Living Fossils: Ferns and Crabs

Most of the public are unaware that there are literally hundreds of different types of animals and plants which are alive and well and which are essentially unchanged from the way they appear as fossils. Such facts make it difficult to believe that these forms were separated by those imagined millions of evolutionary years.

Each issue of Creation magazine shows you examples, courtesy of Dr Joachim Scheven, who oversees the world's largest collection of living fossils in his faith-funded creation museum LEBENDIGE VORWELT at Unterm Hagen 22, D-58119 Hagen, Germany.

The overwhelming message of the fossil record is one of staying the same, not evolving. Of course, many types have gone extinct, and so arc not found living. These types also show no sign of real evolution throughout their `stay' in the record.

Above: A living Comptonia peregrina from North America.

Top right: The same species of Comptonia found as a fossil, supposedly millions of years older. No evolution has taken place.

Middle right: Living horseshoe crabs, Limulus polyphemus.

Bottom right: Fossil Limulus from Solnhofen limestone—Upper Jurassic (supposedly about 140 million years old). A serious challenge to evolution.