Reasons to Believe has come up with another factually inaccurate article
about the Cambrian explosion. Fazale Rana writes:
"Fossils previously found in Yunnan province (at sites discovered nearly
100 years ago) and in the Burgess Shale deposits of the Canadian Rockies
tell us that all animal phyla (more than 70) ever to exist in Earth's
history appeared 'at once' about 540 million years ago. (Some 40 phyla have
since disappeared and not a single now one has appeared.)" Fazale R. Rana,
"Cambrian Flash," Connections First Quarter 2000, p. 3
While it is true that the majority of the phyla do appear in the Cambrian
(but not all at once) there is one animal phyla that has no fossil record
and was only discovered in 1995. The report can be found at: Petar Funch and
Reinhardt Mobjerg Kristensen, "Cycliophora is a new phylum with affinities
to Entoprocta and Ectoprocta," Nature, 378, Dec. 14, 1995, p. 711.
Now it is also not true that all phyla appeared in the Cambrian. Some appear
in the Precambrian. Sponges, plylum Porifera, appear in the Precambrian: see
Martin Brasier, Owen Green and Graham Shields, "Ediacarian Sponge Spicule
Clusters from Southwestern Mongolia and the Origins of the Cambrian Fauna,"
Geology 25(1997):4:303-306, p. 303
The ediacaran is Precambrian.
Mollusks also are found below the Cambrian: see Fedonkin, M. A., and B.M.
Waggoner. 1997. The late Precambrian fossil Kimberella is a mollusc-like
bilaterian organism. Nature 388(Aug. 28):868 and Mikhail A. Fedonkin and
Benjamin M. Waggoner, "The Late Precambrian Fossil Kimberella is a
Mollusc-like Bilaterian Organism," Nature, 388(1997):868-871,
Annelids are first found in the Precambrian, not the Cambrian: "About 25
percent of the specimens collected at Ediacara are annelids. The most
common genus, Dickinsonia, may have survived into Paleozoic time. A similar
form, Spinther, is still living as an ectoparasite on sponges." ~ Preston
Cloud and Martin F. Glaessner, "The Ediacarian Period and System: Metazoa
Inherit the Earth.", Science, 217, August 27, 1982, p. 788.
And last but not least, phylum protozoa has been found in the Precambrian.
Thus the claim that there are all animal phyla are first found in the
Cambrian is simply false. Christians need to be sure that their facts are
correct when they make claims which are supposed to support the Bible.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Mar 25 2000 - 22:31:42 EST