Most fossils are found in the Cambrian layer of the geological column. Scientists say the Cambrian represents a period from around 500 million years ago to around 1 million years ago. The Cambrian contains an almost simultaneous appearance of many different fossils. This appearance is known as the “Cambrian explosion.”

Professor Jeffrey Levinton says, “The Cambrian explosion was characterized by the sudden and roughly simultaneous appearance of many diverse animal forms almost 600 million years ago. No other period in the history of animal life can match this remarkable burst of evolutionary creativity.”ⁱ

The theory of evolution suggests that throughout history, simple organisms evolved into more complex creatures. However, in the Cambrian, we find that the complex life forms existed right at the beginning. 

Evolutionary Lawns

Most information about creatures evolving is shown in the form of evolutionary trees. However, these trees are simply scientists’ speculation. The actual fossil record evidence does not show evolutionary trees but rather evolutionary lawns. Evolutionary trees show one ancestor branching off into other organisms that evolve later in time. In a lawn, however, all the branches are parallel, and there is no common ancestor. This means that the creatures existed at the same time, rather than evolving into each other.

The simultaneous appearance of all major animal groups is strong evidence for Creation. Darwin even admitted that the issue caused problems for his theory, and “must remain inexplicable and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained” (emphasis added).ⁱⁱ

Neo-Darwinist Stephen Gould suggested that evolution occurred through “punctuated equilibrium,” or periods of no change punctuated by periods of rapid change. However, the theory of punctuated equilibrium does not make genetic sense without the presence of a Designer.

Current concepts require millions of years for creatures to evolve from one form to another. Therefore, the layers in the fossil record are said to represent vast time periods. In the past, evolutionists have lengthened these time periods in order to prove their theory. Now, in the absence of evidence for slow, gradual evolution, these time periods are being reduced. Researchers from MIT and Harvard have actually cut the length of the Cambrian period in half.ⁱⁱⁱ

Stephen Gould states that full diversity of creatures occurred in the Cambrian explosion. Could this rapid appearance of animals in fact be Creation?

Learn about evidence for a worldwide Flood in the fossil record. Updated April 2010.

i Jeffrey Levinton, “The Big Bang of Animal Evolution,” Scientific American (November 1992).

ii Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species Reprint (New York: Heritage Press, 1963).

iii S. Bowring, TIME (December 1995).