Major evolutionary gaps in the fossil record

As we look at the evidence and try to understand how the present world came into existence, Darwinists and Creationists both have to fill in a lot of gaps. Some of the gaps seem to be real gaps of evidence (for example, because the fossil record is incomplete); others may not be.

The Darwinist starts from the faith position that the origin of all 'life' - i.e. all organisms, including those without consciousness - can be explained by chance, material processes. Despite the immense organisational complexity of even the simplest cell, they maintain that intelligence and design were not necessary; evolution through natural selection can simulate a world that appears to be created. Creationists start from the faith position that the entire universe was brought into being by an invisible personal intelligence outside space and time. On this website they explain the fossil record as a sequence of recolonisation of the Earth following Noah's Flood, in the course of which the originally created kinds of plants and animals diversified - 'evolved' - to produce many different variations, pre-programmed from the beginning.

'Faith' is also exercised where evidence for the preferred explanation of origins is lacking and the explanation is maintained notwithstanding the lack of evidence. This is particularly necessary in the case of Darwinism, which by its very nature requires evidence for evolution throughout the fossil record. To believe in evolution is to believe that, if the fossil record were complete, there would be no gaps, just one genealogical tree beginning with a single root and gradually spreading out into more and more branches. In reality the fossil record does not have this appearance, and a Darwinist therefore repeatedly has to believe that the gaps - which occur at almost all critical points - are the result of the expected evidence not being preserved. Here are examples of what has to believed:

1. 'Life' evolved from non-life, i.e. bacteria - single-celled organisms with a complex genetic programme but no nucleus - evolved by a vast number of unknown, unobserved steps from inorganic chemicals.

2. Single-celled organisms with a nucleus (eukaryotes) evolved by a vast number of unknown, unobserved steps from bacteria.

3. Widely divergent multi-celled creatures evolved by a vast number of unknown, unobserved steps from single-celled ancestors.

4. Unknown early forms of immobile multi-celled organisms evolved backbones to become fish.

5. Fish evolved legs from fins and lungs from gills to become amphibians.

6. Terrestrial invertebrates - millipedes, spiders, insects and so on - evolved from unknown ancestors (an annelid worm?). Some insects somehow acquired wings.

7. Pterosaurs - flying reptiles with wings attached to one exceptionally long finger - evolved from some unknown non-flying reptile.

8. Gliding reptiles such as coelurosauravus evolved from unknown ancestors.

9. Some terrestrial reptiles mysteriously returned to the oceans, evolving paddles from

10. Turtles complete with shelled backs evolved from other unknown reptiles.

11. Modern amphibians - salamanders, frogs, caecilians - appeared from temnospondyl amphibians.

12. Dinosaurs - some 12 distinct superfamilies - evolved by a vast number of unknown, unobserved steps from thecodont reptiles.

13. Birds such as Archaeopteryx, complete with wings, feathers etc, evolved from an unknown theropod dinosaur.

14. Modern birds evolved by a vast number of unknown, unobserved steps from 'feathered' theropods.

15. Modern mammals evolved from "a generalised mammalian ancestor in a rapid evolutionary burst" in the Cretaceous and early Tertiary.

16. Man - Homo erectus and homo sapiens evolved from a common ancestor with apes, Australopithecus afarensis, or Lucy, whose fossil bones are shown, being the closest link found.