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The Pre-Cambrian EvidenceFossils should shade through one-celled forms at the bottom to man at the top in a continuous spectrum without breaks. This, however, is not what we find. The Cambrian era displays an apparent bursting forth of virtually all known groups together, all with well-developed group characteristics. The Cambrian strata are believed to be the oldest rocks in which we find significant numbers of fossils. Some fossils have now been found in strata which have been classified as Pre-Cambrian. These include what appear to be worm-like casts, algae, actinomycetes (types of fungi) and bacteria. In addition to these organic structures, pristine and phytane, which may have been synthesised by living organisms, have also been discovered in Pre-Cambrian strata, as well as amino acids and monosaccarides. But these remains have all been found lying on or near the surface of the Pre-Cambrian rocks. They were not deeply embedded. In the case of the Gunflint Range, on the north shore of Lake Superior, the remains were best preserved at the eastern end of the formation. It was as though the material had been spread over the surface with the sweep of a huge brush. It all starts hereThese Pre-Cambrian remains, however, are insignificant compared to the rest of the fossiliferous strata. The pattern is very clearly that it is only in the Cambrian that we first see large numbers of fossils. Furthermore, nearly all the main plant and animal groups are found fossilised in the Cambrian. "When we turn to examine the Pre-Cambrian rocks for forerunners of these Early Cambrian fossils, they are nowhere to be found. Many thick (over 5000 feet) sections of sedimentary rock are now known to lie in unbroken succession below strata containing the earliest Cambrian fossils. These sediments apparently were suitable for the preservation of fossils because they are identical with overlying rocks which are fossiliferous, yet no fossils are found in them." (Axelrod 1958) "Fossils are abundant only from the Cambrian onward, which is probably not more than one-fourth of the whole history of life ... Pre-Cambrian fossils are, however, widely scattered in place and time and do not constitute a continuous or, as yet, even a particularly enlightening record." (Simpson 1960) Therefore the first three-quarters of the supposed evolutionary history of life is still missing and there is no obvious reason for this. The Pre-Cambrian rocks should be teeming with forms. No explanation of this state of affairs has proved satisfactory, except the simplest, which is, of course, that those forms were never in the Pre-Cambrian in the first place. "In what is known as the Cambrian period there is literally a sudden outburst of living things of great variety. Very few of the groups which we know today were not in existence at the time of the Cambrian period. One of the problems of the Cambrian period is the sudden appearance of all these forms. All the animal phyla are represented already in the Cambrian period except two soft-bodied phyla (which may have been present without leaving fossil evidence) and the chordates. Even the chordates may have been present, since an object which looks like a fish scale has been discovered in Cambrian rock." (Klotz 1955) It is important to understand the implications of that last sentence. Fossils of some creatures may be abundant: others only come to light after many years of searching, and, when they do, it is often only by chance that they are found. The fact that chordates have not been found in Cambrian strata does not mean that they are not there, merely that they have not yet been discovered. As Michael Denton observed, Pre-Cambrian rocks should be teeming with forms, but they aren't. No explanation of this state of affairs has proved satisfactory, except the simplest, which is, of course, that those forms were never there in the first place. (Denton) References: |
