Fossil Precambrian embryos found, according to Science vol. 312, p1587 and p1644, 16 June 2006. Palaeontologists studying the Doushantuo Formation phosphates in Weng’an, Guizhou Province, China have found hundreds of fossil embryos. The embryos are at the very early stage of development and consist of small clusters of cells, but even at this early stage of development there is some differentiation according to the body shape of the animal. The rocks are dated as 580 million years old – a time when only the simplest animals such as jellyfish were believed to have existed. However, the embryos “resemble those of modern bilaterians such as annelids (worms) and molluscs (shellfish).” The article goes on to say: “If they check out it could mean a wide array of complex animals existed tens of millions of years before the ‘Cambrian explosion’ – the time when palaeontologists think hard bodied animals proliferated as their ecosystems took shape.”
Editorial Comment: These findings support Genesis for two reasons. One is they are evidence that worms, molluscs and other bilaterians have not changed since they first appeared on the earth even on the evolutionist timescale – exactly what you would expect if animals were created separately to multiply after their kinds. The other is that such delicate microscopic structures can only be preserved with enough detail for scientists to recognise them if they are rapidly and deeply buried. Otherwise they would be destroyed by chemical and bacterial action. This is exactly what you would expect in catastrophic rapid onset flood – just as described in Genesis. (Ref. development, differentiation, preservation)
Evidence News 19th July 2006