Fraudulent archaeoraptor fossil:
Origins: Evolution, The Grand Experiment (Part 3)
https://youtu.be/zOodn_l1tH8?list=PLrCQerz2L0Ifpe9QdbWBZ1ACbEa3kMO2g&t=1252
,,, 'little factories' for fake fossils???
“I have personally seen these composite fossils being constructed in workshops or little factories”,,, “In each workshop, there are bones on shelves like parts in factories.”
Why Is China the Leader in Feathered Dinosaur Fossils? - March 6, 2019 - Jerry Bergman
Excerpt: In 2003, evolutionary fossil bird expert Alan Feduccia, referring to the famous Archaeoraptor ‘feathered dinosaur’ fossil widely touted by the National Geographic that turned out to be a fake, stated that
"Archaeoraptor is just the tip of the iceberg. There are scores of fake fossils out there, and they have cast a dark shadow over the whole field. When you go to these fossil shows, it’s difficult to tell which ones are faked and which ones are not. I have heard that there is a fake-fossil factory in northeastern China, in Liaoning Province, near the deposits where many of these recent alleged feathered dinosaurs were found.[14]"
In 2010, paleontologist Jiang Da-yong observed that the “fake fossil problem has become very, very serious” in China. He concluded that “more than 80% of marine reptile specimens now on display in Chinese museums” may be faked or doctored.[15] In a review of his own collection, the curator of paleontology at one major museum “identified a dozen specimens … including a 15-meter-long ichthyosaur that was ‘totally fake.’”[16] The major problem of authentication is a difficult to solve because
"High-quality fossil forgeries can fool paleontologists just as easily as forgeries in the art community … Luis Chiappe, an early bird expert at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California, says that he will “always be skeptical of any specimen that is so neatly arranged, so well preserved in a single slab with little bone missing” [because some have been proven to be forgeries].[17]"
The motivation is often money. The Liaoning province economy has significantly benefited from the sale of fossils for the reason that
"local farmers—who vastly outnumber paleontologists—have become better and better at finding fossils and working with intermediaries and dealers to create composites that can be sold for higher prices. “We can’t blame the farmers for this … It’s money.” Creating composite fossils has become a small-scale industry in fossil-rich areas of China. “I have personally seen these composite fossils being constructed in workshops or little factories” across several counties in Gansu province, Deng says. “In each workshop, there are bones on shelves like parts in factories.”[18]"
https://crev.info/2019/03/why-is-china-the-leader-in-feathered-dinosaur-fossils/
Fossil and Genetic Evidence falsify your evolutionary theory? No problem just invent imaginary fossils that no one has ever discovered!
Fossils key to fulfilling Darwin's 160-year-old prediction - December 12, 2018
Excerpt: In an 1857 letter to Thomas Huxley, Darwin wrote "The time will come I believe when we shall have very fairly true genealogical trees of each great kingdom of nature.",,,
,,, a major problem is that analyses based on anatomical features often suggest quite different relationships than do analyses based on the genome.,,,
"For mammals, there are some quite major disagreements about how they are related to each other, depending on whether you use anatomical or genomic data. This has led some people to suggest that anatomy is fundamentally unreliable for working out the evolutionary relationships of mammals, and perhaps of other groups as well."
For example, molecular data indicates that rhinos are more closely related to hedgehogs than they are to elephants. The anatomical similarities between rhinos and elephants are the result of "convergent evolution".
Beck and Baillie's study shows that new fossil discoveries might be able to bridge the large anatomical "gap" between rhinos and hedgehogs and so help correctly determine their evolutionary relationships."
To test this, Beck and his co-author, Ph.D. student Charles Baillie, invented a new method where they first predicted the anatomical features of fossil ancestors that should have existed if the genome-based phylogeny is correct, and then investigated the effect of adding these predicted ancestors into anatomy-based analyses.
Beck added: "We were quite surprised to find that predicted ancestors led to the anatomical analyses matching the genomic phylogeny almost exactly. So, it doesn't look like there's anything inherently unreliable about anatomical data – in principle at least.
"It may just be a case of going out and finding enough fossils!"
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-fossils-key-fulfilling-darwin-year-old.html
Actually, instead of proof for evolution as they falsely believe, this is instead more proof that, when it comes to Darwinian evolution, we are in fact dealing with a unfalsifiable pseudoscience rather than a real science:
As prominent philosopher of science Imre Lakatos stated in his lecture entitled 'Science and Pseudoscience', “In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts”
Science and Pseudoscience (transcript) –
“In degenerating programmes, however, theories are fabricated only in order to accommodate known facts”
– Imre Lakatos (November 9, 1922 – February 2, 1974) a philosopher of mathematics and science, , quote as stated in 1973 LSE Scientific Method Lecture
http://www.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/science-and-pseudoscience-overview-and-transcript/
And another prominent philosopher of science of the 20th century, Thomas Kuhn, who introduced the term 'paradigm shift, noted that when faced with an anomaly, a theory's defenders "will devise numerous articulations and ad hoc modifications of their theory in order to eliminate any apparent conflict."
Inquiry-Based Science Education -- on Everything but Evolution - Sarah Chaffee - January 22, 2016
Excerpt: As Thomas Kuhn wrote in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, when faced with an anomaly, a theory's defenders "will devise numerous articulations and ad hoc modifications of their theory in order to eliminate any apparent conflict."
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2016/01/inquiry-based_s102534.html
Darwinists simply refuse to accept falsification of their theory by the scientific evidence and will resort to, if need be, as the opening article makes clear, inventing imaginary evidence in order to prevent their theory from ever being falsified.
Supplemental note:
Darwin’s Theory vs Falsification – video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rzw0JkuKuQ
And as Dr. Günter Bechly pointed out in the following article and videos, the fossil record is far more complete than Darwinists think:
Absolute measures of the completeness of the fossil record - 1999
Excerpt: we find that completeness (of the fossil record) is rather high for many animal groups.
Absolute measures of the completeness of the fossil record.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11536900
How complete is the current fossil record and what does that tell us about the theory of evolution? - video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCam4z1Ic9w&list=PLtAP1KN7ahiZ80ClsWz-IAmP_fWHpqWar&index=8
And at the 16:00 minute mark of the following video, Dr. Günter Bechly again points out that the fossil record is far more complete than Darwinists think:
Conflicting Evidence for Common Ancestry from the Fossil Record (Dr. Gunter Bechly) - video
https://youtu.be/rcyOIDIZum4?list=PLtAP1KN7ahiZ80ClsWz-IAmP_fWHpqWar&t=960
a few notes on the 'top down' fossil record:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tATBrfBdSX-HokFB2I9kOxZAXluKeVdrziMW2dloKs4/edit?usp=sharing
Günter Bechly video: Fossil Discontinuities: A Refutation of Darwinism and Confirmation of Intelligent Design - 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7w5QGqcnNs
The fossil record is dominated by abrupt appearances of new body plans and new groups of organisms. This conflicts with the gradualistic prediction of Darwinian Evolution. Here 18 explosive origins in the history of life are described, demonstrating that the famous Cambrian Explosion is far from being the exception to the rule. Also the fossil record establishes only very brief windows of time for the origin of complex new features, which creates an ubiquitous waiting time problem for the origin and fixation of the required coordinated mutations. This refutes the viability of the Neo-Darwinian evolutionary process as the single conceivable naturalistic or mechanistic explanation for biological origins, and thus confirms Intelligent Design as the only reasonable alternative.
Gunter Bechly Explains What The Fossil Evidence Really Says - video (2021)
16:49 minute mark - Dr. Bechly quotes many leading Darwinian paleontologists who also agree that the fossil record is severely discordant with Darwin's theory.
https://youtu.be/V15sjy7gtVM?t=1009
Fossil record: Leading paleontologists on the true state of the fossil record:
Tom Woodward - Fossils that embarrass evolution - Part 1 - starting at 9:00 minute mark - video
Tom Woodward - Fossils - Part 2 - video
Fish & Dinosaur Evolution vs. The Actual Evidence - video (17:30 minute mark and 22:40 minute mark)
https://youtu.be/yQNrQKVVMKw?t=1050
The Unknown Origin of Pterosaurs - video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP6htc371fM
Bird Evolution vs. The Actual Evidence - video (11:42 minute mark)
https://youtu.be/OZhtj06kmXY?t=704
Whale Evolution vs. The Actual Evidence – video - fraudulent fossils revealed (11:40 minute mark)
https://youtu.be/VSmO4nQ717U?t=699
Bat Evolution? - No Transitional Fossils!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUhOGTgW8q8
Bat Evolution? - No Transitional Fossils! - video
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/6003501/
Why Fossils Cannot Demonstrate Darwinian Evolution - William A. Dembski and Jonathan Wells – July 6, 2016
Excerpt: (1) Using the fossil evidence selectively. As in the case of therapsids, fossils more mammal-like can occur earlier in the fossil record than fossils that are less mammal-like. Yet to trace an evolutionary lineage on the basis of the fossil record requires that therapsids structurally more similar to mammals enter the history of life later than those that are structurally less similar. Evolution, after all, needs to follow time's arrow and cannot have offspring giving birth to parents.
