According to the theory of evolution, life first appeared on this planet in the form of a microscopic, single-celled organism. Hundreds of articles and books have been published containing speculations about how this event might have occurred, and critiques of these concepts are available from scientists who are creationists.1-4 In the end, evolutionists believe that this first form of life not only diverged into many single-celled organisms that still exist today – bacteria, algae, fungi, amoebas – but that metazoa evolved from one or more of these single-celled organisms. Exactly how this happened and which carriers were involved represents one of the greatest and still unresolved mysteries of evolution. Metazoans, i.e. highly complex multicellular structures with specialized organs, suddenly appear, fully formed, in the fossil record. There are no intermediaries available in the fossil record that link single-celled organisms with complex invertebrates, which are supposedly derived from them.
The first abundant fossil record of complex invertebrates appears in the rocks of the so-called “Cambrian” period. Evolutionists assume that the sediments which formed the Cambrian rocks began to be deposited around 600 million years ago and that the time involved in their deposition spanned over 80 million years. Fossils of trilobites, sponges, brachiopods, worms, jellyfish, sea cucumbers, crabs, and other complex invertebrates have been found in Cambrian rocks. The appearance of this great diversity of complex beings is so unexpected that it has generally been interpreted as the “Cambrian explosion” in geological literature.
Sedimentary rocks for which it is believed that they were formed before the Cambrian period are attributed to a rather unclear period called the ‘Pre-Cambrian.’ Rocks from the Pre-Cambrian period generally lie beneath Cambrian ones (though not always), and it is believed that they accumulated there over many hundreds of millions of years preceding the Cambrian period. Today, there are many reports in scientific literature about the discovery in Pre-Cambrian rocks of fossils of microscopic unicellular mollusks, such as bacteria and algae. Based on this, evolutionists claim that life appeared on Earth more than three billion years ago, possibly even 3.5 billion years ago.
It would be good to insert a note of caution at this point regarding these reports. It is certain that many of them are in question and open to discussion. Some recent writings have suggested uncertainties about such identifications. For example, although they accept the possibility that certain microfossils from the Pre-Cambrian era were of biological origin, Engel warned that:
‘Establishing the presence of biological activity during the very early Pre-Cambrian period clearly presents serious problems… skepticism about this kind of evidence for early Pre-Cambrian life is in place.’8
In any case, if unicellular organisms led to a large series of complex invertebrates that suddenly emerged, and almost three billion years passed between the origin of life and this “Cambrian explosion” of complex invertebrates, we must find a record of that evolution somewhere in the rocks of the Precambrian period. Since Darwin, the rocks have been intensively studied for this record, but for evolutionists, the results are very disappointing. Nowhere on this Earth—on no continent, nor at the bottom of any ocean—have we been able to find intermediates between unicellular organisms and complex invertebrates. Wherever or whenever we find them, from the very beginning, a jellyfish is a jellyfish, a trilobite is a trilobite, and sea urchins are sea urchins.
In connection with this, Axelrod claims:
“One of the great unsolved problems of geology and evolution is the appearance of divergent, multicellular marine invertebrates in lower Cambrian rocks on all continents, and their absence in older rocks.”
After considering different types found in the Cambrian period, Axelrod continues as follows:
“However, when we turn to examining the rocks of the Precambrian period searching for predecessors of these early Cambrian fossils, they cannot be found anywhere. For many thick (over 1500 m) layers of sedimentary rocks, it is now known that they lie in an uninterrupted sequence of layers containing the earliest Cambrian fossils. These sediments were obviously favorable for preserving fossils because they are often identical to the rocks that cover them and that are fossil-bearing, yet no fossils have been found in them.”9
George Gaylord Simpson fought bravely, but not successfully, with this problem, since he was forced to admit that the absence of pre-Cambrian fossils (except for microorganisms) represents “a great mystery of the history of life.”10
A significant number of evolutionists, among whom we have already quoted Axelrod and Simpson, support the idea that no fossils of undoubted multicellular organisms have been found in rocks that are unquestionably older than Cambrian. For example, in 1973, Preston Cloud, an evolutionary geologist, expressed his belief that there are still no records of unambiguous metazoans in unquestionably pre-Cambrian rocks.11
Recently, however, for a collection of metazoan fossils that became known as the Ediacara Fauna, after its first discovery in Australia,12 it is believed to be late pre-Cambrian and is presumed to be 680 million years old. Typical representatives are now known from fossil remains found not only in Australia, but also in Newfoundland, England, Siberia, and South Africa. Until very recently, it was believed that some of these creatures resembled today’s jellyfish, worms, and other coelenterates and echinoderms. Several other previously unknown and quite problematic fossil creatures have also been observed.
