ExposingReligion Blog - The Fossil Record of Evolution - Descent with Modification - Lists of Transitional Fossils & Transitional Forms

June 14, 2014

The Fossil Record of Evolution - Descent with Modification - Lists of Transitional Fossils & Transitional Forms

What is a Transitional Fossil?

A transitional fossil is a fossil of an organism that has traits from multiple evolutionary stages. Proponents of creationism claim that “evolutionists have had over 140 years to find a transitional fossil and nothing approaching a conclusive transitional form has ever been found”, despite the discovery of Archaeopteryx (a transitional form between maniraptoran dinosaurs and basal (primitive) birds, and among the best examples of evolution) only two years after Darwin published The Origin of Species. Creationists say that we never saw evolution happen, but transitional fossils are the next best thing.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Transitional_fossil

What are Transitional Forms?

“A transitional form is an organism that has features intermediate of its ancestors and progeny. The term is most common in evolution to refer to organisms that show certain features (wings, feathers, gills and so on) partly in development. In theory, every fossil is a transitional form if it has descendants and each living creature is a transition between its parent and its offspring. However, evolution is about the features of populations rather than individuals; the transition at the species level can be too small in fossils; so the list below concentrates on broad transitional features and the genus or larger group.” ~rationalwiki.org

Evolution: Where Are The Transitional Forms?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfTbrHg8KGQ

9th Foundational Falsehood of Creationism - AronRa

Listing just a handful of the myriad transitional species we’ve found, and that creationists insist do not exist or somehow still don’t count.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfoje7jVJpU

Misconception: “Gaps in the fossil record disprove evolution.”

Response: The fact that some transitional fossils are not preserved does not disprove evolution. Evolutionary biologists do not expect that all transitional forms will be found and realize that many species leave no fossils at all. Lots of organisms don’t fossilize well and the environmental conditions for forming good fossils are not that common. So, science actually predicts that for many evolutionary changes there will be gaps in the record.

Also, scientists have found many transitional fossils. For example, there are fossils of transitional organisms between modern birds and their theropod dinosaur ancestors, and between whales and their terrestrial mammal ancestors.

Transitional Fossils & Evolution - What Are Transitional Fossils?

http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutevolution/a/TransitionalFossilsEvolution.htm

~Lists of transitional

List of transitional forms

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_forms

(A few) transitional fossils

http://www.transitionalfossils.com/

Bradyns Blog: Transitional Fossils

http://www.bradyns-blog.com/2011/02/transitional-fossils.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_fossils

Fossil Specimens

Explore our human fossil collection, including photographs and 3D rotatable scans of hundreds of fossils from different species of early humans.

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils

What Is the Evidence for Evolution Found in the Fossil Record? Richard Dawkins Speech (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_LY-LZtJAs

Transitional Fossils in Evolution pt. 1-4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5DFvDJIQP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0-gnaKvsME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4PMEUWkumM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B87tAiqRmZI

Claim CC200:

There are no transitional fossils. Evolution predicts a continuum between each fossil organism and its ancestors. Instead, we see systematic gaps in the fossil record.
Source:

http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/CC/CC200.html

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html

Transitional Fossils Are Not Rare

http://ncse.com/book/export/html/2201

Transitional Forms (1 of 2)

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/IAtransitional.shtml

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/lines/IAtransitional2.shtml

Fossil evidence

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_02

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/lines_03

Fossil Evidence

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/fossil-evidence.html

Fossils Reveal Truth About Darwin’s Theory

http://www.livescience.com/3306-fossils-reveal-truth-darwin-theory.html

Recently in Transitional Fossils Category

http://pandasthumb.org/archives/evolution/transitional-fossils/

http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Evolution/transitionalfossils.htm

Fossil reveals transitional link from fins to feet

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fossil-reveals-transitional-link-from-fins-to-feet/2014/01/13/b02100c6-7a3a-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html

http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/c.bkgrnd.html

http://www.indiana.edu/~oso/evolution/teaching/te2a.htm

~Descent with Modification - Evolution

Do Gaps in the Fossil Record Disprove Descent with Modification?

http://ncse.com/cej/2/2/do-gaps-fossil-record-disprove-descent-with-modification

We’ve defined evolution as descent with modification from a common ancestor, but exactly what has been modified? Evolution only occurs when there is a change in gene frequency within a population over time. These genetic differences are heritable and can be passed on to the next generation—which is what really matters in evolution: long term change.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIADescent.shtml