Before the Cambrian Explosion

By Jon Covey, B.A., M.T.(ASCP)
Edited by Anita Millen, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.

Recent discoveries of animal embryos existing before the Cambrian Explosion have forever shattered the old dodge that there is no Precambrian invertebrate fossil record because the animals were soft-bodied and small and therefore were not fossilized.

Scientists found the embryos in Doushantuo phosphorites in southern China, possibly 570 million years old by evolutionary reckoning. Phosphatization is a means of preserving incredible detail, according to S. Conway Morris of Cambridge University. [Kerr] How this process works is unclear, says paleontologist Andrew Knoll of Harvard University.[Kerr]

Darwin claimed the reason we have not found the innumerable intermediate links demanded by his theory is the extreme imperfection of the fossil record. Evolutionists claim that fossilization of soft-bodied organisms is rare. They believe the ancestors of Cambrian life were soft-bodied, without the hard chitinous or calcareous exoskeletons of their evolutionary descendants. Finding such delicate embryos fossilized strongly argues against this. The complexity of these fossil embryos implies that there must have been even earlier, unknown ancestors. [Kerr]If these tiny, multicellular embryos could be preserved, then why not the proper ancestors of the 75 to 100 phyla seen in the Cambrian explosion?

Molecular evolutionists estimate the time of divergence of the Cambrian ancestors from 670 to 1200 million years ago. However, correlation of the Doushantuo deposits with deposits of "known" age, puts the age estimate at 570 million years. This has become a point of contention between molecular biologists and paleontologists.

The Fossil Record by John Morris, Ph.D., in The Young Earth, Master Books, Colorado Springs, p. 70, (1994).
  • 95% of all fossils are marine invertebrates, particularly shellfish.
  • Of the remaining 5%, 95% are algae and plant fossils (4.75%).
  • 95% of the remaining 0.25% consists of the other invertebrates, including insects (0.2375%).
  • The remaining 0.0125% includes all vertebrates, mostly fish, 95% of the few land vertebrates consist of less than one bone. (For example, only about 1,200 dinosaur skeletons have been found.) 95% of the mammal fossils were deposited during the Ice Age.
  • The fossil record is best understood as the result of a marine cataclysm that utterly annihilated the continents and land dwellers (Genesis 7:18-24; II Peter 3:6).
That Their Words May Be Used Against Them, By Henry Morris, 1997, Master Books, Green Forest, 487 pages. Hardcover approximately $21.95.
By Jon Covey, B.A., M.T.(ASCP)
Edited by Anita Millen, M.D., M.P.H., M.A.

Morris’ new book contains thousands of quotes from leading evolutionists and a few well known creationists. Each of the 15 chapters is divided into sections containing dozens of quotes. For example:

Cowen, Ron, "Searching for Cosmology’s Holy Grail," Science News, vol. 146 (October 8, 1994), pp. 232-234.

"How old is the universe?
"After years of fractious debate, astronomers still don’t know the answer. Some believe the universe is 10 billion years old, others argue that it’s closer to 20 billion. At the center of the controversy lies a number that has obsessed astronomers for decades—the Hubble constant (p. 232).
"The trouble is, no one can agree on the size of this constant. At best, astronomers have pinned the number down to within a factor of 2. Based on conflicting sets of observations and personal prejudices, two camps have sprung up since the 1970s. Several groups of researchers, using different measurement methods, favor a high value for the Hubble constant. This suggests a relatively small, young universe—one that began its expansion about 10 billion years ago. Others argue for a low Hubble constant, implying a cosmos about twice as old (p. 232)."

It was very easy for me to type in these three quotes because the book comes with a CD-ROM which contains about two dozen of the best creationist books and the latest version of Quick Verse (Parsons). I discovered that swans, ibis, and many other birds have wing claws because they were in Morris’ book.

Reference

Kerr, R.,, "Pushing Back the Origins of Animals," Science 279:803, (1998).