7 Cambrian “Explosion”—Or “Slow Fuse”?
The Creationists’ Favorite Myth
To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits belonging to these
assumed earliest periods prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory
answer. . . . Nevertheless, the difficulty of assigning any good reason for the absence
of vast piles of strata rich in fossils beneath the Cambrian system is very great, and
may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained.
—Charles Darwin, On the Origin of SpeciesOf all the distortions of the fossil record that the creationists promote, the worst is
their version of the “Cambrian explosion.” The idea that most invertebrate fossils might first
appear “suddenly” at the beginning of the Cambrian period with no fossils preceding them
seems to suggest special creation. Creationists love to quote a variety of legitimate scientists
about the “mystery” of the Cambrian explosion, although most of their quotes are grossly
out of date, and many are out of context and say just the exact opposite when the full quote
is read carefully. The quote by Darwin above is representative—but it was written over 150
years ago, when we knew very little about the Cambrian or Precambrian. This is true not
only of the usual suspects, such as Gish, Morris, and Sarfati, but especially the intelligent
design creationists, such as Meyer, Davis and Kenyon. Even the ID creationist biochemist
Michael Behe (1996), who generally avoids talking about fossils because they are way out-
side his range of expertise, brings up the Cambrian explosion.
The problem with the creationists’ fascination with the Cambrian explosion is that it’s
all wrong! The major groups of invertebrate fossils do not all appear suddenly at the base of the
Cambrian but are spaced out over strata spanning 80 million years—hardly an instantaneous
“explosion”! Some groups appear tens of millions of years earlier than others. And preced-
ing the “Cambrian explosion” was a long slow buildup to the first appearance of typical
Cambrian shelled invertebrates.
In this chapter, we’ll go step by step through many of the recent developments that
turned the Cambrian explosion into the “Cambrian slow fuse.” Let us hope that even if
creationists can’t keep up with the recent discoveries in science, their audiences will know
when they hear such baloney.
Step 1: Planet of the Scum
For four-fifths of our history, our planet was populated by pond scum.
—J. W. Schopf, Cradle of LifeThe solution to Darwin’s dilemma about the lack of apparent fossils in Precambrian rocks is
that we were looking for them in the wrong way. The fossils were there all along, but they