Sometimes a SciCre-ist rashly proclaims that no transitional fossils exist. There are some good reasons to suppose that these people do not quite have the wherewithal to back up their claims, like the existence of transitional fossils.
"Because of the critical role which transitional fossils played in convincing scientists of the occurrence of organic evolution, paleontologists have been appalled that many otherwise well-informed persons have repeated the grossly misinformed assertion that transitional fossils do not exist. Consequently, after a relatively brief and non-exhaustive search of the literature available to me, I compiled the examples of transitional fossils presented here."
-- Roger J. Cuffey, Paleontologic Evidence and Organic Evolution, in Science And Creationism, ed. A. Montagu, 1984.
Cuffey's paper was originally published by the American Scientific Affiliation. This is the group that the ICR splintered off from many years ago. Cuffey gives several different categories of transitional fossils. The first two sets are called "transitional individuals", because the record is essentially complete enough that one can see each gradual shift in the transition. There are fifty-nine references for sequences in the group that record transitions within the same genus. There are forty references for sequences that record these fine-grained transitions crossing higher taxa.
Recall that Cuffey's survey is not exhaustive.
The following text is my standard challenge that I present to people who claim that there are no transitional fossils.
Last Updated: 950324
The Challenge:
If SciCre-ists are "well-informed" enough to comment on evolution and evolutionary mechanism theories, why is it that so few seem to have even a passing familiarity with the biological evidence?
Look at this reference:
Barnard, T. 1963. Evolution in certain biocharacters of selected Jurassic Lagenidae. In: Evolutionary Trends in Foraminifera (G.H.R. von Koenigswald, ed.). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Now, it is up to you to show why the fossil sequence described therein fails to show transitional fossils. After you outline your objections to this sequence, I have another 100 or so sequences showing fine grained transitions ready to go, one at a time, until either you demonstrate that none are actually transitional, or you give up your ludicrous claim.
Consider yourself challenged.
The bibliography comes from the examples in Tables 1 & 2 in Roger Cuffey's excellent paper, Paleontologic evidence and organic evolution, which can be found in Montagu's "Science and Creationism" or the Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 24(4), just in case you want to get a jump-start on the rest of the entries.
Please note that unfamiliarity with the reference above is a tacit failure of the claim of absence of transitional sequences -- the claim requires *complete* knowledge of fossil sequences, and unfamiliarity with any is prima facie evidence that the claimant doesn't have the basis for the claim.
The people whose names appear below all made a claim or implication of absence of transitional sequences, and were served up with a version of the Transitional Sequence Challenge. This is a roster of who they were, when they were challenged, where they were, and how they responded to the challenge.
Date Name Forum Response 940228 Bruce Willis CONTROV Disappeared 940309 Michael Funk CONTROV None 940510 Johnnie Odom CONTROV None 940714 Andrew Cummins Evolution "Prove all biologists accept it" 940717 Ras Mikael Enoch t.o. None 940718 Jim Pattison CONTROV "Can't find the reference" 940816 Charles Edward Evolution None 940917 Davey Jones Evolution None 941002 Lane P. Lester Evolution None 941030 John Shirey t.o. None 941129 Kevin Clark Evolution None 941208 Doug Wagner Evolution None 941214 Jim Loucks t.o. None 950312 Mark Russell misc.education.science None 950322 Ross Wolfle t.o. Implied recantation
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