Since evolutionists are hard-pressed to come up with even one genuine transitional species, does the fossil record show any change within species? The answer appears to be no, for there is an abundance of ‘living fossils’ that survive today and they are exactly the same as they have always been. They are a living testimony that contradict the evolutionists’ claim that living creatures were changing into other species. Of course, there are changes within species.
In 1938, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was curator of a small museum situated in a port town near Cape Town, South Africa. A local seaman, Captain Hendrick Goosen of the trawler Nerine, would allow her to peruse his catch to see if there was anything of interest for the museum. On December 23, 1938, she noticed a fish, which she later described as: the most beautiful fish I had ever seen, five feet long, and a pale mauve blue with iridescent silver markings. She had no idea what it was and contacted her friend, Professor J L B Smith at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, some 80km (50 miles) away, with a description of the fish. He identified the fish from fossils as being a coelacanth (pronounced see-la-canth). The fish was described as; the most important zoological find of the century. A living dinosaur … would be no more amazing than this incredible discovery.
Above left a Coelacanth fossil and above right Miss Courtenay-Latimer with her find. Image courtesy of www.goosen.org/index.html.
Another coelacanth was not found until 1952. They have subsequently been shown to be living in plentiful numbers in the waters around South Africa and Indonesia as shown.
The Australian Museum Fish Site makes the following statement:
Coelacanths are known from the fossil record dating back over 360 million years, with a peak in abundance about 240 million years ago. Before 1938 they were believed to have become extinct approximately 80 million years ago, when they disappeared from the fossil record.
A few of the many examples of living fossils
A compilation of living fossils taken from Wikipedia is shown below
Listed below are forms of life that have not changed over their time of existence and the list is increasing each year as more fossils are found.
Bacteria
- Stromatolite, a layered structure created as sediment is trapped by shallow-water, oxygen-creating, blue-green bacteria
Protists
- The dinoflagellateDapsilidinium pastielsii.
- The coccolithophoreTergestiella adriatica
Plants
- Pteridophytes
- Horsetails– Equisetum
- Lycopodiums
- Tree Ferns
- Moss
- Gymnosperms
- Agathis– Agathis in Australia and the Pacific including Almasiga trees in the Philippines
- Araucaria araucana– the monkey puzzle tree
- Cycads
- Ginkgotree (Ginkgoaceae)
- Metasequoia– dawn redwood (Cupressaceae; related to Sequoia and Sequoiadendron)
- Sciadopitys“Japanese umbrella pine”
- Taiwania cryptomerioides– one of the largest tree species in Asia.
- Wollemiatree (Araucariaceae – a borderline example, related to Agathis and Araucaria)[15][16]
- Welwitschia
- Angiosperms
- Amborella– a plant from New Caledonia, possibly closest to base of the flowering plants
- Trapa– water caltrops, seeds, and leaves of numerous extinct species are known all the way back to the Cretaceous.
- Nelumbo– several species of lotus flower are known exclusively from fossils dating back to the Cretaceous.
Fungi
Animals
- Vertebrates
- Mammals
- Aardvark(Orycteropus afer)
- Amami rabbit(Pentalagus furnessi)
- Chevrotain(Tragulidae)
- Elephant shrew(Macroscelidea)
- Laotian rock rat(Laonastes aenigmamus)
- Monito del monte(Dromiciops gliroides)
- Monotremes(the platypus and echidna)
- Mountain beaver(Aplodontia rufa)
- Okapi(Okapia johnstoni)
- Opossums(Didelphidae)
- Capybara(Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
- Red panda(Ailurus fulgens)
- Solenodon(Solenodon cubanus and Solenodon paradoxus)
- Shrew opossum(Caenolestidae)
- Cetaceans
- False killer whale(Pseudorca crassidens)
- Pygmy right whale(Caperea marginata)
- Birds
- Pelicanshave been virtually unchanged since the Eocene, and are noted to have been even more conservative across the Cenozoic than crocodiles
- Acanthisittidae(New Zealand “wrens”) – 2 living species, a few more recently extinct. Distinct lineage of Passeriformes.
- Broad-billed sapayoa(Sapayoa aenigma) – One living species. Distinct lineage of Tyranni.
