All
The primary unanswered point here, and near punctuated equilibrium, let alone evoltuion, killer, is that we can see beautiful gradual evolution in the fossil record up a geological column covering million of years in shell-fish paleontology for example. We can track the morphology change - the shape changes, the swirls increase in helicity.
But when we want to see the origin of genuine novelty. Can we see that? No.
We see microevolution in the fossil record over millions of years and hundreds of feet of strata. When we are after the introduction of genuine novelty its record is suspiciously, completely systematically, absent and occurs in a split second of geological time.
[This message has been edited by Tranquility Base, 10-14-2002]