Index Fossils
QUESTION: What are index fossils?ANSWER:The encyclopedia Britannica defines index fossils as “any animal or plant preserved in the rock record of the Earth that is characteristic of a particular span of geologic time or environment. A useful index fossil must be distinctive or easily recognizable, abundant, and have a wide geographic distribution and a short range through time. Index fossils are the basis for defining boundaries in the geologic time scale and for the correlation of strata.”
That particular span of geological time and the rock strata associated with it define a geologic period in the geologic column. To fully understand index fossils we need to understand the geologic column. The geologic column was developed by
Sir Charles Lyell in 1830. The ten strata systems that compose the “standard geologic column” are the familiar Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Tertiary periods.
The problem with using the geologic column and index fossils for dating is that the fossils are dated by the rock layers they are in and the rock layers are dated by the fossils that are in them. This is a classic case of circular reasoning. This dating of index fossils was done over 100 years before radiometric "dating" techniques were developed.
In addition to circular reasoning, some serious questions remain on index fossils, the geologic column, geologic time, and the whole evolution scenario. Some of these are as follows:
- Evidence of human activity is seen throughout the entire geologic column.
- Polystrate fossils -- These are fossilized trees that extend vertically through multiple geologic layers. If the rock strata were laid down over millions of years, the tree would have decomposed by that time.
- Human footprints have been found within dinosaur footprints near Glen Rose, Texas.
- Lack of any transitional fossils that would be abundant if evolution were true.
- Testimony of evolutionists -- Niles Eldridge, Curator, American Museum Of Natural History, ". . . there seems to have been almost no change in any part we can compare between the living organism and its fossilized progenitors of the remote geological past. Living fossils embody the theme of evolutionary stability to an extreme degree. . . .We have not completely solved the riddle of living fossils." (FOSSILS, 1991, p.101, 108.)
The circular reasoning between index fossils and the strata in the geologic column is not the only place where evolutionary scientists have used circular reasoning. They also use it when arguing the survival of the fittest. The definition of the “fittest” is those that survive the best.
If we consider that evolutionists use circular reasoning, have used many hoaxes, frauds, and misrepresentations, and have no evidence to support evolution against a backdrop of much evidence refuting evolution, we must completely reject evolution.
