I'd like to propose a new thread examining ToE in the context of the fossils that are used to support the transition between land mammals and whales.
Specifically, how many speciation events would be needed to take place to evolve a land mammal to a genuine whale?
And how many mutations necessary to create a single speciation event?
If easier to grasp, how many to create a speciation event that likely creates 2 species incapable of sexually reproducing?
Let's call these speciation events "steps". I would think evolutionists, considering their dogmatism, would have fairly full theories as to the needed steps involved, with considerable range of course. Assuming that is done, my next question is:
What percentage of these steps are shown in the fossil record?
Let's say it would take 1000 speciation events. How many theorized speciation events does the fossil record show to date?
Lastly, is there any speciation event along this theorized chain that is documented in the fossil record, meaning the species prior and the species afterwards if shown?
The reason for asking for this last step is to see if the fossil record actually documents even one of the many theorized speciation events needing to take place.
I think this would be a useful, educational exercise, even if we resort to wild guesses because it can illustrate and educate concerning what is and is not shown in the discovered fossil record, and we can then argue from an understanding on other threads about the data.
It seems to me that the fossil record does not actually conclusively document one speciation event much less than the hundreds or perhaps thousands needed for a land mammal to whale transition.
Another related exercise could be to compare so-called intermediaries with differences in living species, and see if the living species were discovered at different strata, what evolutionist conclusions would be based on current assumptions of ToE.
This message has been edited by randman, 08-03-2005 07:30 PM
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