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Feliks, J. 2015. Debunking evolutionary propaganda, Part 11: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: ArthropodaPleistocene Coalition News 7 (1): 12-14.

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DEBUNKING EVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA, Part 11

The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Arthropoda

A lifelong reader of textbooks in every field exposes “thousands” of examples of false statements of fact and other propaganda techniques easily spotted in anthropology, biology, and paleontology textbooks


By John Feliks


tn_Phacops-coiled_Devonian.Sylvania-Ohio1200dpi-autolevels-h600.jpg

 Fig. 1.
The 100-yrs famous trilobite, Phacops rana (coiled specimen; Devonian; Medusa Quarry, Lucas Co., OH), now changed to Eldredgeops (!) for reason of evolutionary “theory.” Niles Eldredge himself knew that the trilobite record did not support Darwinian evolution. Eldredge and Gould’s resulting punctuated equilibrium is a scientific error of equal magnitude. There are many trilobite genera but Eldredge knew they each remained the same throughout their tenure.

The date ranges in this article are from Fossilworks: Gateway to the Paleobiology Database, Macquarie Univ. Dept. of Biological Sciences, Sydney, Australia—assembled by hundreds of paleontologists internationally; Sam Gonn III's superb site, trilobites.info/index.htm. Honolulu; and many other sources.


“So where did trilobites come from? …The evidence is neither clear nor unambiguous.”

-Sam Gonn III, PhD, biologist; trilobite authority, and webmaster of the comprehensive resource trilobites.info


Trilobites are extinct undersea arthropods that are one of the most successful and diversified animal groups of all time. (See the author’s fossils in Figs. 1-7, each recovered direct from formations across the U.S. and Ontario, Canada, over a 30-yr span.)

Dr. Gonn’s statement about the mysterious origins of trilobites should have a familiar ring to it. As pointed out earlier, this is the same observation made of all organisms. But the public doesn’t know it because it is routine in the evolution community to admit “problematic evolution” for the organism at hand while implying that other organisms have been figured out in evolutionary terms. They haven’t. Proof of evolution has not been established for a single group—not one species, not one genus, not one family, order, class, phylum, or any other category.

Trilobites represent a single plan with thousands of variations, and the same is true for all other subgroups of the phylum arthropoda (Fig. 2). The first insects? Insects. The first

(continued on page 13)

Genus Current living fossils Range Fossils recovered in situ by the author
Arthropoda

Phylum

Includes crustaceans; e.g., lobsters, crabs, and shrimp; as well as insects, trilobites, etc.

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
542 million years

Cambrian–Recent;
542.0 MYA–Present

Worldwide
tn_Greenops-boothi_Hungry-Hollow-Arkona-Ontario-scan3_1200dpi-crop+26cntrst+18brt_web.jpg  
tn_Hollardops-mesocristata_Early-Dev_TazoulaOt Formation_Morocco_WikimediaCommons-crop.jpg

Left: 1 3/8" long (3.5 cm)

Left: Greenops; Devonian; Arkona, ON.
Right: Hollardops; (Wikimedia C.); Two “genera” no more different than Chihuahuas and dachshunds

Crustacea

Subphylum

Class Malacostraca: crabs, crayfish, shrimp, etc. Phyllocarida, its oldest Subclass

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
509 million years

Cambrian–Recent;
509.0 MYA–Present

“The history of malacostracans..is subject to doubt and argument.” -CL & MA Fenton

Worldwide  
Dithyrocaris_Malacostracan-Crustacean_Devonian_Hungry-Hollow_Arkona-Ontario_h600dpi.jpg 
Nebalia_bipes_living-Malacostracan-Crustacean_Wikimedia-Commons-crop.jpg

Left: 1 1/2" long (3.8 cm)

Left: Echinocaris, Phyllocarid Malacostracan;
Devonian; Arkona, ON. Right: Nebalia, a living
Phyllocarid; Wikimedia Commons

Ostracoda

Class of Crustaceans

Tiny shrimp-like animals live in clam-like shells; the fossil record’s most common arthropods

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
500 million years

Cambrian–Recent;
500.0 MYA–Present

Worldwide

tn_Eoleperditia-fabulites-ostracods-bryos-brachs-slab2_Ordovician_Neebish-Island_U.P._jfeliks_1200dpi_neg-inv-detail.jpg  383px-CypridinaMediterranea[Wikipedia]grayscale-crop.png

Left, each 1/4" long (7 mm)

Left: Eoleperditia fabulites (a.k.a. Leperditia);
Ordovician; ostracods in negative; Neebish Island,
MI, U.P. Right: Modern-day ostracod; pub.dom.

