Oldest echinoderms found, according to ScienceDaily 10 October 2012 and PLoS ONE, 2012; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046913. Echinoderms include starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins that live on the bottom of the sea. A team of European scientists have studied a well preserved collection of fossilised deep sea echinoderms found off the coast of Florida, they have dated at 114 million years old, making them the oldest fossils of these creatures they have, yet the fossils are identical to those found living today on the deep sea floor. Ben Thuy of University of Göttingen, Germany commented: “We were amazed to see that a 114 million year old deep-sea assemblage was so strikingly similar to the modern equivalents”.
Editorial Comment: These scientists might be amazed but we are not. If these are the oldest starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, then they are evidence that these creatures have always been starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, showing no sign of having evolved from anything else. The fact they are “strikingly similar to the modern equivalents” show that as far as can be proven these creatures have behaved as the Biblical account in Genesis states God created them to do – reproduce after their kind. It’s not the lack of good evidence that stops people believing creation – it’s the abundance of bad attitude. (Ref. invertebrates, echinoderms, stasis)