A similar problem arises with geographical mismatches, in which fossil organisms that are supposedly next to each other in a structural progression are widely separated geographically. If the geographical separation is too great, how can one organism be ancestral to the other? Reproduction, after all, requires proximity -- parents do not give birth to offspring at the other side of the globe.
The problem of temporal and geographical mismatches is widespread. The Darwinist's way around this problem is to assume that organisms that appear to enter the fossil record too late or too far away actually entered earlier or closer together. But such assumptions are entirely ad hoc and ignore the actual fossil evidence.
This illustrates a larger problem -- what scientists call "cherry-picking." Given a sufficiently large data set, it's possible to find salient patterns simply by trying out enough different ways of combining items of data. Many structural progressions found in the fossil record are nothing more than "cherries" -- in other words, they are statistical artifacts that result from trying out enough different ways of combining fossil data. The sheer quantity of fossil data is immense. Simply by combining and recombining these data in enough different ways and by attending to sufficiently many distinct features of structural similarity, it is possible to generate reasonably long fossil progressions arranged by structural similarity.,,,
"If similar structures can evolve and re-evolve repeatedly, then fossils cannot distinguish convergence from common ancestry, and tracing evolutionary lineages in the fossil record becomes impossible." ,,,
According to Gee, we call new fossil discoveries missing links "as if the chain of ancestry and descent were a real object for our contemplation, and not what it really is: a completely human invention created after the fact, shaped to accord with human prejudices." He concluded: "To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story -- amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific."5
In short, fossils cannot demonstrate Darwinian evolution.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2016/07/why_fossils_can102974.html
Reappraising the “Crown Jewel” by Ashby L. Camp, J.D., M.Div.
Summary: The fossil evidence for the claim that reptiles evolved into mammals is weaker than many evolutionists will admit. The evolution story for the origin of mammals is: anapsids ª synapsids ª pelycosaurids ª therapsids ª cynodonts ª early mammals ª modern mammals. In no case do the fossils document the alleged transformation of one group into another. The evolutionist simply assumes descent from the order of appearance, and sometimes even assumes the order of appearance.
http://www.creationresearch.org/creation_matters/98/cm9809.html
More of Nature's Dusty Evolutionary Gems - podcast (debunking whale evolution, feathered dinosaurs, and Tiktaalik) - podcast
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-07-27T17_26_06-07_00
Intelligent Design's Scientific Merit in Paleontology: Opposing Views, Part 2 - podcast
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-11-07T17_09_22-08_00
Living Fossils - Dr. Carl Werner, part 1 of 2 | Origins - video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6LmWznY4Ys
here is another video interview with Dr. Carl Werner, that also shows just how bad the fossil record is for Darwinists.
Evolution Versus Fossils
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQNrQKVVMKw
This following video is interesting to Darwinian claims about the fossil record being incomplete. In the following video, from 15:05 minute mark to 19:15 minute mark, Phillip Johnson directly addresses that claim:
Phillip Johnson - "Gould and Eldridge were experts in an area where the fossil record is most complete, "marine invertebrates", and developed the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium in response to what they saw in the fossil record in that area of research. Whereas, interestingly, the greatest claim for transitional fossils, such as ape-men, comes primarily from the area where fossilization is rarest, from land animals - April 2012 - video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJDlBvbPSMA&feature=player_detailpage#t=903s
"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 conservatism. Change in the manner Darwin expected is just not found in the fossil record."
Niles Eldredge and Ian Tattersall, The Myth of Human Evolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 45-46.
"He [Darwin] prophesied that future generations of paleontologists would fill in these gaps by diligent search. ... One hundred and twenty years of paleontological research later, it has become abundantly clear that the fossil record will not confirm this part of Darwin's predictions. Nor is the problem a miserably poor record. The fossil record simply shows that this prediction was wrong."
NILES ELDREDGE, Columbia Univ., American Museum of Nat. Hist., - The Myths of Human Evolution, p.45-46
“A number of hominid crania are known from sites in eastern and southern Africa in the 400- to 200-thousand-year range, but none of them looks like a close antecedent of the anatomically distinctive Homo sapiens…Even allowing for the poor record we have of our close extinct kin, Homo sapiens appears as distinctive and unprecedented…there is certainly no evidence to support the notion that we gradually became who we inherently are over an extended period, in either the physical or the intellectual sense.”
Dr. Ian Tattersall: – paleoanthropologist – emeritus curator of the American Museum of Natural History – (Masters of the Planet, 2012)
“No fossil is buried with its birth certificate. That, and the scarcity of fossils, means that it is effectively impossible to link fossils into chains of cause and effect in any valid way… To take a line of fossils and claim that they represent a lineage is not a scientific hypothesis that can be tested, but an assertion that carries the same validity as a bedtime story—amusing, perhaps even instructive, but not scientific.”
Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time: Beyond the Fossil Record to a New History of Life
Here are the three articles written by David Berlinski in which Nick Matzke, a dogmatic Darwinist, gets his intellectual clock cleaned on the Cambrian Explosion:
A Graduate Student (Nick Matzke) Writes – David Berlinski July 9, 2013
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/07/a_graduate_stud074221.html
A One-Man Clade – David Berlinski – July 18, 2013
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/07/a_one_man_clade074601.html
Hopeless Matzke -David Berlinski & Tyler Hampton August 18, 2013
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/08/hopeless_matzke075631.html
Podcast - "David Berlinski on Cladistics and Darwin’s Doubt, pt. 1"
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-15T17_19_45-08_00
Podcast - David Berlinski on Cladistics and Darwin's Doubt, pt. 2
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2014-01-17T16_40_58-08_00
Here are some quotes by leading paleontologists on the true state of the fossil record:
“It is hard for us paleontologists, steeped as we are in a tradition of Darwinian analysis, to admit that neo-Darwinian explanations for the Cambrian explosion have failed miserably. New data acquired in recent years, instead of solving Darwin’s dilemma, have rather made it worse. Meyer describes the dimensions of the problem with clarity and precision. His book, (‘Darwin’s Doubt’), is a game changer for the study of evolution and points us in the right direction as we seek a new theory for the origin of animals.”
-Dr. Mark McMenamin - 2013
Paleontologist at Mt. Holyoke College and author of The Emergence of Animals
“The Cambrian Explosion occurred in a geological moment, and we have reason to think that all major anatomical designs may have made their evolutionary appearance at that time. …not only the phylum Chordata itself, but also all its major divisions, arose within the Cambrian Explosion…. Contrary to Darwin’s expectation that new data would reveal gradualistic continuity with slow and steady expansion, all major discoveries of the past century have only heightened the massiveness and geological abruptness of this formative event…”
(Gould, Nature, Vol.377, 26 10/95, p.682).
“Almost all currently existing Metazoan phyla emerged during a relatively short Cambrian period around 510–550 million years ago (Cambrian Explosion) (reviewed in refs. 1 and 2). In previous periods paleontologists find diverse fauna of unicellular organisms and spongi. Shortly before Cambrian period some Cnidarian and Ediacaran fauna was found, but no other Metazoa. The appearance in evolution of the entire Metazoan fauna seems to have been very sudden. Interestingly, even in early Cambrian layers, in addition to primitive representatives of various phyla, more advanced forms, including relatively complex Crustaceae were discovered.3 Based on these data it was suggested that diversification of Metazoa started way before Cambrian period, however this suggestion appeals to existence of effectively unfossilizable forms, making these types of organism paleontologically “invisible”. This idea is supported by reports of putative trace fossils (e.g., tracks or burrows) dating to pre-Cambrian era. These claims, however, raise a question why fossilizable forms of various phyla appeared almost simultaneously, and were generally refuted, as discussed in recent review (ref. 2). Therefore, it appears that there was no sequential appearance of the major Metazoan taxons from simpler to more complex phyla, as would be predicted by the classical evolutionary model.”
Shermer, M. – Universal genome in the origin of metazoa: thoughts about evolution. Cell Cycle. 2007 Aug 1;6(15):1873-7
“If we were to expect to find ancestors to or intermediates between higher taxa, it would be the rocks of the late Precambrian to Ordivician times, when the bulk of the world’s higher animal taxa evolved. Yet traditional alliances are unknown or unconfirmed for any of the phyla or classes appearing then.”
(Valentine, Development As An Evolutionary Process, p.84, 1987)
The Ham-Nye Creation Debate: A Huge Missed Opportunity - Casey Luskin - February 4, 2014
Excerpt: "The record of the first appearance of living phyla, classes, and orders can best be described in Wright's (1) term as 'from the top down'."
(James W. Valentine, "Late Precambrian bilaterians: Grades and clades," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 91: 6751-6757 (July 1994).)
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/02/the_ham-nye_deb081911.html
“Darwin had a lot of trouble with the fossil record because if you look at the record of phyla in the rocks as fossils why when they first appear we already see them all. The phyla are fully formed. It’s as if the phyla were created first and they were modified into classes and we see that the number of classes peak later than the number of phyla and the number of orders peak later than that. So it’s kind of a top down succession, you start with this basic body plans, the phyla, and you diversify them into classes, the major sub-divisions of the phyla, and these into orders and so on. So the fossil record is kind of backwards from what you would expect from in that sense from what you would expect from Darwin’s ideas."
