CHAPTER 8 –
Evolution or ecological compartments?
One of the axioms of the
theory of evolution is that fossils should always appear so that the oldest and
more primitive organisms are farther down in the strata. For example, the
trilobite is said to have lived in 200–550 millions years ago and is considered
primitive: therefore, it should always be farther down in the strata than human
beings or dinosaurs. Similarly, other Cambrian organisms should also be located
farther down than humans or dinosaurs. (As comes to the “primitiveness” of
the trilobite, we can note that the eye of a trilobite is more sophisticated
than that of any other known living organism.) Generally, it is presumed
that the oldest strata includes only the remains of marine organisms, whereas
the more recent strata also includes the remains of land organisms. This is
because it is believed that life was born in the sea, developed there, and
gradually moved onto dry land.
Therefore, it is assumed that evolution – and the order of fossils in strata –
have progressed according to this model:
- Organisms of the
Cambrian period, such as the trilobite that lived on silt bottoms of the sea
and generally marine invertebrates. It is believed that all of the animals of
the Cambrian period, and also the plants of the period lived in the seas. It is
believed that the Cambrian period began 600 million years ago.
- Fish that lived in the seas. They are believed to have appeared 430 million
years ago.
- Amphibians that lived on the shores of the seas. They are believed to have
evolved from the fish and laid their eggs in the water.
- Reptiles that are believed to have evolved from the amphibians. Their eggs can
develop also in a dry environment, because their eggs are different in structure
from those of the amphibians.
- Birds and mammals that appeared last on the Earth.
WHY
ARE trilobites not found In upper strata, and bears and other mammals In
CAMBRIAN strata?
A book asks why certain
fossils do not regularly appear in all the strata, and why no quadrupeds can be
found in the oldest strata (Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian,
Permian – these are deemed the oldest periods, when life is believed to have
appeared only in the seas). This is regarded as a good demonstration of
evolution:
Lister’s fellow countryman
John Woodward (1622–1722) noted that certain fossils appear in certain strata
groups and not irregularly spread into all the strata. Neither he nor anyone
else, for that matter, was able to draw any conclusions based on this fact.
(…) Lyell denied evolution, even though he himself had divided the Tertiary
period into smaller parts on the grounds of the abundance of fossils belonging
to both to extinct and also currently living species. Now, he tried to explain
the lack of quadruped fossils from the oldest sediment layers by stating that
these fossils had been destroyed over time. It is true that the fossils of land
animals appear mainly in continental sediments, and that they are under a large
risk of being exposed to erosion and destruction, but this fact can hardly
explain the fact that the fossils of higher animals are completely missing in
the old sediment layers. (35)
However, there is a much more
logical explanation for the previous: ecological compartments. The fact that
trilobites that lived on the silt sea bottom and other marine organisms are not
found in the uppermost strata and quadruped fossils in the lower ones, is simply
due to the fact that the former is marine and the latter land animals. In no way
does this prove that the trilobites lived in a different era than the other
organisms. Neither does it mean that mammals lived in a different era than
amphibians: even now, there are separate ecological compartments or marine,
swamp, highland, mountain, etc. zones.
Of the animal species mentioned below (trilobites, fish, amphibians, reptiles,
birds, and mammals), fish would also now swim above the trilobites, amphibians
would be at the water’s edge and thus above the fish, more reptiles would be
found on dry land above frogs, and mammals (bears, lions, giraffes, elephants,
etc) would be higher up on dry land and in forests. It would be more of a
surprise if trilobites and other marine animals were found only in the upper
layers – for example, above the mammals – and not in the lower layers. This
would certainly be impossible, because the trilobites were marine animals, and
as such, they would always be buried first and be the lowest, while the animals
living on dry land would be buried later.
We could also wonder whether bears, cows, and lions could even have been able to
live amidst the Cambrian organisms or in the sea. Would that not be impossible,
since they are land animals and could not survive in the sea? Therefore, there
is no need to be surprised when the fossils are now found in different layers,
even though they might indeed have lived at the same time.
So, all of these animals may have lived at the same time, only in different
ecological compartments. There is necessarily no difference in the time when
they appeared on the Earth. For example, the three important leading fossils –
the trilobite, the dinosaurs, and human beings – might have lived simultaneously
on Earth, but in different zones. They are usually not found in the same strata,
but this is only because the trilobites were marine animals, the dinosaurs land
animals (mainly living in coastal areas and in flat country), and it is not
likely that people would have lived in close vicinity to the dinosaurs. Only the
supposed idea of evolution can lead us to think that they lived at different
times:
The trilobites of the Cambrian period are usually not found together with the
dinosaurs of the Cretaceous period. Why is this? According to the theory of
evolution, this is due to the fact that the trilobites became extinct millions
of years before the dinosaurs developed. However, there is a much more plausible
explanation: if trilobites and dinosaurs lived nowadays, it is not likely that
they could be found in the same place. This is because they would live in
different ecological zones. The dinosaurs are land animals, while the trilobites
are inhabitants of the sea bed. (…) Therefore, there is no reason to reject the
idea that all life forms buried in the strata have lived almost at the same time
but in different ecological zones. Catastrophism could thus be the explanation
for the entire geological stratographic sequence, just as the founders of
geology supposed. (36)
