A Sequence of Letters to the Editor on Fossils and Evolution (2005-2006)
(Compiled by Mark A. Wilson -- Professor of Geology, The College of Wooster)

On December 13, 2005, a letter I wrote to the editor of our local newspaper, The Daily Record, was printed. It was in response to a previous letter which had as its premise that the fossil record did NOT support evolution. That earlier letter (which was answering a still earlier letter, which was responding to yet another provocation, and so on) convinced me that I had an opportunity to educate the local community about paleontology and the modern theory of evolution. There was not a lot I could say in less than 400 words, but I gave it a shot.

Here is the text of my December 13 letter --

Editor:

Dr. Skip Nault wrote an excellent letter published on December 7 defending the scientific nature of evolution against the faith-based "Intelligent Design" movement (the newest form of "scientific creationism"). In response a letter appeared on December 9 entitled "Drawing conclusions from fossils". This latest writer showed considerable confusion about the fossil record and evolution. Since I'm a scientist who studies fossils (a paleontologist), I feel obliged to respond.

Fossils show direct evidence for evolution, as Dr. Nault stated. The remarkable order of the fossil record demonstrates the history of life from bacterial cells 3.5 billion years old through the first multi-celled organisms to the extraordinary diversity we see today. Just to cite vertebrate history, we see fish (which appeared about 500 million years ago) followed by amphibians (370 million years ago), reptiles (300 million years ago), mammals (225 million years ago) and birds (150 million years ago). Each organism represented by a fossil was of course "fully-formed"; the evolutionary transitions between groups are not monsters like the nonsensical "half cat - half dog" cited in the December 9 letter. I cannot show any organism, fossil or modern, which is half one creature and half another, but I can show hundreds of ancestral lineages among fossils. For example, the first amphibians are essentially fish with fingers and toes on their fins. The first known bird (Archaeopteryx) has a dinosaur skeleton and feathers. A website for much more information is: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-transitional.html.

Fossils also show the environmental history of the Earth over billions of years. We can see part of this in Wayne County where we find fossil brachiopods, clams, corals, and bryozoans from an ancient sea. Our sandstones come from deltas and beaches, our shales from deep bays, and our coal seams from swamps, all buried 325 million years ago. Life responded to these environmental changes with adaptations and extinctions, weaving the rich fossil record of evolution throughout our colorful rocks.

The Intelligent Design movement is an attempt to interpret life's history through faith. This is a basic intellectual right, but it is not science and has no place in a scientific curriculum. The fossil record shows that life has evolved over billions of years, which is in itself a fascinating and glorious story.

Mark A. Wilson
Professor of Geology
The College of Wooster
Wooster

The printed letter can be seen in this pdf format showing the entire editorial page for that day.

As always, it is the letters which follow which prove the most interesting. This little webpage is simply a place for me to record these letters as they come in. It is a cultural snapshot of Wayne County, Ohio, during the ongoing American culture wars over the teaching of evolution. Here are the letters by date and author, all in pdf form --

December 17, 2005: Tim Bible of West Salem
December 21, 2005: John Rice of Wooster
December 22, 2005: Bill Dettmer, Jr., of Millersburg
December 23, 2005: Alice Anderson of West Salem
December 29, 2005: John Belanger of Wooster
December 30, 2005: Randall L. Krabill of Dalton and Paul R. Kauffman of Creston
January 7, 2006: Moses Moore of West Salem