James W. Valentine - as quoted from "On the Origin of Phyla: Interviews with James W. Valentine" - (as stated at 1:16:36 mark of video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtdFJXfvlm8
The unscientific hegemony of uniformitarianism - David Tyler - May 2011
Excerpt: The pervasive pattern of natural history: disparity precedes diversity,,,, The summary of results for phyla is as follows. The pattern reinforces earlier research that concluded the Explosion is not an artifact of sampling. Much the same finding applies to the appearance of classes. These data are presented in Figures 1 and 2 in the paper.
http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2011/05/16/the_unscientific_hegemony_of_uniformitar
Challenging Fossil of a Little Fish
"In Chen’s view, his evidence supports a history of life that runs opposite to the standard evolutionary tree diagrams, a progression he calls top-down evolution."
Jun-Yuan Chen is professor at the Nanjing Institute of Paleontology and Geology
http://www.fredheeren.com/boston.htm
In Explaining the Cambrian Explosion, Has the TalkOrigins Archive Resolved Darwin's Dilemma? - JonathanM - May 2012
Excerpt: it is the pattern of morphological disparity preceding diversity that is fundamentally at odds with the neo-Darwinian scenario of gradualism. All of the major differences (i.e. the higher taxonomic categories such as phyla) appear first in the fossil record and then the lesser taxonomic categories such as classes, orders, families, genera and species appear later. On the Darwinian view, one would expect to see all of the major differences in body plan appear only after numerous small-scale speciation events. But this is not what we observe.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/05/has_the_talk-or059171.html
"The facts of greatest general importance are the following. When a new phylum, class, or order appears, there follows a quick, explosive (in terms of geological time) diversification so that practically all orders or families known appear suddenly and without any apparent transitions. Afterwards, a slow evolution follows; this frequently has the appearance of a gradual change, step by step, though down to the generic level abrupt major steps without transitions occur. At the end of such a series, a kind of evolutionary running-wild frequently is observed. Giant forms appear, and odd or pathological types of different kinds precede the extinction of such a line."
Richard B. Goldschmidt, “Evolution, as Viewed by One Geneticist,” American Scientist 40 (January 1952), 97.
As Roger Lewin (1988) explains in Science,
"Several possible patterns exist for the establishment of higher taxa, the two most obvious of which are the bottom-up and the top-down approaches. In the first, evolutionary novelties emerge, bit by bit. The Cambrian explosion appears to conform to the second pattern, the top-down effect."
Erwin et al. (1987), in their study of marine invertebrates, similarly conclude that,
"The fossil record suggests that the major pulse of diversification of phyla occurs before that of classes, classes before that of orders, orders before that of families. The higher taxa do not seem to have diverged through an accumulation of lower taxa."
Indeed, the existence of numerous small and soft-bodied animals in the Precambrian strata undermines one of the most popular responses that these missing transitions can be accounted for by them being too small and too-soft bodied to be preserved.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/12/jerry_coynes_c067021.html
Scientific study turns understanding about evolution on its head - July 30, 2013
Excerpt: evolutionary biologists,,, looked at nearly one hundred fossil groups to test the notion that it takes groups of animals many millions of years to reach their maximum diversity of form.
Contrary to popular belief, not all animal groups continued to evolve fundamentally new morphologies through time. The majority actually achieved their greatest diversity of form (disparity) relatively early in their histories.
,,,Dr Matthew Wills said: "This pattern, known as 'early high disparity', turns the traditional V-shaped cone model of evolution on its head. What is equally surprising in our findings is that groups of animals are likely to show early-high disparity regardless of when they originated over the last half a billion years. This isn't a phenomenon particularly associated with the first radiation of animals (in the Cambrian Explosion), or periods in the immediate wake of mass extinctions.",,,
Author Martin Hughes, continued: "Our work implies that there must be constraints on the range of forms within animal groups, and that these limits are often hit relatively early on.
Co-author Dr Sylvain Gerber, added: "A key question now is what prevents groups from generating fundamentally new forms later on in their evolution.,,,”
http://phys.org/news/2013-07-scientific-evolution.html
Problem 5: Abrupt Appearance of Species in the Fossil Record Does Not Support Darwinian Evolution - Casey Luskin January 29, 2015
Excerpt: Rather than showing gradual Darwinian evolution, the history of life shows a pattern of explosions where new fossil forms come into existence without clear evolutionary precursors. Evolutionary anthropologist Jeffrey Schwartz summarizes the problem:
"We are still in the dark about the origin of most major groups of organisms. They appear in the fossil record as Athena did from the head of Zeus -- full-blown and raring to go, in contradiction to Darwin's depiction of evolution as resulting from the gradual accumulation of countless infinitesimally minute variations. . ."98
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2015/01/problem_5_abrup091141.html
“With the benefit of hindsight, it is amazing that paleontologists could have accepted gradual evolution as a universal pattern on the basis of a handful of supposedly well-documented lineages (e.g. Gryphaea, Micraster, Zaphrentis) none of which actually withstands close scrutiny."
Christopher R.C. Paul, “Patterns of Evolution and Extinction in Invertebrates,” K.C. Allen and D.E.G. Briggs, eds., Evolution and the Fossil Record (Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 105.
"It must be significant that nearly all the evolutionary stories I learned as a student from Trueman's Ostrea/Gryphaea to Carruthers' Zaphrentis delanouei, have now been 'debunked'. Similarly, my own experience of more than twenty years looking for evolutionary lineages among the Mesozoic Brachiopoda has proved them equally elusive.'
Dr. Derek V. Ager (Department of Geology & Oceonography, University College, Swansea, UK), 'The nature of the fossil record'. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, vol.87(2), 1976,p.132.
"The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders or of species, we find' over and over again' not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another."
Paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, “The Nature of the Fossil Record,” 87 Proceedings of the British Geological Association 87 (1976): 133. (Department of Geology & Oceanography, University College, Swansea, UK)
“It is a feature of the known fossil record that most taxa appear abruptly. They are not, as a rule, led up to by a sequence of almost imperceptibly changing forerunners such as Darwin believed should be usual in evolution…This phenomenon becomes more universal and more intense as the hierarchy of categories is ascended. Gaps among known species are sporadic and often small. Gaps among known orders, classes and phyla are systematic and almost always large.”
G.G.Simpson - one of the most influential American Paleontologist of the 20th century
"A major problem in proving the theory has been the fossil record; the imprints of vanished species preserved in the Earth's geological formations. This record has never revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variants - instead species appear and disappear abruptly, and this anomaly has fueled the creationist argument that each species was created by God."
Paleontologist, Mark Czarnecki
http://www.mcleanbible.org/uploads/Genesispt3.pdf
"There is no need to apologize any longer for the poverty of the fossil record. In some ways, it has become almost unmanageably rich and discovery is outpacing integration. The fossil record nevertheless continues to be composed mainly of gaps."
T. Neville George - Professor of paleontology - Glasgow University,
"Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them."
David Kitts - Paleontologist - D.B. Kitts, Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory (1974), p. 467.
"The long-term stasis, following a geologically abrupt origin, of most fossil morphospecies, has always been recognized by professional paleontologists" –
Stephen Jay Gould - Harvard
"The sweep of anatomical diversity reached a maximum right after the initial diversification of multicellular animals. The later history of life proceeded by elimination not expansion."
Stephen J. Gould, Harvard, Wonderful Life, 1989, p.46
Given the fact of evolution, one would expect the fossils to document gradual steady change from ancestral forms to the descendants. But this is not what the paleontologist finds. Instead, he or she finds gaps in just about every phyletic series. New types often appear quite suddenly, and their intermediate ancestors are absent in the earlier geologic strata. The discovery of unbroken series of species changing gradually into descending species is very rare. Indeed the fossil record is one of discontinuities, seemingly documenting jumps (saltations) from one type of organism to a different type. This raises a puzzling question: Why does the fossil record fail to reflect the gradual change one would expect from evolution?
Ernst Mayr, What Evolution Is (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 14 - Professor Emeritus, Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University
"What is missing are the many intermediate forms hypothesized by Darwin, and the continual divergence of major lineages into the morphospace between distinct adaptive types."
Robert L Carroll (born 1938) - vertebrate paleontologist who specialises in Paleozoic and Mesozoic amphibians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Carroll
"Now, after over 120 years of the most extensive and painstaking geological exploration of every continent and ocean bottom, the picture is infinitely more vivid and complete than it was in 1859. Formations have been discovered containing hundreds of billions of fossils and our museums now are filled with over 100 million fossils of 250,000 different species. The availability of this profusion of hard scientific data should permit objective investigators to determine if Darwin was on the right track. What is the picture which the fossils have given us? ... The gaps between major groups of organisms have been growing even wider and more undeniable. They can no longer be ignored or rationalized away with appeals to imperfection of the fossil record."
Luther D. Sunderland, Darwin's Enigma 1988, Fossils and Other Problems, 4th edition, Master Books, p. 9
"The evidence we find in the geological record is not nearly as compatible with Darwinian natural selection as we would like it to be .... We now have a quarter of a million fossil species but the situation hasn't changed much. The record of evolution is surprisingly jerky and, ironically, we have even fewer examples of evolutionary transition than in Darwin's time ... so Darwin's problem has not been alleviated".
