Atlas Of Creation - Volume 2-

Fossil Specimens Of Sea Creatures

FLYING FISH

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Hadjoula, Lebanon

Flying fish leap out of the water, propelled by rapid movements of their tail fin and glide a certain distance before gently dropping back into the water. During this airborne movement, the fish can reach a speed of 50 kilometers (31 miles) an hour. There is no difference between flying fish living today and those that lived about 100 million years ago. The species has not undergone the slightest change in all that time, which destroys all the claims of the evolutionists about the origins and history of living creatures.

Scientific discoveries have shown that living things have not developed in evolutionary stages but were created by Almighty God.

STURGEON

Age: 144-65 million years
Period: Cretaceous
Location: Liaoning Province, China

The sturgeons, of which only two families remain in existence, have always been sturgeons. They have neither developed from, nor turned into any other species.

Fossil finds corroborate the fact that like all other creatures, sturgeons have never undergone any process of evolution.

HORSESHOE CRAB

Age: 150 million years
Period: Late Jurassic
Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichsatt, Germany

Horseshoe crabs belong to a subphylum of the arachnids calledChelicerata, and are more closely related to spiders and scorpions. The 150-million-year-old fossil of a horseshoe crab shown here demonstrates once again that Creation is a fact and that the process of evolution never occurred.

STINGRAY

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Byblos, Haqil, Lebanon

Stingrays are cartilaginous fish and live mostly on the sea floor. Their gills are on the bottom, or ventral side of their bodies and their eyes are on top. Their tail fins and dorsal fins are very small; on some species, they are absent altogether.

Stingrays that lived about 100 million years ago have the same characteristics as those still alive today. In all that time, they have not undergone any changes.

This suggests that evolution is an untenable theory.

OYSTER

Age: 150 million years
Period: Late Jurassic
Location: Chile

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

CRAB

This crab fossil was found in Denmark on the Limfjords coast. This type of fossil is quite commonly found in this area. Preserved in nodules, they usually emerge to the surface in winter or after periods of heavy rain. The rounded stones are split open to discover whether they contain fossils. If a fossil is found, it is prepared for exhibition using files and other tools.

Age: 37-23 million years
Period: Oligocene
Location: Lyby, Denmark

The fossil record is rich enough to permit a general comprehension of the origin of living things and provides us with a definite scenario: Various species of living creatures appeared on Earth all at once, individually and without "evolving" through any intermediate forms. This is one of the proofs that Almighty God created all living creatures.

One of these fossils that demonstrates the clear fact of creation is shown here: the nearly 35-million-year-old remains of a crab.

This fossil demonstrates that there is no structural difference between crabs alive today and those alive roughly 35 million years ago, again proving the invalidity of evolutionist claims. If a creature has not undergone the slightest change in tens of millions of years, it is impossible to speak about the evolution of living things.

SHRIMP

Age: 150 million years
Period: Late Jurassic
Location: Solnhofen Limestone, Eichstatt, Germany

Another scientific discovery showing that there was no process of evolution, as the Darwinists claim, is the fossilized shrimp illustrated here. Since shrimp first came into existence, they have always displayed all the same organs and characteristics as they have today and have undergone no changes in all that time. This shrimp fossil shows plainly that evolution is an imaginary scenario.

STINGRAY ANDHERRING

Age: 54-37 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA

In this specimen we see a thorny stingray of the Dasyatidae family and a herring fossilized together. These fossils show that modern-day thorny stingrays and herrings are no different from the ones that swam tens of millions of years ago; they are among the countless proofs that invalidate the theory of evolution.

LOBSTER

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

There is no difference between this lobster, which lived tens of millions of years ago, and those that are still alive today. This deals a devastating blow to the theory of evolution. The fossil pictured here of a lobster from the Cretaceous period (between 144 and 65 million years ago) proves that the claims of evolutionists with regard to natural history are completely untenable.

Creatures did not evolve; they are created by God, Lord of the worlds.

GUITAR FISH

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Haqil, Lebanon

Paleontology has provided numerous proofs that creatures did not evolve but were created by God. One of these proofs is this 95-million-year-old fossilized guitar fish.

These fish live in tropical and subtropical waters and have not changed in about 100 million years. Darwinists can give no scientific explanation for a fossil like this, which shows that it did not undergo any process of evolution. Today's guitar fish are no different from those that lived approximately 100 million years ago—which once again underlines the fact of God's Creation.

LOBSTER

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

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

One of these many examples is a lobster that lived between 144 and 65 million years ago.

