A modern shrimp. Image courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), via Wikipedia.
Joel Kontinen
The shrimp has hardly changed in ”360 million years”. A 70 millimetre (2.75 inches) long fossil recently found in Oklahoma is thought to be the oldest shrimp in the world.
The fossil discovery, published last week in The Journal of Crustacean Biology, is exceptional in that the muscles of the shrimp have been preserved well.
The shrimp looks just like its modern relatives some people are fond of eating.
Evolution is often defined as change but shrimps have remained shrimps for aeons. Similarly, the fossil record shows us that damselflies have remained damselflies, that a squid remains a squid, a Coelacanth remains a Coelacanth, a horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) remains a horseshoe crab and a tuatara (Sphendon punctatus) remains a tuatara throughout the time when dinosaurs were assumed to be turning into birds and early mammals into men.
Living fossils clearly support the Genesis model of after its kind. The biblical kinds are known for stubbornly resisting change into other kinds. Even the assumed millions of years of earth history have been unable to bring about change that would have bridged the enormous gulf between the biblical kinds.
Source:
Minogue. Kristen. 2010. ScienceShot: World's Oldest Shrimp Is Still Strong.
ScienceNOW (11 November).
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