David Raup, Curator of Geology at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History
“Instead of finding the gradual unfolding of life, what geologists of Darwin’s time, and geologists of the present day actually find is a highly uneven or jerky record; that is, species appear in the sequence very suddenly, show little or no change during their existence in the record, then abruptly go out of the record. and it is not always clear, in fact it’s rarely clear, that the descendants were actually better adapted than their predecessors. In other words, biological improvement is hard to find.”
David M. Raup, “Conflicts Between Darwin and Paleontology,” Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin, 50 (January 1979): 23, 22-29.
"In virtually all cases a new taxon appears for the first time in the fossil record with most definitive features already present, and practically no known stem-group forms."
Tom S. Kemp, Fossils and Evolution (New York; Oxford University Press, 1999), 246. - Curator of Zoological Collections
"Every paleontologist knows that most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories above the level of family appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences.”
George Gaylord Simpson (evolutionist), The Major Features of Evolution, New York, Columbia University Press, 1953 p. 360.
“The record certainly did not reveal gradual transformations of structure in the course of time. On the contrary, it showed that species generally remained constant throughout their history and were replaced quite suddenly by significantly different forms. New types or classes seemed to appear fully formed, with no sign of an evolutionary trend by which they could have emerged from an earlier type.”
Peter Bowler, Evolution: The History of an Idea (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1984), 187.
"No wonder paleontologists shied away from evolution for so long. It seems never to happen. Assiduous collecting up cliff faces yields zigzags, minor oscillations, and the very occasional slight accumulation of change over millions of years, at a rate too slow to really account for all the prodigious change that has occurred in evolutionary history. When we do see the introduction of evolutionary novelty, it usually shows up with a bang, and often with no firm evidence that the organisms did not evolve elsewhere! Evolution cannot forever be going on someplace else. Yet that's how the fossil record has struck many a forlorn paleontologist looking to learn something about evolution." -
Niles Eldredge , "Reinventing Darwin: The Great Evolutionary Debate," 1996, p.95
"Enthusiastic paleontologists in several countries have claimed pieces of this missing record, but the claims have all been disputed and in any case do not provide real connections. That brings me to the second most surprising feature of the fossil record...the abruptness of some of the major changes in the history of life."
Ager, D. - Author of "The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record"-1981
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology."
Stephen Jay Gould
"The lack of ancestral or intermediate forms between fossil species is not a bizarre peculiarity of early metazoan history. Gaps are general and prevalent throughout the fossil record."
R.A. Raff and T.C. Kaufman, Embryos, Genes, and Evolution: The Developmental-Genetic Basis of Evolutionary Change (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1991), 34.
"Species [in the strata of the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming] that were once thought to have turned into others have been found to overlap in time with these alleged descendants. In fact, the fossil record does not convincingly document a single transition from one species to another."
Steven M. Stanley, The New Evolutionary Timetable: Fossils, Genes, and the Origin of Species (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 95.
"The fossil record itself provided no documentation of continuity – of gradual transition from one animal or plant to another of quite different form."
Steven M. Stanley, The New Evolutionary Timetable: Fossils, Genes, and the Origin of Species (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 40.
"No one has found any such in-between creatures. This was long chalked up to ‘gaps’ in the fossil records, gaps that proponents of gradualism confidently expected to fill in someday when rock strata of the proper antiquity were eventually located. But all the fossil evidence to date has failed to turn up any such missing links . . . There is a growing conviction among many scientists that these transitional forms never existed."
Niles Eldredge, quoted in George Alexander, “Alternate Theory of Evolution Considered,” Los Angeles Times, November 19, 1978.
"Gradualism, the idea that all change must be smooth, slow, and steady, was never read from the rocks."
Stephen Jay Gould, “An Early Start,” Natural History 87, February 1978): 24.
"Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin’s authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people [i.e., Eldredge] are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a paleontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least ‘show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.’ I will lay it on the line – there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument."
Colin Patterson to Luther Sunderland, April 10, 1979, quoted in Luther .D. Sunderland, Darwin’s Enigma: Fossils and Other Problems, 4th ed. (El Cajon, CA: Master Book Publishers, 1988), 89.
Tom Bethell's Rebuke to Fellow Journalists: A Skeptical Look at Evolution Is Not Beyond Your Powers - January 31, 2017
Excerpt: "Colin Patterson told me that he was looking for cases where the actual common ancestor of two given species was identified in the diagram on display. These would be at the "nodes" in the tree of life. But all the nodes shown in the museum were vacant. Patterson told me that as far as he could see, nodes are always empty in diagrams of the tree of life.,,,"
- Tom Bethel
Experimentation shows that organisms "evolve" -- only to revert to a mean, a predictable "Reversion to the Average," as famed breeder Luther Burbank put it. Species "inhabit 'plateaus' of limited space upon which variants are free to roam," says Bethell. Artificial selection, beloved by Darwin, can "push" varieties around the plateau, nothing more.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2017/01/tom_bethells_re103461.html
crev.info has a article up on the recent media hype over the supposed earliest mammal ancestor:
Meet Your Evolutionary Propagandists – February 11, 2013
Excerpt: Although Yoder bluffed that “The fossil record has always lent veracity to the classical account,” she then undermined it with some important questions:
“Why did virtually all placental groups—such as primates, bats, ungulates, and whales—appear so abruptly in the fossil record? Where are the transitional forms that must link the diminutive insectivores of the Mesozoic to today’s multitude of mammals?”
http://crev.info/2013/02/meet-your-evolutionary-propagandists/
Donald Prothero: In evolution, stasis was general, gradualism rare, and that’s the consensus 40 years on - February 2012
Excerpt: In four of the biggest climatic-vegetational events of the last 50 million years, the mammals and birds show no noticeable change in response to changing climates. No matter how many presentations I give where I show these data, no one (including myself) has a good explanation yet for such widespread stasis despite the obvious selective pressures of changing climate. Rather than answers, we have more questions—
Donald Prothero - American paleontologist, geologist, and author who specializes in mammalian paleontology.
Darwin’s Legacy by Donald R. Prothero - Feb. 2012
Excerpt: For the first decade after the paper was published, it was the most controversial and hotly argued idea in all of paleontology. Soon the great debate among paleontologists boiled down to just a few central points, which Gould and Eldredge (1977) nicely summarized on the fifth anniversary of the paper’s release. The first major discovery was that stasis was much more prevalent in the fossil record than had been previously supposed. Many paleontologists came forward and pointed out that the geological literature was one vast monument to stasis, with relatively few cases where anyone had observed gradual evolution. If species didn’t appear suddenly in the fossil record and remain relatively unchanged, then biostratigraphy would never work—and yet almost two centuries of successful biostratigraphic correlations was evidence of just this kind of pattern. As Gould put it, it was the “dirty little secret” hidden in the paleontological closet. Most paleontologists were trained to focus on gradual evolution as the only pattern of interest, and ignored stasis as “not evolutionary change” and therefore uninteresting, to be overlooked or minimized. Once Eldredge and Gould had pointed out that stasis was equally important (“stasis is data” in Gould’s words), paleontologists all over the world saw that stasis was the general pattern, and that gradualism was rare—and that is still the consensus 40 years later.
Donald Prothero - American paleontologist, geologist, and author who specializes in mammalian paleontology.
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-02-15/#feature
"At the core of punctuated equilibria lies an empirical observation: once evolved, species tend to remain remarkably stable, recognizable entities for millions of years. The observation is by no means new, nearly every paleontologist who reviewed Darwin’s Origin of Species pointed to his evasion of this salient feature of the fossil record. But stasis was conveniently dropped as a feature of life’s history to be reckoned with in evolutionary biology. And stasis had continued to be ignored until Gould and I showed that such stability is a real aspect of life’s history which must be confronted – and that, in fact, it posed no fundamental threat to the basic notion of evolution itself. For that was Darwin’s problem: to establish the plausibility of the very idea of evolution, Darwin felt that he had to undermine the older (and ultimately biblically based) doctrine of species fixity. Stasis, to Darwin, was an ugly inconvenience."
Niles Eldredge, Time Frames: The Rethinking of Darwinian Evolution and the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985), 188-89.
Moreover, it has been found that a change in environment leads to extinction of species and not to the origination of new species as Darwinists presuppose:
New Species, Darwin Wrong Again - June 28, 2013
Excerpt: By examining the fossil records of 19 Cenozoic terrestrial mammal clades, Quental and Marshall discovered extinction rates exceeding the formation rates of new species. Fossil record evidence demonstrates that the rate of extinction far exceeds the formation of new species.
,,, The investigators found no evidence for the emergence of any new species.
These fossil record findings undermine Darwin’s theory that changing environments are a driving force of evolution:
“under changing conditions of life, there is no logical impossibility in the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection through natural selection.”
Rather than acquiring “any degree of perfection” in the wake of environmental changes, the effect increased the rate of extinction, not speciation.
