Similarity of invertebrates

James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu)
Tue, 12 Mar 1996 21:58:16 -0600 (CST)

Glen wrote:> sciences. I am a geophysicist. I agree with George that geology brings
> probably the greatest challenge to one wanting to reconcile science with
> scripture. The biggest problem is that almost of the living animals prior to
> the Eocene (about 55 million) years ago are different from any animal alive
> today. I am working on a mammalian database with the geologic range of the
> living and fossil mammalian species. To date, I have been unable to find a
> single species alive today which was found fossilized prior to the Oligocene
> (about 35 million years ago.) I have only found one or two of these cases.
> Most species are not found in rocks older than the Pleistocene (2 million
> years ago).
>

I really shouldn't take the time since I have two test to finish, but
like Glen I also work professionally with fossils and I thought his post
might lead folks who do not work with fossils into thinking that fossils
are generally rather different than modern taxa. The story is a bit
different for different groups, but in both invertebrates and in the
plant record many of the groups appear rather suddenly in the fossil
record and many of them are quite similar to modern repreentatives. I
am not suggesting that the same species are there, but I am suggesting
that many groups have a very long fossil record and do not show a lot of
change over their range.
Glen's post would 

-- :James F. Mahaffy                   e-mail: mahaffy@dordt.eduBiology Department                 phone: 712 722-6279Dordt College                      FAX 712 722-1198Sioux Center, Iowa 51250