Vacate:
I place my bets that there is not one evolutionist on this board that thinks mudskippers are not transitional. (Not a fair bet really, as anyone who understands the theory would say that about any living creature not doomed for extinction) The interesting thing about the mudskipper is that it is so obviously transitional from one environment to the next that it becomes a living example of the likely path that such creatures as Tiktaalic took so long ago.
Actually, anyone who truly understands the theory would know that extinction has little to do with this. Chronology does, though. Chronology correlates logically with the placement of individuals in any family tree.
'Transitional' forms that appear to be still going strong today are not the pivot point you speak of. If truly related, the modern form is descended from the transitional form that represents the true pivot point. That original creature had descendants who went off in at least two (often more) directions.
That's why scientists talk of
populations and how they change. Populations within a species face different environmental pressures and adapt in various ways. Speciation--the formation of new species--results.
The apparently 'transitional' forms you observe today are different species from the ancient creatures you want to equate them with. Modern coelocanths are not the same species as fossil coelocanths. A modern mud skipper is not
Ichthyostega. A modern chimpanzee, or human, is not the same species as the common ancestor of both.
Still, all species are transitional. It may well be that the modern mud skipper is repeating natural history as we speak. It may be evolving into a terrestrial form. Time will tell.
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Archer
All species are transitional.
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