,,,When species are challenged by changing environments, rather than adapting, the pendulum swings in favor of destruction−extinction rather than “the acquirement of any conceivable degree of perfection.” Darwin’s natural selection pendulum favors extinction, not the formation of new species.
http://www.darwinthenandnow.com/2013/06/new-species-darwin-wrong-again/
Tar Pit Study Shows Complete Absence of Evolutionary Change - Douglas Axe - October 16, 2012
Excerpt: [T]he data show that birds and mammals at Rancho La Brea show complete stasis and were unresponsive to the major climate change that occurred at 20 ka, consistent with other studies of Pleistocene animals and plants. Most explanations for such stasis (stabilizing selection, canalization) fail in this setting where climate is changing. One possible explanation is that most large birds and mammals are very broadly adapted and relatively insensitive to changes in their environments, although even the small mammals of the Pleistocene show stasis during climate change, too.
- Donald Prothero and colleagues
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/10/tar_pit_study_s065321.html
Stasis in Pleistocene mammals and birds - Oct. 26, 2012 - David Tyler
Excerpt: "After six years of work and publication, the conclusion is clear: none of the common Ice Age mammals and birds responded to any of the climate changes at La Brea in the last 35,000 years, even though the region went from dry chaparral to snowy pinon-juniper forests during the peak glacial 20,000 years ago, and then back to the modern chaparral again." ,,,
"In four of the biggest climatic-vegetational events of the last 50 million years, the mammals and birds show no noticeable change in response to changing climates. No matter how many presentations I give where I show these data, no one (including myself) has a good explanation yet for such widespread stasis despite the obvious selective pressures of changing climate. ,,,
"Such stasis, along with the examples documented from nearly all other Pleistocene mammals and birds, argues that organisms are not as responsive to environmental change as classical neo-Darwinian theory predicts."
http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2012/10/26/stasis_in_pleistocene_mammals_and_birds
"Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined? But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth? But in the intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now find closely-linking intermediate varieties?"
Charles Darwin - Origin Of Species
"The history of most fossil species includes two features inconsistent with gradualism:. Statis. Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear…. Sudden Appearance. In any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and 'fully formed'.
Stephen Jay Gould, - Evolution's Erratic Pace - 1977
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.
Stephen Jay Gould 'Evolution's erratic pace'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI95), May 1977, p.14.
"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."
Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), 'Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?' Paleobiology, vol.6(1), January 1980,p. 127.
Gould on Imposing Your Theory on the Data - March 22, 2015
Excerpt: "Paleontologists therefore came to view stasis as just another failure to document evolution. Stasis existed in overwhelming abundance, as every paleontologist always knew. But this primary signal of the fossil record, defined as an absence of data for evolution, only highlighted our frustration – and certainly did not represent anything worth publishing. Paleontology therefore fell into a literally absurd vicious circle. No one ventured to document or quantify – indeed, hardly anyone even bothered to mention or publish at all – the most common pattern in the fossil record: the stasis of most morpho-species throughout their geological duration. All paleontologists recognized the phenomenon, but few scientists write papers about failure to document a desired result. As a consequence, most nonpaleontologists never learned about the predominance of stasis, and simply assumed that gradualism must prevail, as illustrated by the exceedingly few cases that became textbook “classics”: the coiling of *Gryphae*, the increasing body size of horses, etc. (Interestingly, nearly all these “classics” have since been disproved, thus providing another testimony for the temporary triumph of hope and expectation over evidence – see Gould, 1972.) Thus, when punctuated equilibrium finally granted theoretical space and importance to stasis, and this fundamental phenomenon finally emerged from the closet, nonpaleontologists were often astounded and incredulous."
http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/gould/
“The Eldredge-Gould concept of punctuated equilibria has gained wide acceptance among paleontologists. It attempts to account for the following paradox: Within continuously sampled lineages, one rarely finds the gradual morphological trends predicted by Darwinian evolution; rather, change occurs with the sudden appearance of new, well-differentiated species. Eldredge and Gould equate such appearances with speciation, although the details of these events are not preserved . . . The punctuated equilibrium model has been widely accepted, not because it has a compelling theoretical basis but because it appears to resolve a dilemma. Apart from the obvious sampling problems inherent to the observations that stimulated the model, and apart from its intrinsic circularity (one could argue that speciation can occur only when phyletic change is rapid, not vice versa), the model is more ad hoc explanation than theory, and it rests on shaky ground.”
Robert E. Ricklefs, “Paleontologists Confronting Macroevolution, review of Patterns of Evolution as Illustrated by the Fossil Record, ed. A. Hallam, Science 199 (January 6, 1978): 59.
Many more Quotes by Stephen J Gould are here
http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/gradualism-the-darwinist-article-of-faith/
"Many species remain virtually unchanged for millions of years, then suddenly disappear to be replaced by a quite different, but related, form. Moreover, most major groups of animals appear abruptly in the fossil record, fully formed, and with no fossils yet discovered that form a transition from their parent group."
(C.P. Hickman, L.S. Roberts, and F.M. Hickman, Integrated Principles of Zoology, p. 866 (1988, 8th ed.).
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2010/10/biologoss_fossil_record_page_c039831.html
Sir Peter Crane "no slow and gradual evolution" - The Royal Society - punctuated equilibrium - video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jid14mDI4s0
Sir Peter Crane - co-curator,,, His own research interests involve the integration of studies of living and fossil plants, in order to understand large-scale patterns and processes of plant evolution.,,,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Crane
"One of the reasons I started taking this anti-evolutionary view, was ... it struck me that I had been working on this stuff for twenty years and there was not one thing I knew about it. That's quite a shock to learn that one can be so misled so long. ...so for the last few weeks I've tried putting a simple question to various people and groups of people. Question is: Can you tell me anything you know about evolution, any one thing that is true? I tried that question on the geology staff at the Field Museum of Natural History and the only answer I got was silence. I tried it on the members of the Evolutionary Morphology Seminar in the University of Chicago, a very prestigious body of evolutionists, and all I got there was silence for a long time and eventually one person said, 'I do know one thing -- it ought not to be taught in high school'."
Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Paleontologist, British Museum of Natural History, London Keynote address at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City
Stasis: Melanin in squid ink unchanged since Jurassic times - May 2012
Excerpt: in an extremely rare case of being able to study organic material that is hundreds of millions of years old — suggests that the ink-screen escape mechanism of cephalopods — cuttlefish, squid and octopuses — has not evolved since the Jurassic period,
http://www.uncommondescent.com/stasis/stasis-melanin-in-squid-ink-unchanged-since-jurassic-times/
A review of The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe
Excerpt: So Michael Behe comes to the grand conclusion to his survey: ‘Somewhere between the level of vertebrate species and class lies the organismal edge of Darwinian evolution’ (p. 201). A diagram illustrates this (p. 218), which he reproduces on the page facing the title page of the book (figure 2).
Interestingly, the creationist study of baraminology (defining the limits of the original created kinds, or baramins, of Genesis 1) has arrived at conclusions consistent with Behe’s proposition, using a different approach based on hybridization criteria, where possible, combined with morphology, etc.4 In fact, in 1976 creationist biologist Frank Marsh proposed that the created kinds (baramins) were often at the level of genus or family, although sometimes at the level of order.
http://creation.com/review-michael-behe-edge-of-evolution
How to Fill In Missing Fossils: Imagine Them – Quote from author of article; “If you visualize evolutionary relationships in the form of branching diagrams and then plot them on a time scale, new patterns begin to emerge, with gaps in the fossil record suddenly filling rapidly.”
http://www.creationsafaris.com/crev201105.htm#20110509a
The earliest pterobranch reveals stasis
Excerpt: "Galeaplumosus abilus demonstrates stasis in pterobranch morphology, mode of coenecium construction, and probable feeding mechanism over 525 million years."
http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2011/04/18/the_earliest_pterobranch_reveals_stasis
Ancient, bottom-dwelling critter proves: Newer isn't always better - September 7, 2012
Excerpt: The rhabdopleurids have survived for more than supposedly 500 million years, and have “…pretty much stayed the same over the course of history …and are still around today….” No evidence of evolution here…
http://phys.org/news/2012-09-ancient-bottom-dwelling-critter-isnt.html#jCp
Live birth pushed back by 60 million years?
