Transitional Forms, The (The Transitional Species)

The theory of evolution claims that all living species on Earth, past and present evolved from one another. The transformation from one species to another, according to this theory, occurred slowly and in stages. Therefore, there must have been at least several transitional forms between two successive species, exhibiting characteristics of each. For example, there must have been creatures with both gills and lungs, fins and feet, alive during the millions of years between the time that fish first left the water and became amphibians. Evolutionists call these imaginary creatures "transitional forms."

If this theory were true, there would have to be millions, even billions of such creatures that lived in the past, and some of these monstrosities must have left remains in the fossil record. But so far, the fossil record has revealed not one single transitional form. In his book The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin writes these words in his chapter entitled "Difficulties on Theory":

Why, if species have descended from other species by insensibly fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined? . . . But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth? . . . Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory. 254

Taking their lead from these words, evolutionist paleontologists since the 19th century have been scouring the globe in search of these transitional forms. In spite of all their efforts, they have not found any. All the findings from their research and excavations have revealed, contrary to their expectations, that living creatures appeared on Earth all at once and fully formed.

Professor G. G. Simpson is an ardent Darwinist, but he goes so far as to say: ‘The absence of transitional forms is an almost universal phenomenon.' This is true of invertebrates as well as vertebrates and also of plants. He adds: ‘The line making connection with common ancestry is not known even in one instance.' The rodents, he notes, appear suddenly, already equipped with their specialized gnawing teeth. As to the mammals, ‘In all 32 orders of mammals, the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed.'255

Today, there are more than 100 million fossils in thousands of museums and collections all over the world. All these are divided from the others by definite demarcations, and all have their own unique structures. No fossils of semi-fish/semi-amphibian, semi-dinosaur/semi-bird, semi-ape/semi-human and similar life forms of the kind so optimistically expected by evolutionists have ever been unearthed. The absence of a single intermediate form among such a rich fossil record shows, not that the fossil record is lacking, but that the theory of evolution is untrue.

If we find fossils, and if Darwin's theory was right, we can predict what the rock should contain; finely graduated fossils leading from one group of creatures to another group of creatures at a higher level of complexity. The ‘minor improvements' in successive generations should be as readily preserved as the species themselves. But this is hardly ever the case. In fact, the opposite holds true, as Darwin himself complained; "innumerable transitional forms must have existed, but why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?" Darwin felt though that the "extreme imperfection" of the fossil record was simply a matter of digging up more fossils. But as more and more fossils were dug up, it was found that almost all of them, without exception, were very close to current living animals. 256

The fossil record shows that living species came into being all at once, fully formed in all their variety, and remained unchanged throughout long geological periods. A noted evolutionist paleontologist at Harvard University, Stephen Jay Gould, acknowledges this fact:

1) Stasis-most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is usually limited and directionless;
2) Sudden appearance-in any local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of its ancestors; it appears all at once and "fully formed."257

In general, evolutionists deliberately use the concept of transitional forms to mislead. The term "transitional form" refers to a developing creature midway between two species with insufficient and partly formed organs. Sometimes, because they misunderstand the idea of a transitional form, Darwinists impute transitional-form characteristics to a creature that is not transitional at all. For example, the fact that one group of living creatures exhibits characteristics commonly found in another group, does not imply that the first group is a transitional form.

A fine example is the Australian platypus. This creature is a mammal but lays eggs like a reptile, and also has a beak like a duck's. Scientists call the platypus and other such animals "mosaic creatures." Noted paleontologists such as Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge state that evolutionist paleontologists do not count the platypus as an example of a transitional form.258 (See Platypus.)

254. Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, pp.172-280.
255. Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Great Evolution Mystery, London: Abacus, Sphere Books, 1984, p. 78.
256. Francis Hitching, The Neck of the Giraffe: Where Darwin Went Wrong, New Haven: Ticknor and Fields, 1982, p. 40.
257. S.J. Gould, "Evolution's Erratic Pace," Natural History, Vol. 86, May 1977.
258. S.J. Gould & N. Eldredge, Paleobiology, Vol 3, 1977, p.147.