SCT: Fossils as Magical Darwin Relics

Fossils are only observable in the present, but
the evolutionary narrative drives the interpretation
of their positions in the story of life’s evolution

This article was published by Science & Culture Today.

Fossils as Magical Darwin Relics
by David Coppedge
Science & Culture Today, 25 May 2025

This article will survey recently reported fossil discoveries that evolutionists use to support their tree of life icon. The fossils range from the Cambrian to the Neogene. My aim here is not to question their dates or placement in the standard geologic column, but to examine how fossils are used in the Darwinian narrative. We can compare the behavior of evolutionary paleontologists to overeager churchmen holding a piece of wood said to be a fragment of the true cross. They encase it in a shrine. But then a monk argues that the piece of wood came from the wrong place and time, too early for the cross. Then it becomes reinterpreted as a fragment of the harp that David played for King Saul. Analogously, fossils are only observable in the present, but the evolutionary narrative drives the interpretation of their positions in the story of life’s evolution.

Ediacaran and Cambrian Fossils

Ediacaran fossils of the genus Charnia, discussed in the Journal of the Geological Society by D. McIlroy, occur in many parts of the world. No skeletal or muscular systems are observed in these frondose specimens that consist mostly of 2D impressions on rock. McIlroy’s interpretation uses the word “might” 15 times, as in: “the Charnia morphotype produced might be functionally plausible as example of an extinct metazoan clade.” (Emphasis added.) Darwinians would sure like to have a transitional form there! It would help bridge the gap between the mysterious Ediacaran fauna and the Cambrian explosion.

Another frondose Ediacaran specimen named Fractofusus is described in Nature Communications by Dunn, Donoghue, and Liu. It looks nothing like a Cambrian animal, but they need it to fit the Darwinian narrative. Interpretation: the fossil provides “a framework for explaining evolutionary transitions between the bodyplans of these members of the eumetazoan stem-group.” A framework is like a plot for a story.

Moving up to the Cambrian period, some putative “Drill holes [were] preserved in enigmatic fossils from South Australia,” reported by Bicknell et al. These are noted by Darroch and Casey in Current Biology. They look a bit like holes drilled by modern predators of shellfish. Interpretation: “arms races may have driven the Cambrian explosion.” What about conflict can generate beneficial mutations that a mindless “selector” can use to build arms to race with? Extinction is much easier, but Darwinism needs drivers for its march of progress….

Click here to continue reading about Devonian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Cenozoic fossils and how they are interpreted by Darwinians.

Gaze at nature until Darwin’s face appears to give you insight and understanding.