Excerpt: This research therefore reveals the oldest known fossil amniote embryos from the Paleozoic (543 to 250 million years BP) and the first examples of embryo retention (and perhaps viviparity), pushing back this reproductive mechanism by some 60 million years.
http://www.uncommondescent.com/evolution/live-birth-pushed-back-by-60-million-years/
Turning an Unevolved Horseshoe Crab Into a Darwin Showpiece - January, 2012
Excerpt: Horseshoe crabs are survivors by anyone’s measure; they have carried on their lives virtually unchanged, according to the standard evolutionary timeline, for 450 million years. This not only points to incredible stasis against alleged forces of evolution; it also means they have survived at least three global extinctions that evolutionary biologists and geologists say wiped out most other species.
http://crev.info/2012/01/turning-an-unevolved-horseshoe-crab-into-a-darwin-showpiece/
“Still Capable of Adapting: Genetic Diversity of ‘Living Fossil’ Coelacanths” (ScienceDaily, June 14, 2012),
Picture - The coelacanth, a 400-million-year-old fish, represents an impasse for the theory of evolution. This fish has not undergone any changes in 400 million years. The fact that it has preserved its earliest physiological structures over this length of time—despite continental shifts, climate changes and changes in environmental conditions—baffles evolutionists.,,,
http://thefactofcreation.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/living-fossils-sf0024-25-coelacanth.html
Coelacanth Fish Genome Undermines Evolution Industry - 2013
http://www.darwinthenandnow.com/2013/04/coelacanth-fish-genome-undermines-evolution-industry/
Angolan Witch Spider, Giant Spider Found In Texas Is A Hoax… - March 24, 2013
Excerpt: Most spiders possess what are called “book lungs“, which are completely unrelated to what we normally call lungs, and developed independently. And from fossil evidence, we can determine that these structures have remained more or less unchanged throughout the past 400 million years because of how effective they are. There are downsides/limits to them though, with relation to lungs as we know them. As body size increases in relation to gas molecule size, they become less effective. This means that as animals with these structures get bigger they become less and less effective at “breathing”, which places limits on their maximum size.
http://planetsave.com/2013/03/24/angolan-witch-spider-giant-spider-found-in-texas-is-a-hoax/
Strange Phallus-Shaped Creature Pushes Fossil Record Back 200 Million Years - Mar. 12, 2013
Excerpt: The fossils were found in an area of shale beds that are 505 million years old.
"Our description of Spartobranchus tenuis, a creature previously unknown to science, pushes the fossil record of the enteropneusts back 200 million years to the Cambrian period, fundamentally changing our understanding of biodiversity from this period.",,,
"It's astonishing how similar Spartobranchus tenuis fossils are to modern day acorn worms,,,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130313141450.htm
Another Phylum Found in Cambrian Explosion - January 17, 2013
Excerpt: The oldest certain fossils from phylum entoprocta are in Jurassic strata, (at) 145 million years old. ,, Now, according to Live Science, hundreds of clearly-identifiable entoprocts have been found in Cambrian strata in China, dated in the evolutionary scale at 520 million years old – three and a half times older than previously assumed.,,
According to reporter Stephanie Pappas, the fossil animals have a body plan that is “almost identical” to living species – except that the fossils were up to 8 times larger – as much as 56 mm. (and more complex)
http://crev.info/2013/01/another-phylum-found-in-cambrian-explosion/
OK, evolutionists: it’s time to face up to the fossil evidence. Here is another example of an animal phylum appearing suddenly in the oldest layers containing multicellular animals. It bursts onto the scene, fully formed, and doesn’t change its basic body plan for 520 million years! This is true of virtually all the animal phyla now. How does that fit with Darwin’s theory?
Those ancient jawed fish had a mouthful of teeth, too - 10/17/2012
Excerpt: "It has long been thought that the first jawed vertebrates were gummy — (they had) jaws without teeth, capturing prey by suction-feeding," ,,,
Donoghue and his colleagues analyzed 370-million-year-old fossils of a diverse and extinct group of armored fish known as placoderms, the first-known jawed vertebrates.,,,
The placoderm teeth had components seen in modern teeth, such as dentin, the hard, dense bony tissue forming the bulk of the tooth beneath the enamel, and a pulp cavity, which creates dentin. "We show that the juveniles had teeth for processing and capturing prey before they were worn away in the adults," Donoghue said.
This discovery that the earliest jawed vertebrates were toothy suggests teeth evolved (were designed) along with or soon after jaws did.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49452834/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UH9kUoYsE30
Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, 520-million-year-old fossilized arthropod confirms October 10, 2012
Excerpt: Complex brains evolved much earlier than previously thought, as evidenced by a 520-million year old fossilized arthropod with remarkably well-preserved brain structures.,,,
"No one expected such an advanced brain would have evolved so early in the history of multicellular animals," said Strausfeld, a Regents Professor in the UA department of neuroscience.,,,
"The shape [of the fossilized brain] matches that of a comparable sized modern malacostracan," the authors write in Nature. They argue the fossil supports the hypothesis that branchiopod brains evolved from a previously complex to a more simple architecture instead of the other way around.,,,
"It is remarkable how constant the ground pattern of the nervous system has remained for probably more than 550 million years," Strausfeld added. "The basic organization of the computational circuitry that deals, say, with smelling, appears to be the same as the one that deals with vision, or mechanical sensation."
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-complex-brains-evolved-earlier-previously.html
Marine Worms Reveal the Deepest "Evolutionary" Patterns - (Oct. 9, 2012)
Excerpt: "The fossils from the Cambrian period can cause a real headache for evolutionary biologists. Instinct tells us to expect simple organisms evolving over time to become increasingly more complex. However during the Cambrian period there was an apparent explosion of different major groups of animals, all appearing simultaneously in the fossil record. We looked at priapulid worms, which were among the first ever predators. What's remarkable is that they had already evolved into a diverse array of forms -- comparable to the morphological variety of their living cousins -- when we first encounter them in the Cambrian fossil record. It's precisely this apparent explosion of anatomical diversity that vexed Darwin and famously attracted the attention of Harvard biologist Stephen Jay Gould.",,,
"Our work has shown that despite many new fossil finds, including many from China in the last decade, the picture remains largely unchanged.,,,
Priapulids are fascinating animals with much potential in evolutionary studies. They have a long history, with the earliest known species being 505 million years old, and with some of their extinct relatives being even older. They were important components of ancient bottom-dwelling marine invertebrate communities, and their predatory habits are well documented in the fossil record. However, for all their abundance and diversity, priapulids are a remarkable and often cited example of a morphologically conservative group, their overall shape and proportions having changed relatively little during their history.,,,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121009092533.htm
Huge Deposit of Jurassic (160 million years ago) Turtle Remains Found in China (Oct. 29, 2012)
Excerpt: “Bones upon bones, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” says Oliver Wings, paleontologist and guest researcher at the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin. He was describing the spectacular find of some 1800 fossilized mesa chelonia turtles from the Jurassic era in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang. ,,,
“This site has probably more than doubled the known number of individual turtles from the Jurassic,” says Walter Joyce. “Some of the shells were stacked up on top of one another in the rock.” It is what paleontologists call a “bone bed” – in this case consisting only of turtle remains.
Wings, Joyce and their team have made several expeditions to the arid region since 2007, finding fossil sharks, crocodiles, mammals and several dinosaur skeletons.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121029111229.htm
World's oldest turtle shells stand test of time - October 24, 2012
Excerpt: A fossil of one of the world's oldest-known turtle shells with a limb bone dating from 215 million years ago, discovered in clay deposit northwest of Krakow, is examined at the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-world-oldest-turtle-shells.html
New fossils suggest ancient origins of modern-day deep-sea animals - October 10, 2012
Excerpt: A collection of fossil animals discovered off the coast of Florida suggests that present day deep-sea fauna like sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers may have evolved earlier than previously believed and survived periods of mass extinctions similar to those that wiped out the dinosaurs.,,,
Previously, researchers believed that these present-day animals evolved in the relatively recent past, following at least two periods of mass extinction caused by changes in their oceanic environment. The new fossil collection described in this study predates the oldest known records of the present-day fauna. "We were amazed to see that a 114 million year old deep-sea assemblage was so strikingly similar to the modern equivalents", says lead author Ben Thuy. According to the authors, this evidence shows that the ancestors of modern deep-sea animals have lived in these deep waters for much longer than previously thought. That this collection of fossils appears to have survived several drastic changes in oceanic climates also suggests that deep-sea biodiversity may be more resilient than shallow-water life forms, and more resistant to extinction events than previously thought.
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-fossils-ancient-modern-day-deep-sea-animals.htm
Blood-filled mosquito is a fossil first - Oct. 14, 2013
Insect’s bloated abdomen carries traces of blood molecules that are 46-million-years old.
http://www.nature.com/news/blood-filled-mosquito-is-a-fossil-first-1.13946
"Researchers have discovered the 100 million-year-old ancestor of a group of large, carnivorous, cricket-like insects that still live today in southern Asia, northern Indochina and Africa. The new find, in a limestone fossil bed in northeastern Brazil, corrects the mistaken classification of another fossil of this type and reveals that the genus has undergone very little evolutionary change since the Early Cretaceous Period, a time of dinosaurs just before the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana." (Rare insect fossil reveals 100 million years of evolutionary stasis. February 3, 2011)
“So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind,…” (See: Genesis 1:21 NKJV)
Trilobite Eye
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TiZcs0eginyh6rijCGd3kwC3CeawjQV1AsC6Xvvnx44/edit
Of note: The Cambrian explosion was around 530 million years ago!
A golden orb-weaver spider from the Middle Jurassic
Excerpt: So this particular living fossil exhibits stasis (stability for 130 million years) at the genus level and raises again the issue of what can be learned from the phenomenon of stasis.
http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2011/04/21/a_golden_orb_weaver_spider_from_the_midd
In “Fossil shows daddy longlegs remain unchanged” (Jennifer Welsh, MSNBC, August 23, 2011), we learn: “Scientists amazed 3-D images show harvestmen nearly still same after 300 million years”: “It is absolutely remarkable how little (that) harvestmen have changed',,
http://www.uncommondescent.com/stasis/for-daddy-longlegs-evolution-never-happened-it-seems/
Unique Ancient Spider Attack Preserved in Amber - (Oct. 8, 2012)
Excerpt: Researchers have found what they say is the only fossil ever discovered of a spider attack on prey caught in its web -- a 100 million-year-old snapshot of an engagement frozen in time.,,,
Spiders are ancient invertebrates that researchers believe date back some 200 million years, but the oldest fossil evidence ever found of a spider web is only about 130 million years old. An actual attack such as this between a spider and its prey caught in the web has never before been documented as a fossil, the researchers said.
