A Dash of Science with a Hint of Romance (Part 2)

In a way fossils represent adventure and ancient buried treasure.  I remember as a kid thinking about hunting for fossils or wondering what I would find if I dug deeper and deeper in the back yard.   There is also a sense that fossils and specifically the fossil record are critical when making, or breaking, the case for evolution.  In The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (which I reviewed earlier on this blog) Richard Dawkins suggests that, while fossils are a nice bonus, they are wholly unnecessary for making the case for evolution. 

Dawkins asserts that fossil evidence for evolution is very strong but this doesn’t mean it is complete.  Because of the extreme unlikelihood of fossilization and the necessity of finding them under layers and layers of earth it would be unrealistic to expect we would find a completely unbroken chain of forms leading from ancient to modern organisms.  However, that gaps do exist becomes a source of significance for antievolutionists but as in other cases, arguments from gaps are increasingly fragile.

Say you were a big fan of the popular prankster card game 52 card pick up. In the game a deck of cards is presented to an unwitting player. The prankster asks the player if they want to play 52 card pick up. If the player agrees to engage in the game the prankster proceeds to quickly unfurl the card into the air causing them to fly around and come to rest on the floor. The prankster informs the player that they should pick up the cards and says something to the effect of, “OK pick up the cards.  Get it, 52 card pick up.”  Eventually someone picks up the cards but inevitably some get lost.

If the same deck was used for games of 52 card pick up multiple times it would be easy to see how gaps between runs of cards would become evident.

Where we would expect there to be:

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A

After several games of 52 card pick up we might find:

2 3 4    6 7 8 9 10       K A

If you came across the deck of cards and examined them it would be silly to conclude that this particular deck was made with the appearance of gaps or that the absence of the 5 J & Q somehow disproved the principles of poker, slap jack or rummy.  Yet this is the same type of argument that is made about gaps in the fossil record.   The deck is stacked against these types of arguments because when it comes to conclusions from natural evidence science plays by the rules and, like in cards, the dealer always wins.

The Essentials: Spoiler Alert – Take 2

Please forgive me for yesterday’s randomness and lack of content/clarity.  I started out wanting to write something about fossils and ended up writing a brief synopsis of a fun book I read.  The book came to mind because the main tension in the story surrounds a meteorite found buried deep within the ice in the Arctic Circle.  The meteorite is a fossil, in a sense, in that it is a preserved artifact buried under layers of sediment.  In this case the layers of sediment are formed by ice and snow.  This particular meteorite also fits the category of fossil because it contains traces of organisms.  

(Note: It has been a while since I last read the book so details are a bit fuzzy.  Rest assured that I am reviewing the text and will correct any inconsistencies in my recollection as I find them.)

As stated above, fossils are bits or traces of organisms that have been long buried and are then dug up. One of the interesting things about fossils is that they are pretty rare.  This rarity is due to the unlikelihood of fossilization to occur.  For an organism to be fossilized it has to be buried before it is eaten by scavengers or decomposed by detritivores*, buried in such a way that it is not decomposed while underground (which is where a lot of the decomposers hang out), be positioned in a place geologically that will allow for its tissues to be replaced by minerals and finally survive the heaving and weathering that takes place under the subtle yet relentless motions of the earth.

With all of these required conditions it is a wonder that we have any fossils at all.  But, especially considering the enormous timescales that span natural history, fossilization conditions have and will exist and there is an ever growing collection of fossils.  This collection, when considered collectively, is known as the fossil record. 

Like the conclusions drawn from the da Vinci Code  (sorry I just can't give up the Dan Brown references) some of the conclusion from the fossil record have been controversial or, maybe better said, disagreed about.  However there are a few things about fossils that are generally agreed upon.  One is that if you find a fossil in old rocks the fossil is also old.  Another is that there are uncanny connections in structure between older fossils, newer ones and modern day organisms.  A final agreement about fossils is that the fossil record is incredibly incomplete. 

This last point is often cited as proof that evolution is a misguided, unsubstantiated guess put forth by humanistic scientists.  Unfortunately this conclusion is simply wrong.  The rarity of fossilization events to occur actually predicts that there would be limits to the fossil record.  Most unfortunate about the mischaracterization of the fossil record is that it makes those who purvey that viewpoint appear unreliable.  That unreliable quality is then all too easily transferred to other areas such as statements of faith in an all powerful God, who came to Earth as a human, defeated death and provides salvation for anyone who believes.