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Paleontologist Günter Bechly: What We Mean by the Missing Transitional Fossil Forms

Summer Seminars

Here is a really interesting interview with German paleontologist Günter Bechly about the fossil record, his current work on evolution’s very difficult “waiting time” problem, and more. (Yes, it′s in English.)

It’s from a Polish group, the En Arche Foundation, which has done fine translating of work by proponents of intelligent design. Dr. Bechly makes some very helpful points. For one, he distinguishes between two meanings of “transitional” fossil forms and identifies the problem these forms pose for Darwinism. 

Certainly, we find organisms that are “morphologically intermediate,” bearing resemblances to organisms that came before and others that came later. What we don’t find is the smooth curve of change expected by Darwinian theory, a “fossil lineage that shows a gradual transition from one form into the other.” The record of abrupt appearances, “explosions” (not just the famous Cambrian explosion), “revolutions,” etc., is not the exception but the rule. Given conventional evolutionary assumptions, this should not be the case!