Watcher's blog

A Reply to Ray Comforts Special Introduction to the Origin of Species (Part2)

During the period thatpaleontologists call the Cambrian Explosion, virtually all the major animal forms appeared suddenly without any trace of less complex ancestors. No newbody plans have come into existence since then. - Comfort

One wonders exactly what is meant by "major animal forms".  The highest taxonomic rank below kingdom (all animals are in the kingdom Animalia) is Phylum.  Some animal Phyla originated before the Cambrian such as Cnidarians and Sponges among others.  Many other animal Phyla did not appear until much later in the fossil record such as Onychophora.  It is suggested by some studies that only eleven out of thirty two animal phyla first appeared during this time period.  In any case the more "major form"Kingdom Plantae did not originate until after the Cambrian Explosion. Since the Cambrian this one kingdom has evolved to include more than three hundred thousand species of plants.  In addition to this the remains ofcreatures from the Cambrian Explosion such as Anomalocaris and Opabinia areclearly transitional fossils between arthropods and lobopods. 

Despite all of these "major animal forms" that came into existence during that time, all of the animals most familiar to us such as mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, etc. did not appear until much, much later. 

A Reply to Ray Comforts Special Introduction to the Origin of Species (Part1)

Ray Comfort's introduction to Darwin's On the Origin of Species is standard creationist arguments that have been used over and over again against his caricature of evolution.  First and foremost nonscientific layman of this sort seem completely unwilling or perhaps incapable of understanding the difference between something that has been proven as fact (evolution) and something that is continuously tested as a theory of how that fact occurs (natural selection).  Whether evolution has occured is supported by an overwhelming body of evidence and has been established with utmost certainty.  Evidence for this has accumulated from all biological disciplines including paleontology, comparative anatomy, biogeography, embryology, biochemistry, molecular genetics, and others.  The evolution of organisms is universally accepted by biological scientists.  "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution" (Dobzansky 1973).

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