Living Fossils And Biblical Authority
Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, September 2, 2025 (Donate)
If you didn’t know already there is a huge debate over the
rock layers that contain fossils. The believers in the secular humanistic
religion suggests they are evidence of slow gradual accumulations over millions
of years of evolutionary changes.
With this view, if fossilized creatures are buried
in the same rock layer, then they lived together at the same time.
But if not, then they didn’t. This is why the secular humanists insist
that man
and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
Naturally, those who believe what God says in His
Word—Genesis—believe that a global
Flood, over the course of about a year, was responsible for the majority of
those rock layers. With this view from the Cambrian to the Miocene[1]
are largely Flood rock. This means that from the Cambrian to the Miocene, the
fossilized creatures were living at the same time. So, when dealing with the
issue of living fossils there are two starkly different views.
What Are Living Fossils?
“Living fossils” are plants or animals known from the fossil
record that appear essentially unchanged in living form today, despite alleged
millions of years of evolutionary time. From a biblical creation
perspective, these organisms are powerful confirmations of the Bible’s Flood.
This is what we expect from a Genesis-based worldview
compared to the evolutionary claims. The concept of living fossils
undermines the evolutionary framework in an obvious way—if creatures are
supposed to be changing in massive ways over “evolutionary time” then why
didn’t these creature change—even a little?
Stasis To The Rescue?
The evolutionary response is that these living fossil
examples are “stasis”. It’s a fancy word that means they didn’t change but
stayed the same. Somehow the evolutionist manages to convince many that stasis
is still good evidence for evolution. But it isn’t. Stasis is the opposite of
what should happen in the evolutionary scenario—and is actually a creation
position.
Evolutionists often claim “living fossils” have survived
unchanged due to “stabilizing selection” or otherwise known as “evolutionary
success.” However, this explanation is ad hoc. It is arbitrary and carries
no weight. If evolution requires change, then when we find unchanged creatures,
then it simply challenges the narrative.
Spiders have even remained unchanged; Image from Presentation Library
Evolutionary adherents teaches that vast spans of time allow
gradual change and diversification. Yet living fossils look almost identical (sometimes
minor variations within their respective kind) to their fossilized relatives
that died in the Flood, supposedly separated by tens or even hundreds of
millions of years.
Their stasis directly contradicts the expected evolutionary
pattern of continual change. Instead, they match with what we expect
from the biblical account where creatures reproduce within a boundary of their respective
kinds (Genesis 1:11–25). Of course, “kinds” can have variation within their
biological limits, but not change to entirely different kinds.
Confirmation Of Created Kinds
The fact that living fossils remain essentially the same reinforces the
biblical teaching of fixity
of “kinds” rather than evolutionary transitional forms. Rather than
evolving into new creatures, these organisms remain stable, consistent with
God’s design of life reproducing within the kind. It also makes sense in light
of the Flood being a matter of thousands of years ago.
Confirmation of Flood Geology
Most fossils, including those of living fossils, are understood to have been
formed during the catastrophic global Flood of Noah.[2]
Their presence in Flood-deposited rock layers confirms both the reality of the
Flood and that these creatures were alive at the same time as humans, not
millions of years earlier.
A nice point to remember is that the Flood rock (Cambrian to
Miocene) was laid down during Noah and Shem’s lifetime. So, all the creatures
in the Flood’s fossiliferous rock were contemporary with man.
God’s Word Confirmed
The persistence of living fossils is a testimony that God’s Word explains the
rocks and fossils consistently with real-world evidence, while evolutionary
interpretations must constantly adjust and this shows the inconsistency in the
position. Being that Scripture is the ultimate authority in all matters, this
is to be expected.
Examples Of Popular Living Fossils
Coelacanth
Once thought extinct for 65 million years, the coelacanth was rediscovered
alive in 1938. Quite a few have been caught by fishermen in Madagascar!
Evolutionists had presented it as a transitional form
between fish and amphibians, but its rediscovery as a fully functional fish
with no transitional features was a blow to evolutionary storytelling. The
coelacanth can be used to illustrate how assumptions about fossils can be wrong
and how living fossils confirm biblical history instead.
Horseshoe Crab
Fossil horseshoe crabs appear in rock layers that evolutionists suggest is over
400 million years old, yet living specimens look nearly identical. They have
survived supposedly multiple mass extinctions and alleged immense changes in
climate and ecosystems, which evolutionists predicted would lead to major evolutionary
changes. Instead, their stability reflects biblical reproduction restricted to
their kinds.
Ginkgo Tree
The Ginkgo Biloba, often called a “living fossil tree,” is known from fossil
layers suggested by evolutionists to over 200 million years ago. Yet modern
ginkgo trees are virtually indistinguishable from fossilized examples. This
stasis over such alleged deep time is inexplicable under evolutionary models
but is expected from the biblical creation model.
Wollemi Pine
Discovered alive in Australia in 1994, the Wollemi pine tree had previously been
known only from fossils in rock layers associated with the dinosaurs. The fact
that it survived unchanged for so long contradicts the evolutionary expectation
of extinction or drastic alteration.
This discovery as another reminder of the unreliability of
evolutionary claims about the fossil record. Having these last two trees buried
in the Flood a matter of thousands
of years ago, and still living today with precious few changes is fully
expected.
Dragonflies
Dragonflies appear in the fossil record from an alleged “300 million years ago”
and look almost identical to modern dragonflies, though some fossils were much
larger. This would only be changes within the dragonfly kind. Despite the
supposed vast time and evolutionary opportunities, dragonflies have remained
consistent. This is, again, strong evidence of created kinds maintaining their
design within biological boundaries.
Conclusion
Living fossils are powerful evidence in the biblical
authority debate because they show that life does not conform to evolutionary
expectations. Instead, living fossils confirm the biblical account that
creatures have limited variation within their created kind. Also living fossils
help us understand in practical ways that the fossil record is largely the
result of the global Flood, and that God’s
Word is trustworthy from the very first verse.
Rather than millions of years of gradual change, the
evidence of living fossils shows stasis (which is technically an outworking of
a creationist viewpoint) and consistency. This is expected with biblical
creation and in direct contradiction to historic evolutionary views.
By looking at examples such as the coelacanth, horseshoe
crab, Ginkgo tree, Wollemi Pine, dragonflies, and more, believers can understand
a little more about how fossil evidence is in line with biblical
history as recorded in Scripture.
For more on Living Fossils, I suggest this amazing book by Carl Werner.
Living Fossils by Carl Werner
□
Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a
personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has
spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
[1]
Yes, I know creationists still debate over the precision of the post-Flood
boundary in various locations. Since the mountains of Ararat were formed by Day
150 and contain Miocene and Eocene rock, then those layers were formed by that
stage of the Flood.
[2]
There were fossils after the Flood in local catastrophes for instance, but
nowhere near the scale of the global Flood
