Claim CB930.1:
The coelacanth, thought to have been extinct for seventy million years and
used as an example of a fish-tetrapod transition, is found still alive,
unchanged in form, today.
Source:
Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master
Books, pp. 82-83,89.
Response:
- The modern coelacanth is Latimeria chalumnae, in the family
Latimeriidae. Fossil coelacanths are in other families, mostly
Coelacanthidae, and are significantly different in that they are
smaller and lack certain internal structures. Latimeria has no
fossil record, so it cannot be a "living fossil."
- Even if the modern coelacanth and fossil coelacanths were the same, it
would not be a serious problem for evolution. The theory of evolution
does not say that all organisms must evolve. In an unchanging
environment, natural selection would tend to keep things largely
unchanged morphologically.
- Coelacanths have primitive features relative to most other fish, so at
one time they were one of the closest known specimens to the
fish-tetrapod transition. We now know several other fossils that show
the fish-tetrapod transition quite well.
Links:
Lindsay, Don, 2000, Living fossils like the coelacanth.
http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/coelacanth.html
Further Reading:
Forey, Peter L., 1998. History of the Coelacanth Fishes. London:
Chapman & Hall.
created 2001-3-31, modified 2004-9-4