These discoveries do not alleviate the problem for evolutionary theory. These creatures in no way represent intermediaries between unicellular organisms and complex invertebrates previously found in Cambrian rocks. They are complex invertebrates. Furthermore, it has almost been established that the creatures of the Ediacara Fauna are not the same as the worms, coelenterates, and echinoderms of the Cambrian period. In fact, they are so fundamentally different that it has been unequivocally determined that they could not have been the ancestors of any of the Cambrian animals.13 It has been confirmed that the previously unrecognized mass extinction eliminated all these creatures many millions of years before the Cambrian period.
So, the mystery of the Cambrian explosion remains. It is interesting to observe how evolutionists struggle with this contradiction in the theory of evolution. Eldredge, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, for example, after a discussion of the Ediacaran Fauna, says:
“Then something like an explosion happened. Starting about 600 million years ago, and continuing for about ten to fifteen million years, the earliest known representatives of the major animal species that still exist in the seas today, appear quite suddenly. This rather extended ‘event’ is graphically shown in the rock record: throughout the world, approximately at the same time, thick layers of rock, without any easily noticeable fossils, are covered by sediments that contain a huge range of invertebrates with shells: trilobites (extinct relatives of crustaceans and insects), brachiopods, mollusks. All typical forms of shelled animals are also seen in today’s oceans, although in a primitive, prototypical form, and in seas from 600 million years ago.
Creationists have made much of this sudden development of a rich, diverse fossil record, where there was nearly nothing before…
Indeed, the sudden appearance of a diverse range of fossils, which geologists use to mark the beginning of the Cambrian period (the oldest part of the Paleozoic era), presents a fascinating intellectual challenge.”14
Eldredge offers several possible explanations for this problem. He mentions that one recent suggestion is that the atmospheric oxygen level rose to a critical point so that the oxygen level in the ocean became favorable to sustain the diversity of life.15 He, however, acknowledges that the red layers or rocks that contain a high percentage of iron oxide are at least two billion years old, which indicates the presence of a high percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere. If oxygen existed in abundance on the evolutionary timescale two billion years ago, and the Cambrian explosion did not occur until 600 million years ago (a difference of 1.4 billion years), it seems clear that the sudden appearance of all these complex invertebrates has nothing to do with the oxygen content in the atmosphere.
“Eldredge’s main argument is that evolution does not necessarily proceed slowly and gradually, but that certain episodes in evolution can, geologically speaking, unfold very rapidly.15 Thus, just before the onset of the Cambrian period, for this or that reason, an evolutionary explosion occurred – a great diversity of complex multicellular organisms, many of which had hard parts, suddenly developed. This evolution occurred so quickly (perhaps in only 15 or 20 million years, more or less), that there simply wasn’t enough time for those intermediary creatures to leave a fossil record that could be discovered.
This idea of explosive evolution is indeed not new, as it has been used in the past to explain the absence of transitional forms.10 In any case, this idea will not withstand testing. First of all, what is the only evidence for these postulated rapid evolutionary explosions? The absence of transitional forms! Thus, evolutionists like Eldredge, Simpson, and others, try to use the absence of transitional forms to support their evolutionary scenario!
What is predicted based on evolution – the presence of transitional forms – is not available, and so rather, instead of acknowledging evidence that refutes their theory, the new scenario predicts exactly the opposite – the absence of transitional forms. Furthermore, genetics is firmly against the concept of rapid evolutionary explosions. In fact, evolutionists claim that the reason we have never witnessed any truly significant evolutionary change during the entire human observation period is because evolution happens so slowly. Indeed, the genetic apparatus of a lizard, for example, is totally dedicated to the production of another lizard, and the idea that there could be processes that somehow overcome this genetic barrier against change and convert a lizard into another creature without leaving fossilized intermediaries is arbitrary thinking and contrary to science. Even more incredible is the idea that this could have happened to a whole multitude of complex creatures. Finally, although 15 to 20 million years may seem like a short period to evolutionists, it is actually very, very long – enough time to leave a rich fossil record.”