- Bearded reedling(Panurus biarmicus) – One living species. Distinct lineage of Passerida orSylvioidea.
- Coliiformes(mousebirds) – 6 living species in 2 genera. Distinct lineage of Neoaves.
- Hoatzin(Ophisthocomus hoazin) – One living species. Distinct lineage of Neoaves.
- Magpie goose(Anseranas semipalmata) – One living species. Distinct lineage of Anseriformes.
- Seriema(Cariamidae) – 2 living species. Distinct lineage Cariamae.
- Tinamiformes(tinamous) 50 living species Distinct Lineage Palaeognathae
- Reptiles
- Alligator snapping turtle(Macrochelys temminckii)
- Crocodilia(crocodiles, gavials, caimans and alligators)
- Pig-nosed turtle(Carettochelys insculpta)
- Snapping turtle(Chelydra serpentina)
- Tuatara(Sphenodon punctatus and Sphenodon guntheri)
- Amphibians
- Giant salamanders(Cryptobranchus and Andrias)
- Hula painted frog(Latonia nigriventer)[22]
- Purple frog(Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis)
- Jawless fish
- Hagfish(Myxinidae) Family
- Bony fish
- Arowanaand arapaima (Osteoglossidae)
- Bowfin(Amia calva)
- Coelacanth(the lobed-finned Latimeria menadoensis and Latimeria chalumnae)
- Gar(Lepisosteidae)
- Queensland lungfish(Neoceratodus fosteri)
- Sturgeonsand paddlefish (Acipenseriformes)
- Bichir(Polypteridae) family
- Protanguilla palau
- Mudskipper(Oxudercinae)
- Sharks
- Blind shark(Brachaelurus waddi)
- Bullhead shark(Heterodontus sp.)
- Elephant shark(Callorhinchus milii)
- Frilled shark(Chlamydoselachus sp.)
- Goblin shark(Mitsukurina owstoni)
- Gulper shark(Centrophorus sp.)
- Invertebrates
- Insects
- Mantophasmatodea(gladiators; a few living species)
- Meropeidae(3 living species, 4 extinct)
- Micromalthus debilis(a beetle)
- Mymarommatid wasps(10 living species in genus Palaeomymar)
- Nevrorthidae(3 species-poor genera)
- Nothomyrmecia(known as the dinosaur ant)
- Notiothauma reedi(a scorpionfly relative)
- Orussidae(parasitic wood wasps; about 70 living species in 16 genera)
- Peloridiidae(peloridiid bugs; fewer than 30 living species in 13 genera)
- Sikhotealinia zhiltzovae(a jurodid beetle)
- Syntexis libocedrii(Anaxyelidae cedar wood wasp)
- Crustaceans
- Glypheoidea(2 living species: Neoglyphea inopinata and Laurentaeglyphea neocaledonica)
- Stomatopods(mantis shrimp)
- Triops cancriformis(also known as tadpole shrimp; a notostracan crustacean)
- Molluscs
- Other invertebrates
- Crinoids
- Horseshoe crabs(only 4 living species of the class Xiphosura, family Limulidae: Limulus polyphemus,Tachypleus gigas, Tachypleus tridentatus and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda)
- Lingula anatina(an inarticulate brachiopod)
- Liphistiidae(trapdoor spiders)
- Onychophorans(velvet worms)
- Valdiviathyris quenstedti(a craniforman brachiopod)
- Paleodictyon nodosum(unknown)
- Dendrogramma(not definitively assigned to any existing phylum, bears a strong resemblance to Ediacaran biota organisms)
- Insects
- Mammals
We do not see any credible transitional forms, yet if evolution were true, we would expect there to be hundreds of such life forms. The fossil record does show, however, that the whole range of animal phyla and all of the major plant divisions which are living today were also alive at the time of the dinosaurs. This was affirmed by a thirty-year study by Dr Carl Werner who, with his wife, visited sixty museums and numerous fossil digs throughout the world documenting the evidence and recording interviews with the scientists involved. His report is the subject of his book: Living Fossils Evolution: The Grand Experiment, Volume 2, New Leaf Press, 2008 (see also the below). After such a thorough study, he concluded that:
The fossil evidence does not support changes of one species into another.
Plants and animals that were present with the dinosaurs