SEA URCHINS

Age: 150 million years
Period: Upper Jurassic
Location: Charente Maritime, France

Evolutionists claim that fish evolved from invertebrate sea creatures; amphibians and present-day fish from one supposedly "ancestral" fish. Reptiles in turn arose from amphibians; birds and mammals developed independently from reptiles. And, finally, apes and human beings evolved from a common ancestor, now extinct.

In order to prove these claims scientifically, it is necessary to find intermediate forms to show the transitional changes between one of these "former" species and their more recent counterparts. But as mentioned earlier, there is no trace of these imaginary creatures. On the contrary, all present-day species have the same characteristics that they possessed millions of years ago. This 150-million-year-old sea urchin is just one of the hundreds of thousands of fossils that prove this.

CRAB

Age: 70 million years
Period: Cretaceous
Location: Belgium

At every turn, the fossil record clearly contradicts the theory of evolution. Crabs are members of the Decapoda (10-legged) order of the phylum ofCrustacean. Crabs have existed unchanged for millions of years, and therefore they are one of the living beings disproving the story of evolution. The fossilized crab pictured here is 70 million years old and displays the same physiological characteristics as crabs that are alive today.

Crabs have not changed in 70 million years' time which disproves the theory of evolution's claim that living species evolved from one another over millions of years. This and similar fossils prove the fact that crabs did not evolve but were created by Almighty God.

BOWFIN

Age: 54-37 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Messel Shales, near Frankfurt, Germany

Bowfins today live mostly in South America. They belong to the class of Actinopterygii and have not changed in millions of years. They also belong to the superorder of Holostei (bony fish), and many fossils have been discovered. These fossils show all the characteristics of present-day bowfin and evidence that they have undergone no change at all over tens of millions of years. This demonstrates that these creatures did not evolve from any previous species, but were created in their present form by the supreme power and intelligence of God.

This fossil bowfin from the Eocene epoch, with its structure unchanged over tens of millions of years, challenges the theory of evolution.

SAWFISH

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Hajoula, Byblos, Lebanon

The upper jaws of these fish project outward and have sharp protrusions on either side. For this reason, they are called sawfish.

All fossilized sawfish in the fossil record are identical to their counterparts alive today. This sameness has persisted for about 100 million years proving that Darwinists' hypothetical claims are invalid and that evolution never occurred.

STINGRAY (with its counterpart)

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Haqil, Lebanon

The stingray fossil pictured here is 95 million years old, and there is no difference between it and stingrays living today. This physiological stability throughout 95 million years demonstrates clearly that these living things did not evolve from an earlier, primitive form to a more advanced one. Any claim that they did is wrong; and concrete discoveries and scientific investigations have invalidated this claim.

LOBSTER

Age: 95 million years
Period: Middle Cretaceous, Cenomanian
Location: Haqil, Lebanon

This fossil lobster, 95 million years old, possesses the same physical structure as lobsters today.

Some lobsters display migratory behaviors that are very interesting. In the course of such migrations, lobsters line up so that each one can touch the one in front of it. In this way, a convoy of between 50 and 60 lobsters is formed and moves along the ocean floor day and night for several days.

Migrating in a line enhances the lobsters' ability to move. The resistance encountered by a lobster advancing through the sea water individually is halved when another lobster is moving in front of it. (The same principle is exploited by modern-day trucks and race cars.) Because of this linear movement, lobsters can cover more distance in less time, while expending less energy. Some species have been observed to travel as much as one kilometer in an hour.

LOBSTER

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

The lobster fossil pictured here, between 144 and 65 million years, reveals once again that the theory of evolution is nonsense. Lobsters have existed for tens of millions of years without change, disproving the Darwinists' claim that living creatures have developed from a supposed primitive state into more advanced forms.

Friar's Bay in East Sussex (left) is a rich source where many fossils have been found—mostly ammonites and many other marine creatures with shells. The picture below shows fossil investigation being done in the area.

Deniz Atı ve Centriscus (Çulluk Balığı)

Dönem: Senozoik zaman, Pliosen dönemi
Yaş: 5 milyon yıl
Bölge: Marecchia Nehri Oluşumu, İtalya

Fosil bulguları Darwinizm'e öldürücü darbe indirmiştir. Canlıların milyonlarca yıldır hiç değişmediklerinin ispatı olan bu bulgular karşısında Darwinistlerin verebileceği tek bir bilimsel ve akılcı cevap yoktur.

