Creation & EvolutionForum for the discussion of this important topic. This forum is open to non-believers. There is a Christians-only forum in the Christians-only section too.
Hmm, this already got off on a bad foot with me. Anyone who thinks that additional exclamation marks or use of capitalization lends credence to their views is poorly mistaken.
Note also the tendency to rant about the 'evolutionist' witholding information and such.
Whenever an evolutionist presents his line of evidence for evolution in the fossil record, he will without fail, virtually every time, present a vertebrate transitional fossil.
Ask a person to name an animal and you will probably get a mammal, or possible a bird or reptile. (Case in point, ask me and you will get either a llama or a duck). Vertebrates are usually used as transitional because the bone structures are well known. Everyone knows what a bird or mammal skeleton looks like, so the gradual changes are easy to see. Invertebrate fossils look wierd and alien, so the changes are harder to see to a layperson. It is for this reason that the vertebrate fossils are chosen as the 'standard' fossils.
__________________ Greatest Hovind quote of all time, as voted for by members of CF:
"Teaching the pagan religion of evolutionism is a waste of valuable class time and textbook space. It is also one of the reasons American kids don't test as well in science as kids in other parts of the world."
Well, I stopped reading when he typed all in CAPS, but anyway, seems like standard BS.
The standard argument that if evolution were true we should see thousands of fossils everywhere. He conviently ignores the fact that fossilization is a rare occurance and thus the lack of tons of fossils (all though we have many) is evidence that fossilization events were rare.
Well, the Subphylum Vertebrata is not among the most poplulated, and will probably make up a correspondingly smaller portion of the fossil record. I find 99.9% a little hard to believe, however.
A nitpick, in any case - I believe the better defining characteristic of Vertebrata is the presence of a cranial case. Some members, e.g. lampreys, hagfish, have only rudimentary cartilaginous support structures, hence the presence of a well-developed notochord.
The overwhelming majority of vertebrates have backbone-structures made of cartilage or bone. A few, however, do not. They all do have a cranial case, cartilage or bone, which is why I consider that a better defining characteristic. Thus, the name "vertebrate" is a slight misnomer, but not enough to raise heck about.
FYI, those that don't have true backbones have a notochord, which is a rod, similar in structure to cartilage, that runs parallel to the spinal cord. All members of Phylum Chordata have a notochord at some point during development. Humans have one in early embryonic stages. Eventually, it forms parts of what you probably know as the intervertebral discs.
Linear Mode
