Darwinist media organizations have embarked
upon a new wave of propaganda aimed at portraying a fossil recently
described in the journal Nature (i), (ii),
(iii) as a missing link. The fossil in question is that of a fish,
discovered in Arctic Canada by the paleontologists Neil H. Shubin and
Edward B. Daeschler in 2004. Given the scientific name Tiktaalik
roseae, the fossil is estimated to be 385 million years old. Evolutionists
looking for possible candidates for their tales of a transition from
water to land are putting the fossil forward as an intermediate form
by distorting its “mosaic” features.
However, the claim of a transition from
water to land is no more than a dream, because the physiological gulfs
between terrestrial animals and fish cannot be overcome by any of the
fictitious mechanisms of the theory of evolution. The latest attempt
to make Tiktaalik roseae fit this scenario, which is supported
out of blind devotion to the theory of evolution and rests on no scientific
evidence whatsoever, is based on preconceptions and intentional misinterpretation.
The facts the Darwinist media have concealed in their Tiktaalik
roseae propaganda are set out below.
Tiktaalik roseae: A mosaic life form
which is no evidence for evolution
There are three well-preserved fossil specimens of Tiktaalik
roseae. Some 3 meters long, the creature exhibits various mosaic
characteristics. (Mosaic life forms contain features belonging to different
groups of life forms.) As in fish, it has fins and scales. Features
such as its flat head, mobile neck and relatively powerful rib structure
are found in terrestrial animals. The creature, whose name is derived
from the Inuit language Inuktitut and means “a large, shallow-water
fish,” also has bones in its pectoral fins. Evolutionists distort
these mosaic properties according to their own preconceptions and maintain
that the animal is a transitional form between fish and terrestrial
life forms.
Mosaic life forms, however, are very far from being the
intermediate forms required by the theory of evolution. The present-day
Platypus that lives in Australia, for instance, is a mosaic
creature that possesses mammalian, reptilian and avian features at one
and the same time. But nothing about it constitutes any evidence for
the theory of evolution. Mosaic life forms are not what evolutionists
need to find in order to back up their claims; they need to find “intermediate
forms,” which would have to be with deficient, only half-formed
and not fully functional organs. Yet every one of the organs possessed
by mosaic creatures is complete and flawless. They have no semi-developed
organs, and there are no fossil series that can be proposed as evidence
that they evolved from some other life forms.
The theory of evolution hypothesizes that a process based
on random mutations, in other words on chance, took place. According
to this claim, the millions of living species on Earth must have evolved
from a vast number of intermediate forms, all subjected to chance mutations,
and as a result had deformed, abnormal structures, and the fossils of
these so-called intermediate forms should have been found. To put it
another way, the fossil record should be overflowing with the remains
of life forms that can only be described as freaks of nature. However,
this is known not to be the case. When species emerge, they do so suddenly,
with all their distinguishing features fully developed, and with no
series of freaks among them. In his 1999 book Fossils and Evolution,
Tom Kemp, curator of Zoological Collections at the Oxford University
Museum, describes the position as follows:
In virtually all cases a new taxon appears for the first
time in the fossil record with most definitive features already present,
and practically no known stem-group forms. (Tom Kemp, Fossils
and Evolution, Oxford University, Oxford University Press, 1999,
p. 246)
The general picture concealed by evolutionists
Evolutionists attempt to give the impression that fossils
actually support the idea of evolution. Yet the “missing link”
concept is one that has been invented solely in the light of the needs
of the theory of evolution and has no counterpart in the fossil record
itself. The lack of fossil links alleged to connect species to one another
has been known ever since Darwin’s time. Excavations by paleontologists
since Darwin’s day have also failed to resolve this situation,
which represents such a grave impasse for the theory of evolution and,
on the contrary, have further confirmed the absence of any missing links
among living groups.
E. R. Leach, author of the book Rethinking Anthropology,
wrote this in his article in Nature:
Missing links in the sequence of fossil evidence were
a worry to Darwin. He felt sure they would eventually turn up, but
they are still missing and seem likely to remain so. (E. R. Leach;
Nature, 293: 19, 1981)
A. S. Romer, one of the most eminent paleontologists of
his time, said this on the subject:
"Links" are missing just where we most fervently
desire them [to point to a transition between species] and it is all
too probable that many "links" will continue to be missing.