Later, in Eldredge’s book, quoted above, he proposes the most incredible idea of all to explain the great Cambrian explosion. He states:
“We do not see much evidence of intermediates in the early Cambrian period because intermediates must have been soft-bodied, and thus there was an extremely small chance that they would fossilize.” 16
It is hard to believe that Eldredge or any other scientist could have claimed such a thing. Whatever they were, the evolutionary ancestors of Cambrian animals must have been complex – a unicellular organism would not be capable of suddenly evolving into a vast multitude of diverse complex invertebrates without passing through a long series of intermediates of increasing complexity. It is certain that, if paleontologists are able to find numerous fossils of microscopic unicellular bacteria and algae of soft body, as Eldredge has no doubt that they can, then they can easily find fossils of all degrees of intermediacy between these microscopic organisms and the complex invertebrates of Cambrian origin. Furthermore, with many found evidence of fossil algae and bacteria, there must be hundreds of findings of multicellular soft-bodied organisms, such as worms and jellyfish, in the scientific literature. Creatures from the Ediacaran Fauna, reported from five continents, are just of soft body.
Even more incredible is Eldredge’s suggestion that all the intermediates, which led to the creation of suddenly found and completely formed organisms in Cambrian rocks, were soft-bodied. As Eldredge describes above, Cambrian animals include a huge array of shelled invertebrates – creatures with hard parts. If, as Eldredge says, all intermediates were soft-bodied, this means that a large number of various creatures with hard parts suddenly appeared directly from creatures with soft bodies. This is simply impossible. The anatomy, physiology, and the very way of life of invertebrates with hard parts are closely related and dependent on these hard parts. Thus, the anatomy of soft-bodied animals is very different from the anatomy of soft animals with hard parts. If invertebrates with hard parts evolved from creatures with soft bodies, then that change must have been gradual and must have occurred through many intermediate stages that would have allowed the gradual acquisition of hard parts and changes in the way of life of these creatures. This gradual acquisition of hard parts by many beings should have been abundantly documented in the fossil record. Fossils of thousands of these intermediate stages should be found in museums. However, none have been found.
Evolutionists believe that the huge array of invertebrates presented in Cambrian rocks evolved from common ancestors, but of course, there is no fossil intermediary to document this. Billions of times, billions of these creatures lived and died, yet none can be found in the collections of paleontologists. Great unbridgeable gaps separate creatures such as jellyfish, sponges, worms, sea cucumbers, trilobites, brachiopods, and others.
This leaves evolutionists with what Simpson calls the great mystery of the history of life. In a review of a recent book on the origin of large invertebrate groups, Runnegar claims:
“As might be expected, paleontologists have focused on the fossil record and, therefore, have provided an abundance of information on the early history of the great diversity of many invertebrate groups, but little insight into their origin.”
Eldredge allows that the “Cambrian evolutionary explosion is still shrouded in mystery.” But creationists say, what greater evidence for creation could the rocks give than this large number of diverse complex creatures with not a trace of their ancestors? Thus, from the very beginning, we see, based on one evolutionary scenario, that this evidence is directly contradictory to the predictions based on evolution, but is significantly in line with the predictions based on creation.
- Literature
- S. Aw, Chemical Evolution, Master Books, San Diego, 1982.
- A. E. Wilder Smith, The Creation of Life, A Cybernetic Approach, Master Books, San Diego, 1970.
- D. T. Gish, Speculations and Experiments Related to Theories on the Origin of Life: A Critique, Creation-Life Pub., San Diego, 1973; Creation Research Soc. Quart 15:185 (1979).
- C. B. Thaxton, W. L. Bradley and R. L. Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, Philosophical Library, New York, 1984.
- P. Cloud, Science 148:27 (1965).
- M. N. Bramlette, Science 158:673 (1967).
- W. H. Bradley, Science 160:437 (1968).
- A. E. J. Engel, B. Nagy, L. A. Nagy, C. G. Engel, G. O. W. Kremp, and C. M. Drew, Science 161:1005 (1968).
- D. Axelrod, Science 128:7 (1958).
- G. G. Simpson, The Meaning of Evolution, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1949, p. 18.
- P. Cloud, Geology, 1:123 (1973).
- M. F. Glaessner, Sci. Amer., March 1961, pp. 2-8.
- S. J. Gould, Natural History 93 (2):14-23 (1984).
- N. Eldredge, The Monkey Business: A Scientist Looks at Creationism, Washington Square Press, New York, 1982, p. 44.
- Eldredge, Ref. 14, p. 47.
- Eldredge, Ref. 14, p. 130.
- B. Runnegar, J. Paleont. 55:1138 (1981).
- M. R. House, ed., The Origin of Major Invertebrate Groups, Systematics Assoc. Special Vol. 12, Academic Press, New York, 1979.
- Eldredge, Ref. 14, p. 46.