Missing Links: Will we find them…or not? Naturalistic/Evolutionary Perspective

Posted by Alpha Omega Institute on Dec 12, 2013 in Marianis from the Front, The Biggest Challenges to Evolution | 0 comments

 

Introduction:

Missing Links are the hypothetical intermediates between two differing types of organisms, like between humans and apes. They are termed “Missing” because they are…missing. “There are missing links all over the evolutionary tree”[i] between different kinds of organisms. How many missing links are there?  Are they still missing? Why are they missing?

 

Naturalistic/Evolutionary Answer:

“There are many transitional fossils.”[ii]

Darwin’s tree of life explains how all current organisms are related to each other. Undiscovered transitional forms (Missing links) are the bridges or branches backward in time. Species evolve over time and branch out evolving into different species. So there should be a lot of transitional forms. Practically speaking, every fossil that we are lucky enough to find is a transitional fossil as organisms evolve from a previous ancestor into new species.

The number of transitional fossils is unknown. There are many factors as to why all of them have not been found. Fossilization only happens when the conditions are just right, so it is pretty rare. So fossils are pretty rare. Only a small portion of organisms even fossilize. Most fossils are shells, but the larger organisms are even more rare. [iii]

Also, only a small fraction of the available fossils have been found due to the incompleteness of the fossil record, the amount of rock to look through, and the small amount of scientists actually looking and digging for fossils. Erosion, the movement of the rocks, and non-scientific digging endeavors can cause many fossils to be destroyed and lost forever.

It is even possible that as ancient environments changed, the ancient organisms tended to change or evolve rapidly to survive. The change happened so rapidly that fossils are just not preserved, since again, conditions in the environment were not right for fossilization and therefore preserve the organism.

More links between different animal kinds are expected to be found. Just because they have not been found yet, doesn’t mean that they are not in the fossil record.

Every year, we are finding more and more fossils. In recent years, there have been many specific transitional fossils that have been found and here are five examples among others that could be named.

 

Fish to Amphibian Link:  Tiktaalik Rosae

Reptile to Mammal Link:  Thrinaxodon

Reptile to Bird Link:  Archaeopteryx

Land Mammal to Aquatic Mammal Link:  Ambulocetus natans

Quadrupedal Primate to Bipedal Primate Link:  Australopithecus afarensis[iv]

 

Check back tomorrow for the Creation Answer.  Thanks again for your constructive help.

 

by Brian Mariani and others

 

Is the above correct? Do you evolutionists agree with this position? I have tried to write it as you believe it. Do you have any disagreements or concerns or additions?

 

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One thing to keep in mind, each blog is one piece of evidence. Evidence has to then be interpreted, which is not a fact…but evidence strengthening or weakening a specific hypothesis or theory. So there can be multiple ways of interpreting the same evidence. I am not being unscientific, but asking more questions and being skeptical is being more scientific. I am still working on these, so please help with your comments.

 

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