Darwinistleri cevapsız bırakan bu fosillerden biri de resimdeki 5 milyon yıllık deniz atı ve çulluk balığı fosilidir.

SEA URCHIN

Age: 150 million years
Period: Late Jurassic
Location: Madagascar

Sea urchins have been alive for about 300 million years, but they have not changed or undergone any process of evolution in all that time. The fossil shown here is 150 million years old. A marine invertebrate, sea urchins have soft bodies encased in a thin shell covered with the spines that protect them from their enemies. They can move these spines; on some species, they are poisonous and reach a length of 30 centimeters (11.8 in). Tube feet protruding from the bodies of sea urchins adhere to rocks so that they can move comfortably along the ocean floor.

Fossil discoveries show that sea urchins have possessed all these characteristics since the first moment they came into being and that they have undergone no change at all throughout that time. The explanation is clear: As with other creatures, sea urchins did not evolve, but were created complete with all their characteristics.

Atlas Of Creation - Volume 2-

Fossil Specimens Of Land-Animals

TURTLE

Age: 38-23 million years
Period: Oligocene
Location: Brule Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska, USA

Investigations have turned up fossils of turtles that are 300 million years old, on average. The one pictured here is about 30 million years old. Such fossils definitely prove that turtles did not change over all these years but maintained their original form: Living creatures did not evolve, but were created by Almighty God.

HYENA SKULL

Age: 23-5 million years
Period: Miocene
Location: Gansu Province, China

The fossil record has not produced even one single example of a creature in an intermediate stage of development between reptiles and mammals—which evolutionists claim must have lived in the past. As with other classes of living creatures, the origin of mammals cannot be explained by the theory of evolution. As George Gaylord Simpson admitted many years ago:

This is true of all thirty-two orders of mammals . . . The earliest and most primitive known members of every order [of mammals] already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known. In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed . . . This regular absence of transitional forms is not confined to mammals, but is an almost universal phenomenon, as has long been noted by paleontologists. It is true of almost all classes of animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate. . . . it is true of the classes, and of the major animal phyla, and it is apparently also true of analogous categories of plants. (George Gaylord Simpson, Tempo and Mode in Evolution, New York: Columbia University Press, 1944, pp. 105, 107.)

The fossil pictured here, the skull of a hyena between 23 and 5 million years old, corroborates this admission. This fossil proves that hyenas have always existed as hyenas and refutes the theory of evolution.

Evey fossil that evolutionists have produced to date as proof of evolution has been either fake or irrelevant. Whenever they unearth the fossil of an extinct creature, they announce it with slogans as "a newly discovered horse" or "the missing intermediate form." But when these fossils projected as a proof are subjected to serious investigation, they are immediately found to have no relevance to evolution.

So far, milllions of fossils have been discovered throughout the world, and none indicates that evolution ever occurred on Earth. But these fossils, proving that evolution is unscientific and that Creation is an undeniable fact, are mostly hidden away in musem storerooms and never displayed.

The fact that hyenas living tens of millions of years ago are no different from today's members of the species is evidence for the invalidity of evolution. If the evolutionists' claims were true, hyenas should have turned into much different mammals by this time. But no such thing has happened.

RABBIT

Age: 33 million years
Period: Oligocene
Location: White River Formation, Lusk, Wyoming, USA

As spiders always breed spiders, bees breed bees, and rays are pawned from rays; rabbits have always existed as rabbits. The fossil record shows clearly that rabbits did not evolve from any other creature and have always been as they are now, from the moment they were created. In the light of the countless fossil finds showing the invalidity of evolution, its adherents must accept that Darwinism has been defeated.

The 33-million-year-old rabbit fossil shown here underlines this defeat once more, illustratings the fact that God has created all living things.

SNAKE

Age: 50 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Messel Shales, Germany

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

TURTLE

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

FROG

Age: 50 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Messel Shales, Germany

This frog belongs to the family of Pelopatidae, or mud burrowers. Some members of this family use their back legs to burrow under mud, and others live in an aquatic environment. Darwinists claim that fish are the ancestors of amphibians, but they offer no proof to support this claim. On the contrary, scientific discoveries show that there are such important anatomical differences between the two species that it is impossible for amphibians to have evolved from fish.

One of these scientific discoveries is the fossil record. According to the fossil record, the three basic classes of amphibian all appeared at once. The evolutionist Robert Carroll says, "The earliest fossils of frogs, caecilians, and salamanders all appear in the Early to Middle Jurassic. All show most of the important attributes of their living descendants." (Robert L. Carroll, Patterns and Processes of Vertebrate Evolution, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 292-293.)