Chelicerata

Subphylum

Arachnids (e.g., scorpions, mites, spiders, daddy longlegs), horseshoe crabs, etc.

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
445 million years

Ordovician–Recent;
445.0 MYA–Present

Worldwide

Spider-nodule_take4.1_Youngstown-Terre-Haute-Indiana_1200-dpi-color_tigher-crop+17+4.jpg

1/2" wide (1.2 cm)

Cryptomartus hindi, early spider-like Trigonotarbid
(Sil-Perm); Penn; Youngstown, IN; Some of oldest
land animals; obvious similarity living forms.


Fig. 2.

A few examples of “thousands” of living fossils—classes, orders, families, genera (presently arthropods), showing no evolution over hundreds of millions of years.

GenusFormer living fossilsRangeFossils recovered in situ by the author

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Elrathia-kingi_Cambrian_Antelope-Springs_Utah_600dpi-rotate-tightest-crop-clean-equalize+12cntrst-10brt_h500.jpg  tn_Elrathia-kingi-2-scan2_Cambrian_Antelope-Springs_Utah_1200dpi-autolevels-neg-inv.jpg

1 1/4" long (3.6 cm); 7/8" (2.2)

Elrathia, a.k.a. Conochorphe (conocephalites);
Cambrian; Equalized and neg. for detail;
Antelope Springs, Utah

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Prosaukia-curvicostata_large-head-spine_next-to-small-glabella_Cambrian_Waucedah-MI-U.P.600dpi+21cntrst+5brt_h400.jpg  tn_Dikelocephalus_tb-watercolor-commission1982-ofR.Perlman-painting1962_150dpi_grayscale_autolevels.jpg

2 3/8" long (6 cm)

L: Prosaukia head spine (orig. Dikelocephalus misa);
Cambrian; Waucedah, MI, U.P. R: commissioned 1982 watercolor
of R. Perlman 1962 orig.


Fig. 3.

As Eldredge, Gould, and others observed, once species enter the fossil record, they never change. Yet evolutionary stories continue to be sold to the public as fact.

Page 12


PLEISTOCENE COALITION NEWS

Page 13


Fig.5-composite_DebunkingEvoProp-Prt11_PCN#33_300dpi-qual5.jpg

Fig. 5.

Proof of low rigor in Darwinism. Top: Do we see one dog species or two? Answer: Everyone knows that Chihuahuas and great Danes are the same species despite differences. Middle: One human species or three? Answer: Everyone knows that Pygmies, white people, and African Tutsis are the same species despite differences. Bottom: Two species of trilobite or six? Answer: The evolution community sees not only six different species but six genera: Greenops (jf), Bellacartwrightia (WikiCom), Hollardops (WikiCom), Cryptolithus (jf), Reedolithus (WikiCom), and Onnia (WikiCom)—and many more than just three of each. Explanation for the discrepancy: Where the evidence for sameness is testable, evolutionists can’t bulldoze anyone. However, give them free reign over the fossil record where they don’t think anyone can challenge them and unaccountability ensues creating the illusion of evolving species. This test is proof that Darwinism is low-rigor science.


crustaceans? Crustaceans. Crabs, lobsters, shrimp? Crabs, lobsters, shrimp. In every case, the oldest of each organism known from the fossil record is already that organism.

The truth of this was known by Charles Darwin. He knew that the fossil record was a problem for the theory of evolution because it did not provide the evidence the theory predicted.


Name-changing

One trick in the evolution community that helps create the illusion of evolution is the constant naming and re-naming of fossils to try and force-fit them into evolutionary templates.

Responding to the confusion this practice causes, Roderic Page, Professor of Taxonomy and former Editor of Systematic Biology, said that multiple names made it difficult even for someone like himself to figure out. In his opinion, names should be unique and stable (Taxacom Digest 75 [15], 2012). To illustrate the problem Dr. Page is talking about, I have included samples of trilobite renames in each of the figures. See especially Calymene celebra in Fig. 4.


The deceptive effects of hair-splitting and creating new genera

Artificially splitting up established genera to create new  genera (e.g., Fig. 1, Fig. 5) makes it appear as though each had shorter existence spans and narrower geographic ranges than if consolidated. Like name-changing, artificially adding genera perpetuates the

(continued on page 14)

Genus
Former living fossils  Range
Fossils recovered in situ by the author

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
 

Spergenaspis boonensis_Highway12-trilobite2-scan2_Mississippian_War-Eagle-Arkansas_1200dpi-rotate_crop-rotate.jpg  Spergenaspis boonensis_Highway12-trilobite_Mississippian_War-Eagle-Arkansas_1200dpi-rotate_crop+17cntrst-crop.jpg

Left image 9/16" wide (1.7 cm)

Left: Spergenaspis boonensis coiled; Right: Flat specimen
disarticulating. Rare Mississippian trilobite unique to Benton Co.,
AR, Boone Formation; War Eagle, AR

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links


Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

Triarthrus-trilobite-whole_two-sides_Bellefonte-PA_1200dpi.jpg  Triarthrus-trilobite-whole_two-sides_scan2_Bellefonte-PA_1200dpi-crop_side2-crop+34cntrst.jpg

5/16" long (8 mm)

Triarthus eatoni; Two impressions of the same trilobite.
Ordovician; Bellefonte, PA; Like several trilobites, Triarthus are
sometimes found with appendages preserved.

