Nexus - 1001 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

alongside a small one, the next minute there's a small eukaryote mechanism for how species proliferate. with what appears to be a nucleus inside it. Not magic, not a mira- Between extinction events, when environments are stable, life cle, just a biological process unknown today but which could have — doesn't seem to change at all. The operative term is_ stasis. been possible 2.0 billion years ago. Who's to say, except an Everything stays pretty much the same. But after extinction "expert"? In any case, large and small prokaryotes lived side by events, the opposite occurs: everything changes profoundly. New side for 2.0 billion years (long enough, one would think, to learn to life-forms appear all over the place, filling every available niche in do so in harmony), then suddenly a variety of eukaryotes appeared the new environments created by the after-effects of the catastro- alongside them, whole and complete, ready to join them as the he. Whatever that is, it's not gradualism. only game in town for another 1.4 billion years (with no apparent In 1972, (the late) Stephen J. Gould of Harvard and Niles changes in the eukaryotes, either). Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History went ahead At around 600 million years ago, the first multicellular life- and bit the bullet by announcing that fact to the world. Gradual forms (the Ediacaran Fauna) appear—as suddenly and inexplicably evolution simply was not borne out by the fossil record, and that as the prokaryotes and eukaryotes. To this day, the Ediacaran fact had to be dealt with. Darwin's view of change had to be modi- Fauna are not well understood, beyond the fact they were some- fied. It wasn't a gradual, haphazard process dictated by random, thing like jellyfish or seaweeds in a wide range of sizes and favourable mutations in genes. It was something else. shapes. (It remains unclear whether they were plants or animals, That "something else" they called punctuated equilibrium. The or a bizarre combination of both.) They lived alongside the ey to it was their open admission of the great secret that life- prokaryotes and eukaryotes for about 50 million years, to about forms only changed in spurts after extinction events, and therefore 550 million years ago, give or take a few million, when the so- ad nothing to do with natural selection or survival of the fittest or called "Cambrian Explosion" occurred. any of the old Darwinist homilies that everyone had been brain- It's rightly called an "explosion", because within a period of only washed to believe. It was the first great challenge to Darwinian 5 to 10 million years—a mere eye-blink relative to the 3.5 billion orthodoxy, and it was met with furious opposition. The old guard years of life preceding it—the Earth's oceans filled with a dazzling tagged it "punk eek" and called it "evolution by jerks". array of seawater plants and all 26 of the animal phyla (body types) catalogued today, with no new TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES phyla added since. No species from What Gould and Eldredge were the Cambrian era looks like anything . admitting was the great truth that currently alive—except trilobites, There Is simply no way to evolution by natural selection is not which seem to have spawned at least . . apparent in either the fossil record or horseshoe crabs. However. despite reconcile the breathtaking in the life we see around us. The old their "alien" appearance, they all suddenness...the astounding guard insisted that the fossil record arrived fully assembled—males and . . simply had to be wrong...that it wasn't females, predators and prey, large variety...the overwhelming giving a complete picture because and smal. ready 10 20- As in cach incongruity of the large tracts of it were missing. That case before, no predecessors can be . . was true, but much larger tracts were found. Cambrian Explosion. available, and those tracts showed the overwhelming stasis of life-forms in THE PACE HEATS UP every era, followed by rapid filling of Volumes have been written about environmental niches after each the Cambrian Explosion and the menagerie of weird plants and extinction event. So while parts of the record were indeed animals resulting from it. The Earth was simply inundated with missing, what was available was unmistakable. them, as if they'd rained down from the sky. Darwinists concede it Arguments raged back and forth. Explanations were created to is the greatest difficulty—among many—they confront when try- try to counter every aspect of the punk-eek position. None was ing to sell the evolutionary concept of gradualism. There is sim- ever particularly convincing, but they began to build up. ply no way to reconcile the breathtaking suddenness...the astound- Remember, scientists have the great advantage of being considered ing variety...the overwhelming incongruity of the Cambrian by one and all as "experts", even when they haven't the slightest Explosion. It is a testament to the old adage that "one ugly fact idea of what they're talking about. That allows them to throw shot can ruin the most beautiful theory". But it's far from the only one. after shot against the wall until something sticks, or until the target All of complex life as we understand it begins with the of their wrath is covered in so much "mud" that it can't be seen any Cambrian Explosion, in roughly the last 550 million years. During more. Such was the fate of the punk-eekers. By the early 1990s, that time, the Earth has endured five major and several minor cata- they'd been marginalised. strophic extinction events. Now, one can quibble with how an One can hardly blame the old-guard Darwinists for those event catastrophic enough to cause widespread extinctions could attacks. If granted any credence, the sudden radiations of myriad be called "minor", but when compared to the major ones the dis- new species into empty environmental niches could have gutted tinction is apt. The five major extinction events eliminated 50% to many of the most fundamental tenets of gradual, "natural" 90% of all species of plants and animals alive when the event evolution. That idea simply could not become established as a occurred. fact. Why? Because the warm pond was drained dry, We all know about the last of those, the Cretaceous event of 65 biochemistry was rendering the "small-eaten-by-large prokaryotes million years ago that took out the dinosaurs and much of what turned into eukaryotes" story absurd, and the Cambrian Explosion else was alive at the time. But what few of us understand is the was flatly inexplicable. If "sudden radiation" were heaped onto all distinctive pattern to how life exists between extinction events and of that, the entire theory of evolution could flounder...and where after extinction events. This difference in the pattern of life cre- would that leave Darwinists? Facing righteous Creationists ates serious doubts about "gradualism" as a possible explanatory shouting, "See! God did do it after all!". Whatever else the mechanism for how species proliferate. Between extinction events, when environments are stable, life doesn't seem to change at all. The operative term is stasis. Everything stays pretty much the same. But after extinction events, the opposite occurs: everything changes profoundly. New life-forms appear all over the place, filling every available niche in the new environments created by the after-effects of the catastro- he. Whatever that is, it's not gradualism. In 1972, (the late) Stephen J. Gould of Harvard and Niles Eldredge of the American Museum of Natural History went ahead and bit the bullet by announcing that fact to the world. Gradual evolution simply was not borne out by the fossil record, and that ‘act had to be dealt with. Darwin's view of change had to be modi- ied. It wasn't a gradual, haphazard process dictated by random, ‘avourable mutations in genes. It was something else. That "something else" they called punctuated equilibrium. The key to it was their open admission of the great secret that life- ‘orms only changed in spurts after extinction events, and therefore ad nothing to do with natural selection or survival of the fittest or any of the old Darwinist homilies that everyone had been brain- washed to believe. It was the first great challenge to Darwinian orthodoxy, and it was met with furious opposition. The old guard tagged it "punk eek" and called it "evolution by jerks". There is simply no way to reconcile the breathtaking suddenness... -the astounding nes =a er ale eee variety...the overwhelming incongruity of the Cambrian Explosion. 52 * NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2002 — JANUARY 2003