Re: The Evolution Conspiracy and transitional forms

Jon Hartley (hartle39@idt.net)
Sat, 07 Feb 1998 03:08:52 -0800

David Campbell wrote:
>
> New transitions keep turning up. I'm giving a talk in March on some
> snails, including an undescribed species that is transitional between two
> genera. Entemnotrochus has a long slit, open umbilicus, tall spire and
> straight sides. Perotrochus (soon to be split) has a short slit, closed
> umbilicus, lower spire, and round sides.
>
> David C.

Which brings up a question that I've always had. How do we know, for instance,
that these two snails are related, merely on the basis of appearance or by what
appears to be modification from one appearance to the other? I see no reason
to believe that birds evolved from reptiles, merely because modern birds have
scale structures on unfeathered parts of their bodies.

When you get right down to it, all vertebrate animals, humans included, have
the exact same skeletal structure, with variations. This, to my extraordinarily
untrained imagination, seems to be just as strong a plus for design as for
common decent. On that point, where can we find any transitional examples
to explain the development of this seemingly universal skeletal design?