See also the author’s Lingula with pedicle preserved.

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
tn_Calymene-celebra4_Silurian_Mississippi-River_Grafton-Illinois-scan3_1200dpi.jpg

1 7/16" long (3.7 cm)

Calymene celebra (a.k.a. Flexicalymene c.,
Gravicalymene c
., Apocalymene c., or Sthenarocalymene c.);
Silurian; Bluffs of the Mississippi River; Grafton, Illinois

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
Calymene_Waldron-shale-Indiana_jfeliks_600dpi-rotate.jpg
 
15/16" long (2.4 cm)

Calymene breviceps; Silurian;
Waldron Quarry, IN

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links


Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
tn_Ceraurus-trilobite_Ordovician_Neebish-Island_U.P.MI_jfeliks_1200dpi_+12cntrst-3brt_comp-Gabriceraurus+35cntrst.jpg  Gabriceraurus-dentatus_Mid_Ordo_Bobcaygeon_Form._Southern_Ontario_Wikimedia-Commons_DSC01563-crop-7cntrst.jpg

1 1/4" long (3.2 cm)

Left: Ceraurus pleuroexanthemus; Ordovician;
Chandler Falls, Escanaba, MI, U.P. Right: Gabriceraurus;
WikiCom. Two “genera” about as different as beagles and
basset hounds

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links


Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Ditomopyge_Pennsylvanian_Paris-Illinois_1200dpi.jpg  tn_Paladin-chesterensis-pygidium_Mississippian_Sulphur-Indiana_1200dpi+20cntrst.jpg

1/2" wide (1.3 cm)

Ditomopyge and Paladin of the Phillipsiidae family
(last surviving trilobites); Carboniferous-Permian; L: Penn;
St. Aloysius Quarry; Paris, IL. R: Miss; Sulphur, Indiana


Fig. 4.

Former living fossils. The evolution community is not objective regarding fossils. Once in the fossil record every taxon remains as it was until it goes extinct. Examples recovered by the author from formation across the U.S. and Canada over 30-yr. span.

Page 13


PLEISTOCENE COALITION NEWS

Page 14


v

tn_Dalmanites-head-&-compound eye_Silurian_Grafton_Illinois_1200dpi-crop-equalize-neg-inv_clean.jpg

tn_Flexicalymene-from-Ohio-4-roadcut_Middleton-OH_1200dpi-clean.jpg
Fig. 7.

Trilobites are a thousand varieties based on a ‘single plan’ that lasted 269 million years (e.g., the Cambrian–Permian trilobites in this article). They are no more evolutionarily significant than dog breeds are; and anyone who knows the fossil record, has experienced it in the field, and who hasn’t been programmed into a paleontology-anthropology religion through blinkered education knows that the invertebrate fossil record is absolutely profound with trillions of chronological layers across tens of thousands of miles which easily would show smooth transitions in great number were evolution even remotely true. Top-down: Sphaeroxochus rominjeri, Silurian, Phoneton, OH; Dalmanites limulurus showing remarkable compound eyes, Silurian; Grafton, IL; and Flexicalymene meeki (formerly Calymene), Ordovician, Butler Co., OH.



illusion that genera evolve. Get rid of tricks like this and the trick of flipping between multiple definitions of genus and species and organisms will show longer time spans (see Part 2, Fictions taught as fact in college textbooks, 1st half, PCN #23, May-June 2013).

Longer time spans for each and every type of organism is not exactly what evolutionary theory had in mind. However, if this is what the evidence shows then everyone has a right to know that this is what the evidence shows. That’s how science works; you don’t pick an ideology first and then only publish evidence that supports that ideology.

If the facts after 150 years of Darwinism are not bringing everyone to a confident sense that prehistory has been resolved then the public has a right to know.

As to the arthropod fossil record, we have an extremely large number of fossils to go by and it is clearly not a record of organisms morphing and mutating into each other. The only thing that can be said for certain is that it is a record of remarkable organisms with each type remaining essentially the same over vast stretches of time.

