Difference between revisions of "Transitional form"
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In 1984 Gould wrote the following: | In 1984 Gould wrote the following: | ||
{{QuoteBox|The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.<ref>Quoted in Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3832 Refuting Evolution], chapter 3.</ref>}} | {{QuoteBox|The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.<ref>Quoted in Sarfati, Jonathan, [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3832 Refuting Evolution], chapter 3.</ref>}} | ||
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| + | However, in 1994, he wrote, | ||
| + | {{QuoteBox|The supposed lack of intermediary forms in the fossil record remains the fundamental canard of current antievolutionists. Such transitional forms are scarce, to be sure, and for two sets of reasons - geological (the gappiness of the fossil record) and biological (the episodic nature of evolutionary change, including patterns of punctuated equilibrium and transition within small populations of limited geological extenet). But paleontologists have discovered several superb examples of intermediary forms and sequences, more than enough to convince any fair-minded skeptic about the reality of life's physical geneology.<ref>Quoted in Hunt, Kathleen, [http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional/part2c.html#conclusion Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ, part 2C] (Conclusion).</ref>}} | ||
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==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 23:36, August 16, 2007
It has been suggested that transitional fossil be merged with this article or section. (Discuss)
A transitional form is a fossil or living organism that is intermediate between two other organism in an evolutionary sequence. A transitional form that has not yet been found is colloquially called a 'missing link'.
Creationists claim that transitional forms between different kinds of creatures are systematically absent. Anti-creationists typically reject this claim. One such attempted rebuttal is that by Kathleen Hunt who created a Transitional Vertebrate Fossil FAQ.[1]
The lack of transitional forms
Many scientists have admitted the lack of transitional fossils.
The late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said in 1977:
The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology.[2]
In 1979, the senior palaeontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, Colin Patterson, agreed with Gould, when asked why he didn't have any illustrations of transitional forms in his book:
I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. ... Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. I will lay it on the line- there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.[3]
In 1984 Gould wrote the following:
The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution.[4]
However, in 1994, he wrote,
The supposed lack of intermediary forms in the fossil record remains the fundamental canard of current antievolutionists. Such transitional forms are scarce, to be sure, and for two sets of reasons - geological (the gappiness of the fossil record) and biological (the episodic nature of evolutionary change, including patterns of punctuated equilibrium and transition within small populations of limited geological extenet). But paleontologists have discovered several superb examples of intermediary forms and sequences, more than enough to convince any fair-minded skeptic about the reality of life's physical geneology.[5]
See also
References
- ↑ Hunt, Kathleen, Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ (Talk.Origins)
- ↑ Gould, S.J., Evolution’s erratic pace, Natural History 86 (5):14, 1977 (quoted in Sarfati, Jonathan 15 ways to refute materialistic bigotry.)
- ↑ Sunderland, Lewis, Darwin's Enigma, 1988, pp. 88-90 (Quoted in Those fossils are a problem, Creation 14(4):44–45, September 1992).
- ↑ Quoted in Sarfati, Jonathan, Refuting Evolution, chapter 3.
- ↑ Quoted in Hunt, Kathleen, Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ, part 2C (Conclusion).
