TH E FOSSIL RE C O R D

Transcription

1 Adriana, I could not view the guides to check column and photo placement on this chapter. Guides would not turn TH E FOSSIL RE C O R D OF BATS

2 No Evolutionary Ancestors of Bats Have Been Discovered! Scientists have found over 1,000 fossil bats. 1 If evolution is true, and with such an abundant fossil record, one would expect to find fossil ancestors showing the evolution of the bat, such as the formation of a bat s wing membrane over time or the slow elongation of the mammal s fingers to support a wing membrane. (See Chapter 6.) But all fossilized bats discovered to date are fully developed and capable of flying. (See interviews on next page.) There is disagreement among scientists as to the significance of these fossil finds. Evolutionists believe that since fossilization is a chance event and rarely occurs, the fossil record can, at times, be incomplete. Therefore, the absence of bat ancestors does not necessarily imply they did not exist. Scientists who oppose evolution argue that if the ancestors existed, surely some of them should have been fossilized. They believe it is inconsistent to blame the lack of bat ancestors on the processes of fossilization since millions of other fossils from the time period of bat evolution have been fossilized and collected by museums. 2 They suggest this pattern of absence of ancestors is strong evidence that evolution did not occur. Fossil Layers Millions of years ago (MYA)* Post Eocene Eocene Paleocene Cretaceous Jurassic 0 MYA 37 MYA 58 MYA 65 MYA 144 MYA 208 MYA *Scientists do not agree on the age of these fossil layers. 1,000 fossil bats found (dated 52 to 0 MYA) No ancestors found from 53 to 208 MYA. Previous page: Fossil bat, Jura Museum, Germany. Ghost bat, South Australian Museum, Adelaide. 100 The Fossil Record Of BATS

3 From Evolution: The Grand Experiment video series Dr. Gary Morgan is Assistant Curator of Paleontology, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He specializes in bat evolution. There s a ten-million-year period of early mammal evolution where you would guess that there d be some sort of bat precursor, but once again, nothing. Bingo, they just show up We don t have any precursor and that s sort of the major problem with bat evolution is that you get this perfectly formed bat that shows up at the earliest time period, in the Eocene, fifty to fifty-five million years ago There are certain people who think they were specially created. They actually are kind of a problem with the creationists who like to [think] if things were created, here s a very highly complex mammal with all these adaptations and bingo, they just show up at some particular moment in time, fully formed as a bat. Obviously, we evolutionary biologists and paleontologists don t believe that. But at this point, we don t have a good fossil ancestor for them. 3 Dr. Morgan See video Evolution: The Grand Experiment, The Origin of Flight We have no evidence for this evolution. The bats appear perfectly developed in the Eocene. 4 Dr. Viohl Dr. Gunter Viohl, Curator of the famous Jura Museum in Eichstatt, Germany. The Fossil Record Of Bats 101

4 New Mexico Museum of Science and Natural History Above: A modern bat has extremely long arm and finger bones to support the wing. Compare this modern bat above to the fossil bats below. Below, left: The oldest known bat from the fossil record. This bat looks similar to bats of today. Below, right: Fossil bat from Messel, Germany. Impressions of the wing membrane can be seen as black discoloration in this fossil. Fossil bats demonstrate the same wing construction as the modern bat s wing above. Fossil Butte National Monument 2007 AVC Inc., Photo by Carl Werner 102 The Fossil Record Of BATS Jura Museum, Germany

5 Messel Museum, Germany Messel Museum, Germany New Mexico Museum of Science and Natural History Messel Museum, Germany An Amazing 1,000 Fossil Bats Have Been Discovered but None of the Predicted Evolutionary Ancestors Have Been Found! The Fossil Record Of Bats 103

6 From Evolution: The Grand Experiment video series We don t have any non-flying bats, and so we can t pull something out of that, any kind of information out of that, that tells us how they might have evolved. 5 Dr. Czeplewski Dr. Nicholas Czeplewski, Staff Curator of Paleontology, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Science and Natural History. Dr. Czeplewski specializes in bat evolution. Fossil bat from Messel Museum, Germany Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Is There Evidence That Bats Evolved? We have found more than specimens so far [at this one location alone in Germany]. We have no fossil records of bats during the Cretaceous period. This means that we are only depending on speculation, when it [bat evolution] started and what happened in that time. 6 Dr. Habersetzer Dr. Joerg Habersetzer of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Frankfurt, Germany, specializes in bat evolution. What Do You Think? 104 The Fossil Record Of BATS