(A. S. Romer, in Genetics, Paleontology and Evolution, 1963,
p. 114)
David B. Kitts, professor of geology and the history of
science at the University of Oklahoma admits the absence of the intermediate
forms required by the theory of evolution:
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)
The picture that emerges from the fossil record is completely
compatible with creation. The record reveals that living things appeared
suddenly and lived for long periods of time without undergoing any change
at all. These facts can clearly be seen in an evaluation of evolution’s
fossil impasse by the American paleontologist R. Wesson in his 1991
book Beyond Natural Selection. Stating that the gaps in the
record are real, Wesson goes on to say that the absence of a record
of any evolutionary branching is quite phenomenal. Species are usually
static for long periods. Species and genera never show evolution into
new species or genera but are replaced by another, and change is usually
abrupt. (R. Wesson, Beyond Natural Selection, MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA, 1991, p. 45)
Some 250,000 fossil species have been collected to date,
and there is absolutely no trace of intermediate forms in any of them.
Evolutionists are behaving irrationally and unscientifically by ignoring
this and embarking on campaigns of missing link propaganda.
The Error of Biological Inference from Skeletal
Remains
When the bodies of vertebrates are fossilized, they generally
leave no remains behind apart from bones. However, bones leave traces
of only a very limited part of vertebrate biology, about 1%. When evolutionists
begin interpreting the fossil remains of an organism, most of the information
about its biology has been lost. Evolutionists, with almost no information
concerning the organism’s soft tissue biology “fill”
the gap in their knowledge according to the demands of the theory of
evolution, which they have adopted as a dogma long beforehand.
The intermediate form claims that evolutionists produce
solely by looking at bones is no more than vague conjecture. In his
book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, the molecular biologist Michael
Denton makes the situation very clear:
Because soft biology of extinct groups can never be known
with any certainty then obviously the status of even the most convincing
intermediates is bound to be insecure. (Michael Denton, Evolution:
A Theory in Crisis, Burnett Books: London, 1985, p. 180)
Even the most convincing appearing intermediate forms
for evolutionists can subsequently let them down very badly. One excellent
example of this is the Coelacanth phenomenon.
Sensational reports show that evolutionists have
learned nothing from the Coelacanth phenomenon
As with the latest fossil Tiktaalik roseae, the
Coelacanth is a fish that evolutionists once fondly imagined
to be a missing link in the transition from water to land. Evolutionists
examined 400-million-year-old fossil Coelacanths, which was once believed
to be extinct, and drew a number of evolutionary conclusions from the
remains. For example, they maintained that the bony structures in its
fins were feet that helped the animal walk across the sea floor, and
they also claimed that it possessed primitive lungs. The important point
here is this: All these assumptions were made in the absence of any
information about the Coelacanth’s soft tissue biology.
The erroneous nature of producing evolutionary fantasies
in the absence of any information about the animal’s soft tissues
emerged following an important discovery in 1938. A living Coelacanth
was caught, showing that it was not, as had previously been thought,
an extinct life form at all. Furthermore, many more living specimens
were caught in subsequent years. Evolutionists immediately set about
examining the fish’s anatomy and way of moving in its natural
environment, and saw that the missing link assumptions they had ascribed
to it were completely incorrect. The fish, which they had assumed to
live in shallow waters and to move by crawling over the seabed, actually
lived at depths of around 180 meters, and they also observed that its
fins never made contact with the seabed at all. The structure they imagined
to be an evolving lung turned out to be a fat-filled swim bladder that
had nothing to do with respiration whatsoever.
The realization that the Coelacanth, which had
once seemed such a convincing-looking intermediate form for evolutionists,
was just an ordinary species of fish clearly shows that the intermediate
form claim being made about this latest fossil is also based entirely
on uncertainties and speculation, because it, too, is based on imaginative
interpretation of soft tissues from the fossilized remains of an extinct
life form. In short, the ongoing propaganda through the media is based
on nothing more than the exaggeration of scientifically vague information
in the light of evolutionist dreams.
Evolutionists’ missing link propaganda
actually works against their own claims
Whenever a discovery is depicted as a missing link, the
evolutionist media always give the impression that a most extraordinary
finding has been made, whereas this actually conflicts with their claims
regarding the truth of evolution.
Were the theory of evolution true, then the geological
strata would be full of fossil intermediates, and their numbers would
be far greater than that of all the species living today or that ever
lived in the past. Therefore, the discovery of missing links would be
such a routine matter that it would have no news value at all.
Alternatively, if, as evolutionists claim, there were as
much evidence for evolution as there is for the force of gravity, then
reporting on missing link discoveries would be as nonsensical as reporting
on a stone thrown into the air falling back to the ground. In the same
way that we would regard a news report along the lines of “We
threw a stone into the air and it actually fell back to Earth”
as utterly insignificant, so we would regard reports reading “Paleontologists
have discovered a new missing link” as equally insignificant.
In short, if evolution were a “fact,” there would be no
need for any missing link propaganda at all.