____________

 
John Feliks has specialized in the study of early human cognition for twenty years demonstrating that human cognition does not evolve. Earlier, his focus was on the invertebrate fossil record studying fossils in the field across the U.S. and parts of Canada as well as studying many of the classic texts such as the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology and Index Fossils of North America.
Genus
 Former living fossils
 Range

Fossils recovered in situ by the author

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links


Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide


tn_Asaphiscus-wheeleri-underside_Cambrian_Antelope-Springs-Utah_1200dpi+45cntrst+3brt.jpg

2" long (5 cm)

Asaphiscus wheeleri; Cambrian; House Range,
Wheeler Formation; Antelope Springs, Utah, prior to
commercialization of the famous site

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
tn_Pseudogygites_Gorgean-Bay-Craigleth-Ontario_clean-autolevels-equalize-marquee_front-page.jpg

1 7/8" long (4.8 cm)

Pseudogygites latimarginatus; Ordovician;
South shore of Georgian Bay; Craigleith, Ontario

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Crassiproteus-sibleyensis-pygidium-w-bryozoans_Devonian_Sibley-Quarry-Trenton-MI_jfeliks_1200dpi.jpg

1/2" long (1.2 cm)

Crassiproteus sibleyensis pygidium (tail);
Rare Devonian trilobite from the long-closed Sibley Quarry,
Detroit, Michigan

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide
Peronopsis-interstrictus_Cambrian_Antelope-Springs_Utah_1200dpi_crop_23cntrst-dust-scratches3-92.jpg

1/4" long (6 mm)

Peronopsis interstrictus (a.k.a. Agnostus interstrictus,
or Entomolitus); Cambrian; Antelope Springs, Utah

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Calymene-celebra2-external-mold-portion-scan2rotate_Silurian_Mississippi-River_Grafton-Illinois_1200dpi-autolevels-neg-inv-crop-for-clean.jpg

1 1/16" long (2.2 cm)

Calymene celebra; Believe it or not, this fossil is
only a ‘hole’ in the rock—not a 3D positive fossil.
It was scanned and converted to negative resulting in this
beautiful image almost impossible to see as the
external mold that it is; Silurian; Bluffs of the
Mississippi River; Grafton, Illinois

Trilobita

Class

No evolutionary links

Unchanged
269 million years

Cambrian–Permian; 521.0–252.0 MYA

Worldwide

tn_Isotelus-gigas_Ordovician_Kaufman-PA_1200dpi-color_rotate-crop+38cntrst+28brt_h700.jpg

Approximately 2" long (4.3 cm)

Isotelus gigas; Ordovician; Trenton Limestone;
Kaufman, Pennsylvania


Fig. 6.

One reason that biology, paleontology, and anthropology are able to spread evolutionism without normal scientific restraint is because the public and most scientists have little direct contact with the fossil record.


Page 14

Return to The Pleistocene Coalition

Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, Part 1: Basic propaganda techniques in college textbooks
Return to
Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 2: Fictions taught as fact in college textbooks, 1st half
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 3: Fictions taught as fact in college textbooks, 2nd half
Return to
Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 4: Evolutionists are not qualified to assess 'any' evidence
Return to
Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 5: Mandatory U.S.-legislated indoctrination now in place, 1st target, captive-audience children in K-12 science classrooms
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 6: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Brachiopoda
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 7: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Mollusca
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 8: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Porifera and Cnidaria
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 9: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Echinodermata
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 10: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Bryozoa
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 11: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Arthropoda
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 12: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Trace fossils & graptolites [PDF]
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 13: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Plants [PDF]
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 14: The inconvenient facts of living fossils: Fishes and invertebrates [PDF]
Return to Debunking evolutionary propaganda, part 15: Tetrapod evolution credibility questioned via invertebrate fossils [PDF]

Recent external mathematics publications:

Feliks, J. 2012. Five constants from an Acheulian compound line. Aplimat - Journal of Applied Mathematics 5 (1): 69-74.

Feliks, J. 2011. The golden flute of Geissenklosterle: Mathematical evidence for a continuity of human intelligence as opposed to evolutionary change through time. Aplimat - Journal of Applied Mathematics 4 (4): 157-62.

Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 1: Proof of straight edge use by Homo erectus
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 2: Censoring the world's oldest human language
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 3: Base grids of a suppressed Homo erectus knowledge system
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 4: 350,000 years before Bach
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 5: Gestalten
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 6: The Lower Paleolithic origins of advanced mathematics
Return to The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 7: Who were the people of Bilzingsleben?
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The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 8: Evidence for a Homo erectus campsite depiction in 3D
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The graphics of Bilzingsleben series, Part 9: Artifact 6 'Lower tier' in multiview and oblique projections

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Contact the author of this article: feliks (at) umich.edu