Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ



The Talk.Origins Archive has a list of claimed transitional forms at a section of their website called the, Transitional Vertebrate Fossils FAQ. In investigating these alleged transitions it has been helpful to be as generous as possible, by not raising questions about the dating of fossils and by not questioning reconstructions, except when enough available fossil evidence does not justify the reconstruction.

From a creation science perspective most of the animals preserved in the fossil record were contemporaries such that those that represent the same created kind are not transitional but coexisting varieties of the same created kind, but this issue is not raised in the following responses.

It needs to be noted that some of the conclusions stated in the following responses are based on little evidence and sometimes insufficient evidence for a proper analysis, but that evidence is all that is available on the fossils under consideration.


 * Transition from primitive jawless fish to sharks, skates, and rays.
 * Transition from from primitive jawless fish to bony fish
 * Transition from primitive bony fish to amphibians
 * Transitions among amphibians
 * Transition from amphibians to amniotes (first reptiles)
 * Transitions among reptiles
 * Transition from synapsid reptiles to mammals
 * Transition from diapsid reptiles to birds
 * Primates
 * Bats
 * Carnivores
 * Rodents
 * Lagomorphs
 * Condylarths (first hoofed animals)
 * Cetaceans (whales, dolphins)
 * Perissodactyls (horses, tapirs, rhinos)
 * Elephants
 * Sirenians (dugongs & manatees)
 * Artiodactyls (cloven-hoofed animals)