The tree resin that forms amber is renowned for its ability to flow over insects, small plants and other life forms, preserving them in near perfection before it later turns into a semi-precious stone. It often gives scientists a look into the biology of the distant past. This spider, which may have been waiting patiently for hours to capture some prey, was smothered in resin just a split second before its attack.
This type of wasp, Poinar said, belongs to a group that is known today to parasitize spider and insect eggs.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008134523.htm
16 million-year-old amber specimen reveals unknown animal behaviors (with video) - Oct. 17, 2012
Excerpt: Entombed in amber the tiny springtail can be seen resting in a v-shaped depression at the base of one of the mayfly's wings. It appears to have secured itself for transport using its prehensile antennae.
http://phys.org/news/2012-10-million-year-old-amber-specimen-reveals-unknown.html
Tiny fossil teeth re-write rodent record - Oct. 2011
Excerpt: The oldest rodent fossils yet found in South America have been unearthed along the Ucayali River near Contamana, Peru.
The specimens comprise the tiny teeth of mouse-sized and rat-sized animals that lived at least 41 million years ago. This makes the fossils some 10 million years older than all previous rodent discoveries made on the continent.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15268643
The abrupt appearance of biological forms.
Excerpt: "Most of the animal phyla that are represented in the fossil record first appear, 'fully formed,' in the Cambrian some 550 million years ago...The fossil record is therefore of no help with respect to the origin and early diversification of the various animal phyla."2
R.S.K. Barnes, P. Calow & P.J.W. Olive, The Invertebrates: A New Synthesis, pages 9-10 (3rd ed., Blackwell Sci. Publications, 2001).
But this is not the only such "explosion" in the fossil record. Paleontologists have observed a fish explosion, a plant explosion, a bird explosion, and even a mammal explosion. Abrupt explosions of mass biological diversity seem to be the rule, not the exception, for the fossil record. Transitions plausibly documented by fossils seem to be the rare exception.
As leading evolutionary biologist, the late Ernst Mayr, wrote in 2001, "When we look at the living biota, whether at the level of the higher taxa or even at that of the species, discontinuities are overwhelmingly frequent. . . . The discontinuities are even more striking in the fossil record. New species usually appear in the fossil record suddenly, not connected with their ancestors by a series of intermediates."3
Ernst Mayr, What Evolution Is, page 189 (Basic Books, 2001).
This phenomenon exists not only at the species level but also at the level of higher taxa, as one zoology textbook discusses:
"Many species remain virtually unchanged for millions of years, then suddenly disappear to be replaced by a quite different, but related, form. Moreover, most major groups of animals appear abruptly in the fossil record, fully formed, and with no fossils yet discovered that form a transition from their parent group."4
C.P. Hickman, L.S. Roberts, and F.M. Hickman, Integrated Principles of Zoology, page 866 (Times Mirror/Moseby College Publishing, 1988, 8th ed).
Rather than acknowledging the general pattern of explosions in the fossil record, PBS focuses on the few occasions where there are possible transitional forms.
http://www.judgingpbs.com/dfp-slide13.html
That quote!—about the missing transitional fossils
Excerpt: Dr Patterson had written a book for the British Museum simply called Evolution.2 Creationist Luther Sunderland wrote to Dr Patterson inquiring why he had not shown one single photograph of a transitional fossil in his book. Patterson then wrote back with the following amazing confession which was reproduced, in its entirety, in Sunderland’s book Darwin’s Enigma:
‘I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualise such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic licence, would that not mislead the reader?’
He went on to say:
‘Yet Gould [Stephen J. Gould—the now deceased professor of paleontology from Harvard University] and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. … You say that I should at least “show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.” I will lay it on the line—there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.’3
http://creation.com/that-quoteabout-the-missing-transitional-fossils
Living fossils: a powerful argument for creation
http://creation.com/werner-living-fossils
The following article is strange in that the researchers try to claim proof for evolution even though what they actually found was proof of 100 million years of stasis for the Bee body plan.
Research Discovers Oldest Bee, Evolutionary Link - 2006
Excerpt: Researchers at Oregon State University have discovered the oldest bee ever known, a 100 million year old specimen preserved in almost lifelike form in amber,,,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061025184944.htm
This following video is interesting for it shows that some paleontologists have been less than forthright in properly naming fossils:
Living Fossils, Evolution: The Grand Experiment, Episode 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7PdH3rwIL4
case in point:
ancient gall mites in 230-million-year-old amber droplets from northeastern Italy, (about 100 million years older than any other amber arthropod ever collected)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120827180021.htm
Unevolved Arthropods Found in Amber - August 28, 2012
Excerpt: 230 million years old, 100 million years older than the previous record holders,,, The ancient gall mites are surprisingly similar to ones seen today.,,, “You would think that by going back to the Triassic you’d find a transitional form of gall mite, but no,” Grimaldi said. “Even 230 million years ago, all of the distinguishing features of this family were there—a long, segmented body; only two pairs of legs instead of the usual four found in mites; unique feather claws, and mouthparts.”
http://crev.info/2012/08/unevolved-arthropods-in-amber/
Cambrian Soft Animal Survived Unchanged 200 Million Years - Sept. 2012
Excerpt: the fossil shows virtually no evolution for 200 million years: the authors said, “the morphology has not changed in any significant aspect.” If living tardigrades and velvet worms represent modern counterparts of lobopodia, then evolution within this phylum has been scant or non-existent for the whole duration of the fossil record from the lower Cambrian onward.
http://crev.info/2012/09/cambrian-soft-animal-survived-unchanged-200-million-years/
Contrary to Darwinian thinking (again), a 'complex' 425 million year old mollusc precedes the simpler molluscs found in the fossil record:
An aplacophorian mollusc with armour - 10/08/12
Excerpt: "A (425mya) fossil unearthed in Great Britain may end a long-running debate about the mollusks, one of life's most diverse invertebrate groups: Which evolved first, shelled forms like clams and snails, or their shell-less, worm-like relatives? The small new fossil, found in marine rocks along the English-Welsh border, provides the best fossil evidence yet that the simpler worm-like mollusks evolved from their more anatomically complex shelled brethren, rather than the other way around."
http://www.arn.org/blogs/index.php/literature/2012/10/08/an_aplacophorian_mollusc_with_armour
Clam Fossils Divulge Secrets of Ecologic Stability - May 15, 2013
Excerpt: Clam fossils from the middle Devonian era -- some 380 million years ago -- now yield a better paleontological picture of the capacity of ecosystems to remain stable in the face of environmental change,,,
The scientists took a new approach to testing ecological stability: In addition to counting numbers of clams, they examined repair scars on fossil clams that were left by the unsuccessful attacks from shell-crushing predators, and the body size of the clam assemblage as it yields biological information on the structure of food webs.
"Surprisingly, predation pressure and the body size structure of the clams remained stable, even as abundance varied," ,,,
"Our results thus raise serious doubt as to whether ecological stability can be tested meaningfully,,,,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515174029.htm
New fossil species reveals parental care of young from 450 million years ago - March 13, 2014
"A portrait of prehistoric parenthood captured deep in the fossil record has been uncovered by an international team of scientists.
.."This a very rare and exciting find from the fossil record. Only a handful of examples are known where eggs are fossilized and associated with the parent. This discovery tells us that these ancient tiny marine crustaceans took particular care of their brood in exactly the same way as their living relatives."
....The newly discovered fossils are two to three millimetres long and are especially informative because they are exceptionally well preserved, complete with not only the shell but also the soft parts of the animal..."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140313122724.htm
As a paleontologist by profession the fossil record was Gould's area of expertise. Although revered as a great scientist Gould has received some criticism from fellow believers in evolution for his candid comments about the nature of the fossil record. He referred to the fossil record in relation to evolution in the following way:
"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution."
Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), 'Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?' Paleobiology, vol.6(1), January 1980,p. 127.
"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between the major groups are characteristically abrupt."
Stephen Jay Gould 'The return of hopeful monsters'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI(6), June-July 1977, p. 24.
"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:
The geological record is (here Gould is quoting Darwin) extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find intermediate varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record will rightly reject my whole theory. (end of quote)
Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never "seen" in the rocks.
Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study."
Stephen Jay Gould 'Evolution's erratic pace'. Natural History, vol. LXXXVI95), May 1977, p.14.
Gould's commitment to Darwinian evolution would not allow him to abandon it. However what the evidence shows is clear from these statements of Gould, no matter what he makes of them.