CROCODILE SKULL

Age: 54-37 million years
Period: Eocene
Location: Phosphate Mines, Khouribga, North Africa

"Crocodile" is the general name given to creatures in the Crocodylidae family. Most live in tropical regions, and their earliest known examples lived about 200 million years ago. There is no difference between crocodiles living today and those that lived about 50 million years ago (like the fossil illustrated here) or even those that lived 200 million years ago. These fossils prove that crocodiles have not changed in hundreds of millions of years. This fact disproves evolution and also demonstrates that God has created all living creaures.

The Djourab desert is one of the many areas of the world where fossils are found. Every one of the many discoveries in this area's 382 fossil fields shows without exception that living species have not changed for as long as they have existed. That is, they have not gone through any process of evolution.

Throughout the Earth's history, crocodiles have always been crocodiles. They have neither come from, nor have changed into, any other species.

TURTLE

A view from below of a 37- to 23-million-year-old fossil turtle.

Age: 37-23 million years
Period: Oligocene
Location: Brule Formation, Sioux County, Nebraska, USA

Thanks to their excellent bony protection, turtles are well preserved in fossil strata. The oldest turtle fossils are about 200 million years old, and in all that time they have undergone no changes. The 37- to 23-million-year-old turtle fossil seen here shows no difference between turtles that lived then and those alive now, in all their perfect detail.

Faced with these proofs, there's one important fact that evolutionists ought to accept. David B. Kitts, an evolutionist in the department of Geology and Geophysics at Oklahoma University, says that "Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them." (David B. Kitts, "Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory," Evolution, Vol. 28, September 1974, p. 467.)

HYENA SKULL

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

The photograph shows the excavation in the Junggar fossil field in China. Fossils found at this dig show that living creatures have been created perfectly and complete.

Atlas Of Creation - Volume 2-

The Starting Point Of Punctuated Equilibrium

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

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

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

FAKE ILLUSTRATION

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

In fact, this theory was an adaptation of the "Hopeful Monster" theory put forward in the 1930s by the European paleontologist Otto Schindewolf. He had suggested that living things evolved as the result of sudden, dramatic mutations rather than the gradual accumulation of small ones. In citing a hypothetical example of his theory, Schindewolf suggested that the first bird in history had emerged from a reptile egg, through a "gross mutation," in other words, an enormous, though random change in its genetic structure.28According to that same theory, some terrestrial mammals might suddenly have turned into whales through a sudden and comprehensive alteration.

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

The impetus that obliged Gould and Eldredge to take up this theory again was, as we have already seen, the lack of any "intermediate form" in the fossil record. Both the "stasis" and "sudden appearance" in the record were so obvious that these two were forced to reconsider the "Hopeful Monster" theory in order to account for this state of affairs. Gould's well-known article "The Return of Hopeful Monsters" was an expression of this forced about-turn.29

Niles Eldredge Stephen Jay Gould

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

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

Stephen Jay Gould said this on the subject:

But how can imperfection possibly explain away stasis (the equilibrium of punctuated equilibrium)? Abrupt appearance may record an absences of information, but *stasis is data*. Eldredge and I became so frustrated by the failure of many colleagues to grasp this evident point—-though a quarter century of subsequent debate has finally propelled our claim to general acceptance (while much else about punctuated equilibrium remains controversial)—that we urged the incorporation of this little phrase as a mantra or motto. Say it ten times before breakfast every day for a week, and the argument will surely seep in by osmosis: "stasis is data: stasis is data..." 30

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

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

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

We have long known about stasis and abrupt appearance, but have chosen to fob it off upon an imperfect fossil record.31

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

Paleontologists ever since Darwin have been searching (largely in vain) for the sequences of insensibly graded series of fossils that would stand as examples of the sort of wholesale transformation of species that Darwin envisioned as the natural product of the evolutionary process. Few saw any reason to demur—though it is a startling fact that . . . most species remain recognizably themselves, virtually unchanged throughout their occurrence in geological sediments of various ages.32

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

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

Darwin's prediction of rampant, albeit gradual, change affecting all lineages through time is refuted. The record is there, and the record speaks for tremendous anatomical conservation. Change in the manner Darwin expected is just not found in the fossil record.33

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

Stasis, or nonchange, of most fossil species during their lengthy geological lifespans was tacitly acknowledged by all paleontologists, but almost never studied explicitly because prevailing theory treated stasis as uninteresting nonevidence for nonevolution. . . . The overwhelming prevalence of stasis became an embarrassing feature of the fossil record, best left ignored as a manifestation of nothing (that is, nonevolution).34

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

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

In other words, when the assumed evolutionary processes did not match the pattern of fossils that they were supposed to have generated, the pattern was judged to be ‘wrong.' A circular argument arises: interpret the fossil record in terms of a particular theory of evolution, inspect the interpretation, and note that it confirms the theory. Well, it would, wouldn't it? 35

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

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

The Punctuation Mechanism

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

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

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

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

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

However, both are at odds with the scientific facts.

