Thursday, September 27, 2007

Minor corrections free of charge.

The preceding is found at http://www.whoisyourcreator.com/fossil_evidence.html. This web page was created by a poor non-profit organization. It is sad to say that so much of their resources have gone into save and winning souls, that they lack the funding to hire a proof reader. I know how hard it is working at a non-profit, so I’ll do the nice atheist thing and correct their errs for free.

Orginal:

What Does the Fossil Record Actually Reflect?

  • Abrupt appearance of almost all classes of plants and animals known to have existed. (Cambrian Explosion)
    "The paleontological data is consistent with the view that all of the currently recognized phyla had evolved by about 525 million years ago. Despite half a billion years of evolutionary exploration generated in Cambrian time, no new phylum level designs have appeared since then."
    "Developmental Evolution of Metazoan Body plans: The Fossil Evidence," Valentine, Erwin, and Jablonski, Developmental Biology 173, Article No. 0033, 1996, p. 376
  • Stasis, or lack of any substantial change.
    “Stasis is now abundantly well documented as the preeminent paleontological pattern in the evolutionary history of species.”
    Dr. Niles Eldredge, Evolutionist and Curator-in-Chief of the permanent exhibition “Hall of Biodiversity” at the American Museum of Natural History, ‘Reinventing Darwin: The Great Evolutionary Debate’ Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1995, p.77
  • Fossils are always found fully formed, having no partially formed features.
    “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."
    Richard S K Barnes, Peter Calow, Peter J. W. Olive, David W. Golding and John Spicer, ‘The Invertebrates: A New Synthesis’ (textbook), Updated 2000, Blackwell Publishing


Corrected:

What Does the Fossil Record Actually Reflect?

  • While the first fossils of 11 of the 32 phyla are found in the Cambrian, no modern species date back that far. Several phyla predate the Cambrian. The rest of the phyla either post-date the Cambrian (Bryozoa) or have poor fossil records. There are no known plants from the Cambrian era.
  • The fossil record shows a variety of rates in change of morphology. There are cases of slow but nearly constant change, cases were the change is rapid and uneven, as well as cases where there is relative is stasis. However there is not a single group that has remained exactly the same over any period of time.
  • There are numerous translational characteristics present in the fossil record. Traits that have intermediate fossils include whale fins, bird wings, and mammal ears bone
There, the list is now accurate, as well as providing easy to understand references. All done free of charge. But I wonder if my donation of time, is tax deductible.

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