The evolutionary series in which Tiktaalik
roseae has been placed is based solely on preconception
One can see in some newspapers that the latest fossil has
been inserted as an intermediate form between Acanthostega
and Eusthenopteron. By doing this, evolutionists are seeking
to give the impression that the fossil record supports evolutionary
transitions and that the evidence for this is mounting up with every
passing day. The fact is though that these series represent no evidence
that the organisms in question evolved at all. For example, laying out
a row of screwdrivers in order of size does not show that they are all
descended from one another.
In fact there is no known evolutionary line of descent
from Eusthenopteron to Tiktaalik roseae or from Tiktaalik
roseae to Acanthostega. These life forms are separated
from one another by morphological gulfs based on profound differences
and millions of years of time. Evolutionists reveal only their own prejudices
with the series into which they place Tiktaalik roseae. Henry
Gee, editor of the journal Nature and also a paleontologist, admits
that “missing links” and evolutionary series are the work
of preconceptions:
New fossil discoveries are fitted into this pre-existing
story. We call these new discoveries “missing links”,
as if the chain of ancestry and descent were a real object for our
contemplation, and not what it really is: a completely human invention
created after the fact, shaped to accord with human prejudices. .
. . Each fossil represents an isolated point, with no knowable connection
to any other given fossil, and all float around in an overwhelming
sea of gaps. (Henry Gee, In Search of Deep Time, Beyond the Fossil
Record to a New History of Life, p. 32)
(For information on the invalidity of evolutionist claims
regarding Acanthostega and Eusthenopteron see, http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/natural_history_1_07.html)
The myth of the transition from water to land:
an illusory and dogmatic claim
The theory of evolution maintains that change in living
things is based on the selection of beneficial differences among those
produced by random mutations. However, it is a known fact
that mutations have no power to cause anything to evolve by adding new
information to living things’ DNA. Mutations damage the genetic
information in living things’ DNA, producing effects that leave
them deformed or dead. That is because the DNA sequences are exceedingly
sensitive, and the effect on these of any mutation based on chance can
only be harmful. For example, no random changes to the letters comprising
a manual for an electronic device will turn it into a novel; it will
merely damage the information in that manual. In the same way, it is
totally impossible for mutations in a fish’s DNA to acquire it
a powerful skeletal structure capable of weight-bearing, to construct
temperature regulating systems or systems for the use of water (involving
such a complex organ as the kidney), or to cause gills to turn into
lungs.
It is clear that if a fish does not undergo rapid change
in different ways, such as in terms of its respiratory system, excretory
mechanism and skeletal structure, it will inevitably die. Such a chain
of mutations must take place that it must immediately acquire the fish
a lung, turn its fins into legs, add a kidney onto it, and provide its
skin with a water retaining structure. Systems of such vital importance
to the animal either have to change instantaneously, or else not at
all. Such a change is impossible through evolution, which is proposed
as a chance-based and aimless process. Any rationally thinking person
can see that the only possible explanation is to accept that fish and
terrestrial life forms were created independently.
In short, the scenario of a “transition from water
to land” is at a complete dead-end. Evolutionists have no consistent
fossil evidence they can point to. In her book Vertebrate History:
Problems in Evolution, the evolutionist paleontologist Barbara
J. Stahl writes:
. . . [N]one of the known fishes is thought to be directly
ancestral to the earliest land vertebrates. Most of them lived after
the first amphibians appeared, and those that came before show no
evidence of developing the stout limbs and ribs that characterized
the tetrapods." (Barbara J. Stahl, Vertebrate History: Problems
in Evolution, Dover, 1985, p. 148)
Conclusion: Evolutionists have to realize they
will never get anywhere with outmoded propaganda techniques left over
from Adolf Hitler
As has been demonstrated, the “missing link”
notion is an unscientific one with no factual counterpart in the fossil
record and used solely because of the requirements of the theory of
evolution. The way that the Darwinist media cling so strongly to the
idea is a method they resort to in order to spread their own ideologies
among the public. Evolutionists have no evidence with which to spread
their theory, which is the greatest scientific deception in history.
All they can do in the face of the collapse, one by one, of such fossils
as the Coelacanth and Archaeopteryx, and equine series
once defended as evidences of evolution, consists of frequently and
loudly ensuring that the missing link fraud is kept on the public agenda.
All these endeavors are a propaganda technique, as
described in the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s statement that a lie
would be believed by many if repeated loudly and often enough.
Evolutionists must accept the fact that paleontology
demolishes their theory, and must realize that constantly repeating
their missing link tales will not alter the fact in the slightest.
1- Daeschler et al., "A Devonian tetrapod-like
fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan," Nature 440,
757-763 (6 April 2006)
2- Shubin et al., "The pectoral fin of Tiktaalik roseae and the
origin of the tetrapod limb," Nature 440, 764-771 (6 April 2006)
3- Per Erik Ahlberg and Jennifer A. Clack, "Palaeontology: A firm
step from water to land," Nature 440, 747-749 (6 April 2006)
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