Darwin’s Legacy - Donald R. Prothero - February 2012
Excerpt: “For the first decade after the paper [Punctuated Equilibrium] was published, it was the most controversial and hotly argued idea in all of paleontology. Soon the great debate among paleontologists boiled down to just a few central points, which Gould and Eldredge (1977) nicely summarized on the fifth anniversary of the paper’s release. The first major discovery was that stasis was much more prevalent in the fossil record than had been previously supposed. Many paleontologists came forward and pointed out that the geological literature was one vast monument to stasis, with relatively few cases where anyone had observed gradual evolution. If species didn’t appear suddenly in the fossil record and remain relatively unchanged, then biostratigraphy would never work—and yet almost two centuries of successful biostratigraphic correlations was evidence of just this kind of pattern. As Gould put it, it was the ‘dirty little secret’ hidden in the paleontological closet. Most paleontologists were trained to focus on gradual evolution as the only pattern of interest, and ignored stasis as ‘not evolutionary change’ and therefore uninteresting, to be overlooked or minimized. Once Eldredge and Gould had pointed out that stasis was equally important (‘stasis is data’ in Gould’s words), paleontologists all over the world saw that stasis was the general pattern, and that gradualism was rare—and that is still the consensus 40 years later. …
In my dissertation on the incredibly abundant and well preserved fossil mammals of the Big Badlands of the High Plains, I had over 160 well-dated, well-sampled lineages of mammals, so I could evaluate the relative frequency of gradualism versus stasis in an entire regional fauna. …
it was clear that nearly every lineage showed stasis, with one minor example of gradual size reduction in the little oreodont Miniochoerus. I could point to this data set and make the case for the prevalence of stasis without any criticism of bias in my sampling. More importantly, the fossil mammals showed no sign of responding to the biggest climate change of the past 50 million years (the Eocene-Oligocene transition, when glaciers appeared in Antarctica after 200 million years). In North America, dense forests gave way to open scrublands, crocodiles and pond turtles were replaced by land tortoises, and the snails changed from those typical of Nicaragua to those of Baja California. Yet out of all the 160 lineages of mammals in this time interval, there was virtually no response.”,,,
In four of the biggest climatic-vegetational events of the last 50 million years, the mammals and birds show no noticeable change in response to changing climates. No matter how many presentations I give where I show these data, no one (including myself) has a good explanation yet for such widespread stasis despite the obvious selective pressures of changing climate.
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/12-02-15/#feature
Newly discovered plant fossil reveals more than age - May 2011
Excerpt: Indeed, these findings support the idea that Equisetum is an extremely ancient genus that has undergone little evolutionary innovation over the last 150 million years.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-newly-fossil-reveals-age.html
Evolutionists Flaunt Falsifying Fossils - November 2011
http://crev.info/content/111126-evolutionists_flaunt_falsifying_fossils
Flying Fish in the Darwin Magic Show - November 6, 2012
Excerpt: The BBC News reports the discovery of an "exceptionally preserved" fossil of a flying fish in Middle Triassic strata from China, dated 235-242 million years ago. Nothing in the data or pictures would lead an impartial observer to conclude unguided Darwinian evolution produced this fish. The artist reconstruction shows a beautifully adapted fish with fins outstretched to glide over the water, as modern flying fish do.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/11/flying_fish_in066051.html
Imaging Technology Reveals Intricate Details of 49-Million-Year-Old Spider - (May 18, 2011) — Excerpt: Scientists have used the latest computer-imaging technology to produce stunning three-dimensional pictures of a 49 million-year-old spider trapped inside an opaque piece of fossilized amber resin.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110518080106.htm
Oldest found (winged) insect is – are you ready? – 400 million years old
http://www.uncommondescent.com/stasis/oldest-found-insect-is-are-you-ready-400-million-years-old/
Crab and Locust Bones Optimized For Their Respective Functions - Sept. 2012
Excerpt: New research on the bone designs of crabs and locusts—whose skeletons are on the outside—has found that their high-tech composite bone material known as cuticle is formed into optimal geometries for their respective uses. The crab bone which the researchers analyzed undergoes both bending and compression and the bone’s design was found to be “an ideal compromise to resist these two types of loading.” The locust bone that was analyzed, on the other hand, mostly undergoes bending and was found to be “optimized for this loading mode.”
http://darwins-god.blogspot.com/2012/09/crab-and-locust-bones-optimized-for.html
Funny how this optimal design for locusts and crab 'bones' was present from the very beginning of the sudden appearance in the fossil record:
100 million year old grasshopper
http://api.fmanager.net/files/fossils/SI0002_orthoptera.jpg
50 million year old crab
http://api.fmanager.net/files/fossils/SC0117_yengec.jpg
Amber fossil reveals ancient reproduction in flowering plants - January 2, 2014
Excerpt: A 100-million-year old piece of amber has been discovered which reveals the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant – a cluster of 18 tiny flowers from the Cretaceous Period – with one of them in the process of making some new seeds for the next generation.,,,
It appears identical to the reproduction process that “angiosperms,” or flowering plants still use today.,,
The pollen of these flowers appeared to be sticky, Poinar said, suggesting it was carried by a pollinating insect, and adding further insights into the biodiversity and biology of life in this distant era.,,
During the Cretaceous, new lineages of mammals and birds were beginning to appear, along with the flowering plants.,,,
“It’s interesting that the mechanisms for reproduction that are still with us today had already been established some 100 million years ago.”
Flower in Amber Shows No Evolution - January 5, 2014
Excerpt: The origin of angiosperms (flowering plants) is often called “Darwin’s abominable mystery” by evolutionists. This find does not solve the mystery. It only reinforces the impression of complex systems appearing out of nowhere, then remaining virtually unchanged for 100 million years or more.
http://crev.info/2014/01/flower-in-amber-shows-no-evolution/
Oldest fossil of giant panda family discovered - November 14, 2012
Excerpt: New fossils found in Spain are thought to be of the oldest recorded ancestor of the giant panda.
The two 11.6 million year old fossil jaws and teeth were discovered in southwest Europe,,
The fossils bear the characteristics of a bear adapted to eating tough plant material like bamboo. The giant panda, native to certain parts of China, is the only living member of this unique bear family with these dietary habits. Corresponding author Juan Abella adds "The new genus we describe in this paper is not only the first bear recorded in the Iberian Peninsula, but also the first of the giant panda's lineage."
http://phys.org/news/2012-11-oldest-fossil-giant-panda-family.html
of note:
FAKE CHINESE FOSSILS - Their Proliferation in Today's Market
Exposing the Fraud of Unscrupulous Fossil Dealers and their Magnificent-Looking Fossils
http://www.paleodirect.com/fakechinesefossils1.htm
Altering the Past: China's Faked Fossils Problem Richard Stone
Excerpt: One paleontologist estimates that more than 80% of marine reptile specimens now on display in Chinese museums have been "altered or artificially combined to varying degrees." One consequence of the fakery is an erosion of trust in museums, which are supposed to enlighten—not con—the public.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/330/6012/1740.summary
Eardrum evolved independently in mammals, reptiles and birds - 04/22/2015
Excerpt: Researchers,, have determined that the eardrum evolved independently in mammals and diapsids—the taxonomic group that includes reptiles and birds.,, the work shows that the mammalian eardrum depends on lower jaw formation, while that of diapsids develops from the upper jaw. Significantly, the researchers used techniques borrowed from developmental biology to answer a question that has intrigued paleontologists for years.,,
They noted that in mammals, the eardrum attaches to the tympanic ring—a bone derived from the lower jaw, but that in diapsids it attaches to the quadrate—an upper jawbone.,,
While scientists still do not know how or why the primary jaw junction shifted upwards in mammals, the study shows that the middle ear developed after this shift and must therefore have occurred independently after mammal and diapsid lineages diverged from their common ancestor.
(Of note: Diapsids ("two arches") are a group of amniote tetrapods)
http://www.sciguru.org/newsitem/18946/eardrum-evolved-independently-mammals-reptiles-and-birds
Moreover, this finding is important because Neo-Darwinists have used a fictitious fossil series leading from reptile jaw bones to mammalian inner ear bones, for years, to argue for the supposed evolution of mammals from some reptilian ancestor.
That particular Darwinian fairy tale is gone over at the 31:49 minute mark of this following video (you have to skip over 31:49 minutes of a ‘brief’ description of the amazing engineering and design of the ear to get to the ‘just so story’ offered by evolutionists for how that amazing sophistication in the ear ‘randomly’ came about).
The Hearing Ear by Dr. David Menton - video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPiXlJ3eIwo&feature=youtu.be&t=1863
On the Evolution of the Mammalian Middle Ear - Jonathan M. - July 25, 2012
Excerpt: Moreover, Meng et al. (2011) report that Liaconodon's middle ear "differs from that of Yanoconodon.",,, In general, what have been interpreted as ear ossicles in Yanoconodon differ significantly from the middle ear elements of Liaoconodon.,,, Finally, in the absence of a viable materialistic mechanism to account for the transition in question, the supposition that one can slap these different structures down on a table and draw arrows between them seems highly suspect. The methodology is circular -- it assumes that these structures are connected by descent. When one's entire interpretative framework presupposes common ancestry at the outset, it is no wonder that any and every observation is taken as supportive of that paradigm.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2012/07/on_the_evolutio062511.html
‘Transitional form’ in mammal ear evolution—more cacophony
http://creation.com/mammal-ear-evolution
