Do fossils really show that creatures gradually evolved from simple to complex? The late fossil expert and evolution defender Steven Gould recognized they didn’t. He said the fossil record shows two clear features.
1. Sudden appearance and 2. Stasis. When a new creature is discovered in the fossil record, it shows up suddenly and fully formed with no gradual forms that let up to it. That’s sudden appearance. Then its basic form stays the same. It doesn’t evolve. And that stasis. All kinds of fossilized creatures show sudden appearance and stasis including creatures like crinoids, Mosasaurus, beard worms, horseshoe crabs, lobster and trilobites. Rather than gradual evolution, the fossil record shows each animal form suddenly appears. Trilobites have perfectly formed body parts right from the start. They show up suddenly with no ancestors and have some of the most complex eyes that ever existed on earth. Does that sound like gradual evolution? They first occur in Cambrian rocks, which often represent the first deposits from Noah’s flood but even when found high above Cambrian rocks, trilobites still look like trilobites as though they were created to reproduce more of their own kind. In the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin hoped future fossil finds would show examples of in-between creatures demonstrating evolution. So far it’s just more stasis, creatures appear suddenly, fully formed and they keep the same form and that’s what we’d expect to find God’s fully-formed creation we read about in The Book of Genesis.