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Living fossils are plants or animals that closely resemble species known from fossils. Many such organisms were considered extinct and only known through fossil evidence, but were later discovered alive.
It is presumed by evolutionists that fossils are much older than is correct due to a failure of the naturalist community to recognize the occurrence of the Biblical global deluge. Based on an incorrect naturalistic assumption, stratified rock is believed to have accumulated gradually, with the strata separated by millions of years. Therefore, animals, such as the dinosaurs, are believed to have gone extinct 65 million years before humans lived on earth.
However, according to the Bible and its chronology, all plants and animals were created around the same time only a few thousand years ago. Most naturalists find this thought laughable and yet many plants and animals alive today have changed little from their relatives that allegedly lived millions of years ago. In fact, most living fossils are almost identical to their fossilized ancestors.
Examples of Living Fossils
Note: All dates provided assuming uniformitarianism are given for discussion of naturalist interpretation and do not imply belief in the accuracy of these dates
- Army Ants date back 100 million years to the time of the dinosaurs.[3]
- Brittle Star date back 140 million years to the time of the dinosaurs, in Jurassic. A fossil found in England of a Palaeocoma tenuibrachiata can be found in the Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.[1]
- Coelacanth — Dates back 400 million years. Coelacanth fossils pre-date the dinosaurs by millions of years, and were thought to have gone extinct with them 65 million years ago until one was discovered alive in 1938.[5][6][7]
- Crinoid or Sea Lily — has been found in sediments supposedly dating back 150 million years, yet the modern living variety is virtually identical.[8]
- Dragonfly dates back 230 million years, but is unchanged in almost every detail.[11][12]
- Ginkgo tree belongs to the family Ginkgoaceae which dates back 270 million years. They were unknown to Europeans until discovered in 1691 in temple gardens in Japan.[13][14]
- Horseshoe Crab — Believed to have lived 300 million years ago, but remains almost identical today.[15]
- Nautilus — Believed to have lived 500 million years ago, but remains almost completely unchanged. [16][17][18]
- Laotian rock rat (Laonastes aenigmamus) identified in 2005 as belonging to a group of rodents thought to have gone extinct 11 millions years ago. [19]
- Neopilina mollusks share a close relationship with fossils that existed about 400 to 500 million years ago.[20]
- Sea urchin date back 140 million years to the time of the dinosaurs, in Jurassic. A fossil found in England of a Hemicidaris intermedia can be found in the Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.[1]
- Sturgeon is claimed to be 250 million years old, and living since the time of the dinosaurs.[22]
- Tuatara is thought to have been around longer than any other living reptile, and unchanged in over 200 million years.[23] [24]
- Wollemi pine — "Dinosaur Tree" — Not discovered living until 1994, this genus of trees dates back to about 150 million years ago and allegedly coexisted with the dinosaurs.[26]
- Hummingbird Thought to have evolved around one to two million years ago, scientists recently discovered a virtually unchanged ancestor to the humming bird which they dated at 30 million years old.[27]
- Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis - Dubbed a new species, but considered a living fossil, this creature was the precursor to modern-day frogs.[28]
- Phyllium celebicum (leaf-imitating insect) have remained morphologically similar for an alleged 47 million years.[29]
Living Fossil Quotes
- Niles Eldredge, Curator, American Museum Of Natural History, under the heading "Living Fossils", in his book, FOSSILS, 1991.
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...there seems to have been almost no change in any part we can compare between the living organism and its fossilized progenitors of the remote geological past. Living fossils embody the theme of evolutionary stability to an extreme degree. ...We have not completely solved the riddle of living to an extreme degree. ...We have not completely solved the riddle of living fossils. (pp.101, 108)
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...were thought to have been extinct by the end of the Middle Devonian [385 MYA]. Modern Neopilina species, however, were dredged from the deep oceans in the 1950's... (p.101)
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- P. Arduini and G. Teruzzi cite Neopilina as an example, PREHISTORIC ATLAS, 1982.
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There are also numerous organisms, in the present day fauna and flora, which can be regarded as living fossils; one of the best known among them is Neopilina, the only living representative of a class of mollusks...thought to have been extinct for 350 million years before 1957, when Neopilina was caught off the coast of Costa Rica. (p.78)
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The Gingko biloba is the sole surviving species of a very old group of gymnosperms which died out 100 million years ago. (PREHISTORIC ATLAS, 1982, p.78)
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- Keith S. Thomson, Ex. Officer, Academy of Natural Sciences. LIVING FOSSIL, 1991
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Off the coast of southern Africa, in the winter of 1938, a fishing boat called The Nerine dragged from the Indian Ocean near the Chalumna River a fish thought to be extinct for 70 million years. The fish was a coelacanth, an animal that thrived concurrently with dinosaurs...
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The first members of this group appeared some 424 million years ago in the Silurian and look quite like the modern forms. The last fossils became extinct about 50 million years ago. (p.72)
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This species was widespread and reasonably common in the Pliocene of North America... The tree was thought to be extinct worldwide until living specimens were found in central China in 1945. (p.72)
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- Sue Rigby, British Geological Survey, Nature Vol.363, p.209, 3/18/93
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All paleontologist dream of finding a 'living fossil.' Noel Dilly, it seems has done so... As graptolites are arguably the most important zone fossils of the Lower Palaeozoic (570-360 million years before the present), this is far from an esoteric issue.
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- Lee Hsiang Liow, A Test of Simpson’s 'Rule of the Survival of the Relatively Unspecialized' Using Fossil Crinoids [31] in The American Naturalist 2004, Vol. 164, pp. 431-443, University of Chicago, 0003-0147/2004/16404-40222.
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Prolonged stasis in a world of change is a puzzling biological phenomenon.
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Related News
- 'Living Fossil' Discovered in Pacific Ocean A species of ancient eel has recently been discovered living in a reef off the coast of the Republic of Palau in the Pacific Ocean. The Christian Post, Aug. 18, 2011.
- Chinese salamander reappears in Yichang, Hubei The Chinese salamander, often referred to as a "living fossil", has reappeared after a more than a 111-year-absence. People's Daily Online, March 29, 2007
- French Scientists Find 'Living Fossil' Specimen (Neoglyphea Neocaledonica) was presumed extinct for 60 million years. BreitBart.com, May 19, 2006
- Retired FSU professor captures a 'living fossil' on video Laotian Rock Rat was presumed extinct for 11 million years. EurekAlert, June 13, 2006
- "Living fossil" discovered in SW China Experts recently discovered around 1200 Chinese Hynobiidaes in Guiding county Southwest of China's Guizhou province. These are a type of amphibian species around 300 million years old that once used to live in the dinosaur period. People's Daily Online, July 21, 2006
- New mouse find is 'living fossil'. BBC, October 12, 2006
- Scientists Find Lamprey A 'Living Fossil': 360 Million-year-old Fish Hasn't Evolved Much. Science Daily, October 26, 2006
- Rare primitive shark captured on film Shark presumed extinct for 80 million years. Daily Mail, January 25, 2007
- Video analyzed by physicist Evidence for what investigators believe is the bioluminescent glow of two living pterosaurs
ReferencesRelated ReferencesSee Also
