FOSSIL — The
preserved remains (like bones) or traces (like
footprints) of life forms.
GEOLOGIC COLUMN — The layers of rock in
the earth’s crust. They represent the history
of earth’s geologic events. The standard
interpretation suggests a record spanning billions
of years, while those believing in the Flood
read it as a more recent record of a worldwide
catastrophic destruction and as a preservation
of billions of life forms.
FOSSIL ORDER — One of the best arguments
for evolution, the apparently consistent distribution
of fossil types throughout the earth’s
geologic column. The order that animal and plant
remains are found is highly organized, suggesting
to many a record of evolution. Creationists have
tried to answer this problem with theories of
successive Flood destructions of ecosystems (like
sea bottom dwellers, then fish, then moving upward
to various land systems), sorting by animal mobility, “bloat
and float” studies (don’t ask) and
so on. They also point to the lack of transitional
fossil forms in any case.
CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION — The dramatic description
given to the immediate appearance of nearly all
phyla of animal life in the Cambrian layers of
the geologic column (standard model starting
about 542,000,000 years ago), while following
the comparatively fossil-free Pre-Cambrian layers.
Creationists believe this boundary may be roughly
where sediments from the Flood began to accumulate
and preserve the fossil record.
TRILOBITES — An extinct class of arthropods,
ubiquitous in number and diversity immediately
at the beginning of the Cambrian layers. They
dwelt along the shores of bodies of water (some
swam in the water) and resemble beetle-like bugs.
They are the stars of the Cambrian explosion,
and a puzzle to evolutionists as to their complexity
and widespread distribution.
MISSING LINKS — One of the strongest arguments
against evolution, the absence in the fossil
record of transitional life forms. Evolutionists
are generally aware of this problem; Darwin thought
it would be solved with the discovery of more
fossils. However, with a century and a half of
aggressive searching, the problem remains. In
other words, still to be discovered are half-mouse
and half-bat fossils, for example. Some creative
solutions, like Stephen J. Gould’s “punctuated
equilibrium,” have yet to gain wide support.
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