More Fossils Appear Abruptly

Two more finds show spectacular stasis – the lack of evolution.

Echinoderms:  A core from the North Sea shows fossils of echinoderms (a phylum including sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers) doing just fine at an evolutionary date of 114 million years (early Cretaceous) – far earlier than previously supposed.  European scientists said, “the evidence points to an early Mesozoic or older colonization of deep-sea habitats by the modern fauna.”  This discovery causes another rethink: deep sea marine organisms are more resistant to presumed mass extinctions in the geological timeline than previously thought.  From the abstract of their paper in PLoS ONE:

Our discovery provides the first key fossil evidence that a significant part of the modern deep-sea fauna is considerably older than previously assumed. As a consequence, most major paleoceanographic events had far less impact on the diversity of deep-sea faunas than has been implied. It also suggests that deep-sea biota are more resilient to extinction events than shallow-water forms, and that the unusual deep-sea environment, indeed, provides evolutionary stability which is very rarely punctuated on macroevolutionary time scales.  (Thuy B, Gale AS, Kroh A, Kucera M, Numberger-Thuy LD, et al. (2012) Ancient Origin of the Modern Deep-Sea Fauna. PLoS ONE 7(10): e46913. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046913.)

The summary on PhysOrg emphasized the problem for evolutionary theory by quoting the lead author Ben Thuy, who said, “We were amazed to see that a 114 million year old deep-sea assemblage was so strikingly similar to the modern equivalents.”  Watch the two instances of “than previously thought” in this quote:

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.

Another Cambrian explosion problem:  Priapulids are strange worms that show almost no evolution since the Cambrian explosion.  Science Daily shows a picture of a modern, living priapulid along with an article that describes how they cause selective physical pain to evolutionists:

He explained: “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.”

Casey Luskin commented on this discovery at Evolution News & Views.

Here at Creation-Evolution Headlines, we frequently publicize findings that contradict Darwinian expectations.  Here is a prime example: evolutionary biologists themselves, along with their lapdog media, state clearly and without contradiction that these fossil finds were unexpected, were surprising, and cause headaches.  The second story especially shows absolutely no evolution in 530 million years! (see Casey Luskin’s comparison photographs at ENV).  Science Daily stated clearly that [evolutionary] “instinct” told them what to expect, but “different major groups of animals” appeared “simultaneously in the fossil record.”  This reality “vexed Darwin” and still causes a “real headache for evolutionary biologists” today, 153 years later, because the situation has gotten worse since Darwin barfed over it.  How much falsification do you need?  Our pages are loaded with 12 years of evidence like this.  We need to hold this evidence up in front of the Sean Carrolls and Eugenie Scotts of the Darwin Party Propaganda Machine and confront them with it, without letting them get away with sidestepping or bluffing or red herrings.  They expected x, but they got non-x and even anti-x.  It’s game over for Darwin.  Make them face up to it.