“Evolution: a gradual change in the characteristics of a population of animals or plants over successive generations” (Collins English Dictionary, 2011). There has been a vast amount of evidence provided by scientists and paleontologists since Charles Darwin’s expedition to the Galápagos Islands in 1831. Yet there remains the argument against evolution by those who believe in intelligent design, and this argument is still regarded credible by the lack of evidence for evolution in key areas such as the fossil record’s ‘missing links’.
The fossil record can be used to observe evolution by natural selection by looking at many layers of rock from different time periods. You can look at the oldest rocks and work upwards to the surface and observe how
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To observe these transitions, there must first be a mutation to produce an advantageous allele, and then this allele must increase in frequency to be observed in a population. This process occurs over millions of years and for speciation to occur, isolation and other events must take place. The fact evolution takes place over such a vast amount of time means that the evidence can be quite questionable at points. ‘Missing links’ have been a real problem for evolutionists because without these, many creationists cannot see a transition between two species (e.g. Fish to land mammals) without seeing some sort of intermediate species. This remains a problem in the fossils left from a young Earth because all early life forms were soft-bodied, eaten before fossilized, or the layer in which it was found eroded. This means the missing links may never be found, unless extremely specific preservation events took place. If ‘missing links’ are what evolutionists are trying to overcome, the best way to do this would be to find a layer of rock which has a fast succession of sediments. This can be achieved