Evolutionists produce fossil that plugs 'missing link' in hole cited by creationists

Sorry creationists, the evolutionists have discovered a fossil that ads significant weight to the notion that all life on Earth has evolved from more primitive life. This has been accomplished by finding a "transitional species" that fills a gap in the evolutionary history of the aquatic ichthyosaurs.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Creationists, such as Evangelical fundamentalist, Ken Ham, have often criticized evolution asking, "where are the transitional species?" While the question betrays a lack of understanding about how evolution works, it is still so commonly used that scientists have been pressed to answer it with the fossil record. However, the problem for scientists is that the fossil record is naturally incomplete and relies on new discoveries and luck to fill the gaps.

The idea is that if A and C are related, then B should exist. However, in the absence of species B, then how can you really prove the relationship? One species that has commonly been cited by creationists as particularly interesting is the ichthyosaurs, which is an aquatic dinosaur that shows evidence of having once lived on land, by virtue of its skeletal structure. However, until now there has not been any discoveries of fossils that reveal the missing link between ancestral land creatures and ichthyosaurs.

However, that link now appears to have been discovered in China. An amphibious ancestor of the ichthyosaur, known as "Cartorhynchus lenticarpus," has been identified as a missing link between ichthyosaurs and its more primitive, land-based ancestors.

The Washington Post quoted: "Many creationists have tried to portray ichthyosaurs as being contrary to evolution," said lead author of the study, Ryosuke Motani, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California Davis. "We knew based on their bone structure that they were reptiles, and that their ancestors lived on land at some time, but they were fully adapted to life in the water. So creationists would say, well, they couldn't have evolved from those reptiles, because where's the link?"

Although it took Montani over a year of study to reach his conclusion, his findings hold up well. The bone structure suggests the creature had a shorter snout that ichthyosaurs, and it had flippers and primitive wrists that would have served it on land. The creature also has larger bones, like land-based reptiles had at the time, but unlike fish. Such a bony structure was predicted by scientists.

The foot-and-a-half long fossil was discovered in China's Anhui province in 2011. It is believed to have lived 248 million years ago, just before the ichthyosaurs.

The problem with the "transitional fossils" argument is that evolution takes place very slowly over time. Every example is a transitional species on a continuum between an ancestor and its descendant. It is impossible to say that one individual is a definitive example because every example between it and another will have slight variations-perhaps so slight as to be imperceptible, but variation nonetheless.

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The question is akin to asking at which hour a person went from being young to old. There is no specific hour, for the change occurs so gradually over a lifetime.

Nonetheless, creationists now have the answer to their objection. While none of this displaces the role of God as the ultimate creator of life and guide of the process, it reminds us that evolution is one viable means of creation, as Pope Francis recently reminded.

The case for evolution is once again reinforced by the science.

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