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tury in the reaJm of natural history.'"
Latimei'Ía provides a real enigma for
the evolutionary theory.
Lathneria is the same as the ancient
coelacanth (see-la-kanth) which suppo–
sedly lived over 350 to about 70 mil–
lions of years ago, only to vanish in the
record of the rocks at the end of a geo–
logícal period dubbed "Cretaceous."
Jacques Millot, the director of Mada–
gascar's Institute of Scientific Research,
acknowledged: "Throughout tbe hun–
dreds of millions of years the coe–
lacanths have kept the same form and
struch1re. Here is one of the great mys–
teries of evolution ..." ("The Coe–
lacanth," Scientific American, Dec.
1955, p. 37).
The coelacanth is but one of the
many "living fossils'' - living forms
of life which doseiy match fossil ones
thought to be millions of years old.
Other Unchanged Life Forms
That "unmentionable" insect, the
ubiquitous cockroach, is one of these
"living fossils."
Cockroaches, according to the evolu–
tionary concept, have been around for a
very long time. And, they "still exist in
much the same form" as they did 250
million years ago, according to evolu–
tionary science ("lnsects in Amber,"
Scientific American, Nov. 1951, p. 57) .
This durable breed- the cockroach,
reckoned as being 350 million years
older than man - hasn't changed at all
in the time assigned to it! Every time
you see one of these nocturnal creatures,
think of the LACK of change it has
exhibited for supposedly about 350 mil–
lions of years! One can only wonder, if
evolution be true, why the cockroach
has remained alive and well, with no
need for evolving, in this mind-defying
period of time.
The same is true for our old picnic
friend - the ant. Her exact kind might
have plagued your picnic basket and
spoiled your fun millions of years ago.
Fossils of the common black ant (Por–
mica f11Sca) have been found in remains
said to be 70 tnillion years old (1bid.,
p. 58).
In fact, as the "lnsects in Amber"
article admitted: " . .. by and large the
insect population of today remains
1'emarkably similar to that of the earlier
The PLAIN TRUTH
age. All the major orders of insects now
living were represented in the ancient
Ol igocene forest. Some of the specific
t:ypes have persisted throughout the 70
million years since then with l ittle ot no
change . . ." (pp. 60-61).
The same holds true for the drag–
onfly. Fossils of this marvelous creature
almost exactly rescmbling the modern–
day dragonfly appear in rocks scientists
have called "Jurassic." These rocks,
according to the commonly accepted
geological time scale, are assumed to
have been laid down about 170 million
years ago. (See "The Dragonfly : Fossil
on Wings," Science Digest, May 1961 ,
page 6.)
Now that is a very commendable feat
for any dragonfly'
Trilobite Partner Unchanged !
Another amazing discovery that was
to jolt the scientific world carne in the
1950's. A deep-sea mollusk (Neopili?ta
galatheae) was recovered off the coast
of Central America at a depth of about
two miles! "lts foss il relatives have
been discovered in rocks estimated to be
some 350 million years old" (Essentials
of Earth Hútory, Carl Stokcs P. 431) .
These mollusks were assumecl to have
become extinct about 280 mi llion years
ago. But since the 1950's, scientists
have realized that Neopilina galatheae
is still with us and tmchanged!
Reptile Defies Cbange
On some small offshore islands near
New Zealand is another forro of "living
fossil." It is the tuatara or Sphenodon.
Scientists confess: "The skeleton of a
reptile found in the Jurassic deposits of
Europe is so nearly identical with that
of the living tuatara that very little
change in the bony struch1re must have
taken place during a period of 150,-
000,000 years" ("The Tuatara: Why Is
It a Lone Survivor ?" by Charles M.
Bogert, Scie1ltific Monthly. March 1953,
page 167).
Tht world-famous vertebrate paleon–
tologist Georgc Gaylord Simpson calls
the lizardlike Spbenodon "one of the
most remarkable examples of evolu–
tionary stagnation. It is aJmost ident ical
in stmcture with ancestral forms from
the Jurassi<;, and the evolutionary rate
of this line has been virtually nil for the
January 1971
last 135,000,000 years or more" (The
¡Vf.eaning of E110ltttio11, p. 47) .
Why hasn't the Sphenodon evolved
in a supposed 135,000,000 or more
ycars)
Now Consider T hese ...
Charles B. Walcott made sorne puz–
zli ng discoveries in 191 O, near the town
of Field, British Columbia. Here, on the
slope of Mount Wapta, is a bed of rock
which scíentists bave dubbed "Middle
Cambrian.'' This rock would be con–
sidered nearly one ha l f billion
(500,000,000) years old.
From what is now called the Burgess
Shale Fauna, Walcott described 70 gen–
era and 130 species of perfectly pre–
served remains of such creatures as
sponges, jellyfish, and a remarkable
array of annelid worms in which even
the bristles, scales, and intestinal tract
are highly preserved ! All are like the
modern variet ies.
Forros similar to the modera brine–
shrimp were found preserved as delicate
carbon films on the beddiog planes
where bedding and cleavage 10 the
shale coincide.
Why haven't these creatures of the
sea evolved? The postulated figure of
one half billion years is indeed a long
time for them to remain unchanged.
We should not fail to notice that on
the evolutionary ladder, the scorplons
and millipedes are considered as being
the first air-breathing animals of long
ages ago. Speaking about these "early"
scorpions, Dunbar writes: "These first–
known scorpions are small creatures,
not over 2 Y2 inches long, and the ir
resemblance to modero scorpions is
slrikiug" (Hislorirt~l Geology, 1960, p.
171).
Hcre, again, we are face to face with
the dear evidence of ''living fossi ls"
from the geological record and the liv–
ing record around us.
Plant Enigmas, T oo
Animals are not the only forms of
life represented by puzzl ing "living fos–
sils." Consider the plants.
The cycads are challenging examples
of "living fossils" in the plant world.
Theodore Delevoryas of Yale University
writes: "The tme cycads, of the order
Cycadales, were in existence since early
Triassic times, or, perhaps, even earlier"