living things and their complex structures in the form and at the time of His choosing—there is nothing at all surprising about it. The flawless specimens created by God are all means whereby we can appreciate His might and power.

A coelacanth caught and frozen in 1966 provided new information about the animal's blood. Apart from the coelacanth, all bony fish (Osteichthyes) meet their water requirements by drinking sea water and expelling the excess salt from their bodies. The coelacanth's system, however, resembles that in cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), which include the shark. The shark converts the ammonia released as the result of the breaking down of proteins into urea, and maintains a level of urea in its bloodstream that would be lethal to human beings. It adjusts the level of these substances in its blood according to the salinity of the water around it. Since the blood assumes an isotonic level with the sea water around it (since the internal and external osmotic pressures are equalized, achieving the same intensity), no water is lost to the outside.

It was revealed that the coelacanth's liver possesses the enzymes necessary to manufacture urea. In other words, it has unique blood properties not found in any other members of its class and that emerged only tens of millions of years later in sharks—members of an entirely different classification.33 All this goes to show that the coelacanth, portrayed as the greatest link in the supposed evolution of living things, refutes all evolutionist claims, as do countless specimens still living today.

This example clearly demonstrates the kind of wide-ranging propaganda that evolutionists are capable of, based on a single fossil, and how they are able to disseminate that deception with no concrete evidence. Even after the capture of a living coelacanth, notice that they still did not abandon their claims, but continued looking in the living specimen for "a fin undergoing changes to permit walking." They found no evidence to the effect that the coelacanth, whose complex features clearly show it to have been created, was an intermediate form.

They sought to produce evidence against God, but He eliminated all their false proofs. What there is instead, is proof of an immaculate creation.

21. Jacques Millot, "The Coelacanth," Scientific American, Vol. 193, December 1955, p. 34
22. Samantha Weinberg, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search For the Coelacanth, Perennial Publishing, 2000, p. 20
23. Ibid., pp. 28-29-30
24. www.ksu.edu/fishecology/relict.htm
25. Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology Journal), November 1998, Vol. 372, p. 21; http://www.cnn.com/TECH/ Science /9809/23/living.fossil/index.html
26. Samantha Weinberg, A Fish Caught in Time: The Search For the Coelacanth, Perennial Publishing, 2000, p. 102
27. P. L. Forey, Nature, Vol. 336, 1988, p. 7
28. Hans Fricke, "Coelacanths: The Fish That Time Forgot," National Geographic, Vol. 173, No. 6, June 1988, p. 838
29. Focus, April 2003
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Ibid.