Anyone familiar with evolutionary biology knows that turtles remain one of the most poorly understood groups of vertebrates, especially given their poor fossil record -- there just aren't that many transitional turtle fossils out there to help root them in the amniote tree.
That changed today.
Check out Odontochelys, the toothed turtle:
It's an odd-looking reptile with a turtle-like head (with teeth!), no carapace, yet it has a turtle's plastron (under-belly)! Weird. Better still, it appears on the surface that this might be a case of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny because, in living turtles, the plastron develops before the carapace during embryonic development.
Really cool stuff. A transitional turtle. Now if only we could figure out where bats came from...
Gracious! You surely know that Haeckel's drawings and doctrine of recapitulation has been proved false -a fabricated lie- for about as long as it has been in vogue!
There are no transitional forms because God created everything according to its kind and commanded it to multiply it's kind.
There has been unlawfully and genetically mixed kinds, by genetic manipulation before the flood, and after [translated as "cutting of roots" from 1 Enoch], but the results are chimera, not transitions, and was and is totally forbidden by God.
You can read about that in the Book of Giants [from the dead Sea Scrolls; the Book of Jasher, and the Book of Enoch, besides in the OT.
Jasher 4:18 And their judges and rulers [the fallen Watchers/sons of God] went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the Lord; and God saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals.
In the book of Samuel, there is a lion-el chimera, slain by a certain man. The Emims/Yemim [from the giants] are named from the Hebrew word for "terrors" and there is a description of some, in the Book of Jasher.
Deu 2:10 The Emims dwelt therein in times past, a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakims; Which also were accounted giants, as the Anakims; but the Moabites call them Emims [
terrors].
2Sa 23:20 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two
lion-el of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow:
Genesis 36:24
And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the
yemin[Hebrew word] in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.
Jasher 36:
http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/jasher/home.html
And the sons of Shobal were Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam, and the sons of Zibeon were Ajah, and Anah, this was that Anah who found the Yemim in the wilderness when he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And whilst he was feeding his father's asses he led them to the wilderness at different times to feed them. And there was a day that he brought them to one of the deserts on the sea shore, opposite the wilderness of the people, and whilst he was feeding them, behold a very heavy storm came from the other side of the sea and rested upon the asses that were feeding there, and they all stood still. And afterward about one hundred and twenty great and terrible animals came out from the wilderness at the other side of the sea, and they all came to the place where the asses were, and they placed themselves there.
And those animals, from their middle downward, were in the shape of the children of men, and from their middle upward, some had the likeness of bears, and some the likeness of the keephas, with tails behind them from between their shoulders reaching down to the earth, like the tails of the ducheephath, and these animals came and mounted and rode upon these asses, and led them away, and they went away unto this day.
And one of these animals approached Anah and smote him with his tail, and then fled from that place. And when he saw this work he was exceedingly afraid of his life, and he fled and escaped to the city. And he related to his sons and brothers all that had happened to him, and many men went to seek the asses but could not find them, and Anah and his brothers went no more to that place from that day following, for they were greatly afraid of their lives.
In another place in Jasher a man lost his ox -or something like- and searched around a mountain, heard it from a sealed cave; split the rock over the cave opening with his "rod" and found a chimera eating his ox. He killed it and the people celebrated the slaying of that creature as a yearly celebration -if I remember correctyly. I'll have to look that up to find just where it is, but there may turn up fossils of chimera at any time, and all it will prove is that God's word is true from the beginning. He forbad mixtures of kinds and set voundaries to keep it from happening naturally; angels fell and taught this to Adamkind and they mixed kinds "to provoke God", as Jasher states.
In the Book of the Gaints, written by Enoch, there is this:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/gigantes/esp_gigantes_3.htm
Book of Giants -- Reconstructed Texts A summary statement of the descent of the wicked angels, bringing both knowledge and havoc. Compare Genesis 6:1-2, 4.
1Q23 Frag. 9 + 14 + 15 2[ . . . ] they knew the secrets of [ . . . ] 3[ . . . si]n was great in the earth [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] and they killed manY [ . . ] 5[ . . . they begat] giants [ . . . ]
The angels exploit the fruifulness of the earth.
4Q531 Frag. 3 2[ . . . everything that the] earth produced [ . . . ] [ . . . ] the great fish [ . . . ] 14[ . . . ] the sky with all that grew [ . . . ] 15[ . . . fruit of] the earth and all kinds of grain and al1 the trees [ . . . ] 16[ . . . ] beasts and reptiles . . . [al]l creeping things of the earth and they observed all [ . . . ] |8[ . . . eve]ry harsh deed and [ . . . ] utterance [ . . . ] l9[ . . . ] male and female, and among humans [ . . . ]
The two hundred angels choose animals on which to perform unnatural acts, including, presumably, humans.
1Q23 Frag. 1 + 6 [ . . . two hundred] 2donkeys, two hundred asses, two hundred . . . rams of the] 3flock, two hundred goats, two hundred [ . . . beast of the] 4field from every animal, from every [bird . . . ] 5[ . . . ] for miscegenation [ . . . ]
The outcome of the demonic corruption was violence, perversion, and a brood of monstrous beings. Compare Genesis 6:4.
4Q531 Frag. 2 [ . . . ] they defiled [ . . . ] 2[ . . . they begot] giants and monsters [ . . . ] 3[ . . . ] they begot, and, behold, all [the earth was corrupted . . . ] 4[ . . . ] with its blood and by the hand of [ . . . ] 5[giant’s] which did not suffice for them and [ . . . ] 6[ . . . ] and they were seeking to devour many [ . . . ] 7[ . . . ] 8[ . . . ] the monsters attacked it.
4Q532 Col. 2 Frags. 1 - 6 2[ . . . ] flesh [ . . . ] 3al[l . . . ] monsters [ . . . ] will be [ . . . ] 4[ . . . ] they would arise [ . . . ] lacking in true knowledge [ . . . ] because [ . . . ] 5[ . . . ] the earth [grew corrupt . . . ] mighty [ . . . ] 6[ . . . ] they were considering [ . . . ] 7[ . . . ] from the angels upon [ . . . ] 8[ . . . ] in the end it will perish and die [ . . . ] 9[ . . . ] they caused great corruption in the [earth . . . ] [ . . . this did not] suffice to [ . . . ] "they will be [ . . . ]