The Macro-Mutations Error

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

R. A. Fisher, one of the century's best-known geneticists, established a rule, based on experiment and observation, that invalidates this hypothesis. In his book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Fisher reports that any mutation's ability to survive in a population is inversely proportional to its effect on the phenotype.36To put it another way, the greater a mutation is, the lower will be its chances of remaining permanent in a community.

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

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

The occurrence of genetic monstrosities by mutation . . . is well substantiated, but they are such evident freaks that these monsters can be designated only as "hopeless." They are so utterly unbalanced that they would not have the slightest chance of escaping elimination through stabilizing selection . . . the more drastically a mutation affects the phenotype, the more likely it is to reduce fitness. To believe that such a drastic mutation would produce a viable new type, capable of occupying a new adaptive zone, is equivalent to believing in miracles . . . The finding of a suitable mate for the "hopeless monster" and the establishment of reproductive isolation from the normal members of the parental population seem to me insurmountable difficulties.37

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

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

The overall factor that has come up again and again is that mutation remains the ultimate source of all genetic variation in any evolutionary model. Being unsatisfied with the prospects of accumulating small point mutations, many are turning to macromutations to explain the origin of evolutionary novelties. Goldschmidt's hopeful monsters have indeed returned. However, though macromutations of many varieties produce drastic changes, the vast majority will be incapable of survival, let alone show the marks of increasing complexity. If structural gene mutations are inadequate because of their inability to produce significant enough changes, then regulatory and developmental mutations appear even less useful because of the greater likelihood of nonadaptive or even destructive consequences . . . But one thing seems certain: at present, the thesis that mutations, whether great or small, are capable of producing limitless biological change is more an article of faith than fact.38

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

The Narrow Populations Error

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

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

In fact, however, recent scientific experiments and observations have revealed that in genetic terms, narrow populations are a disadvantage for evolution. Far from developing in such a way as to give rise to robust new species, narrow populations actually produce severe genetic defects. The reason is that in small populations, individuals continually interbreed, reproducing within a narrow genetic pool. For that reason, normally "heterozygotic" individuals become increasingly "homozygotic." Their normally recessive defective genes become dominant, and genetic defects and diseases increasingly emerge within the population.39

In order to investigate this topic, chickens were observed for 35 years. These observations established that chickens kept in a narrow population became increasingly weaker in genetic terms. Egg production fell from 100% to 80%; reproduction rates from 93% to 74%. But through conscious human intervention—with chickens being brought in from other populations—this genetic contraction was reversed, and the basic chicken population began moving back in the direction of normality.40

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

The required rapidity of the change implies either a few large steps or many and exceedingly rapid smaller ones. Large steps are tantamount to saltations and raise the problems of fitness barriers; small steps must be numerous and entail the problems discussed under microevolution. The periods of stasis raise the possibility that the lineage would enter the fossil record, and we reiterate that we can identify none of the postulated intermediate forms. Finally, the large numbers of species that must be generated so as to form a pool from which the successful lineage is selected are nowhere to be found. We conclude that the probability that species selection is a general solution to the origin of higher taxa is not great, and that neither of the contending theories of evolutionary change at the species level, phyletic gradualism or punctuated equilibrium, seem applicable to the origin of new body plans.41

Punctuated Equilibrium is a Major Disappointment for Evolutionists

Today, the fictitious mechanism of punctuated equilibrium has been totally discredited in scientific terms. It has been proved that living things cannot evolve through the methods in question. As Jeffrey Levinton from the State University of New York has stated, there can be no way to test the theory of species formation in question if it cannot be seen clearly in the fossil record.

On that basis, Levinton concluded that "the totality of the evidence makes it a theory not worth following up." 42

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

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

I.A 150-million-year-old fossil brittlestar showing that these echinoderms have not changed at all for millions of years.

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

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

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

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

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

. . . stasis, inevitably read as absence of evolution, had always been treated as a non-subject. How odd though to define the most common of all palaeontological phenomena as beyond interest or notice!43

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