Horse fossils don't show evolution (Talk.Origins)

Claim CC216.2:


 * The fossil record does not show a gradual development from a small animal to the large modern horse. The horse family tree is not simple and direct; some scientists say Eohippus was not an ancestor of the modern horse; and the different types of fossils show stability, not gradual change.

Source:
 * Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1985. Life--How Did It Get Here? Brooklyn, NY, pp. 66-67.

Note: Talk.Origins chose the worst possible source. A better one would be The non-evolution of the horse.

CreationWiki response:

So Talk.Origins is admitting that the claim is 100 percent correct on this point, yet it can't seem to bring itself to acknowledge the fact.

However demonstrating a gradual, linear progression is needed to show common ancestry. If all one has are the disjointed "branches" of the fossil record then it only shows a lineage if one assumes a common ancestor to begin with. That's the key. Evolutionists assume a common ancestor and they are just trying to find the relationships they already assume exist. But an explanation based on the assumption of evolution cannot be used to demonstrate evolution. Creationists, on the other hand, do not assume a relationship but are trying to see if one even exists.


 * 1) Most creationists see the so-called horse family as consisting of at least three different created kinds so this point would be irrelevant to most creationists.
 * 2) Talk.Origins' analysis of Wood and Cavanaugh is flawed.  They speak of "biological trajectories", not ancestry.  The theory is that these "biological trajectories" are a relationship, not a lineage.  So while in Wood and Cavanaugh's model Hyracotherium and horses would have had common ancestors that came off the ark, horses would not have evolved from Hyracotherium.
 * 3) Creationists accept rapid change and speciation, but not the evolutionary hypothesis that requires the addition of new genetic information by chance, as goo-to-you evolution requires.  Variation and speciation that is the result of a sorting or loss of genetic information can occur quite rapidly.
 * 4) Talk.Origins is committing the fallacy of contrasting "biologists" with "creationists", despite the fact that some biologists are creationists and some creationists are biologists.