Jonathan McLatchie: Fact-Checking Wikipedia on Common Descent: The Evidence from Paleontology (2011)

Jonathan McLatchie is an up-and-coming Christian apologist who also has a strong background in biology. I met him in person once while I was speaking in Seattle and he was an intern at the Discovery Institute. He seemed to me to be a very nice and intelligent fellow.

McLatchie wrote a series of blog posts critiquing the Wikipedia article on the evidence of common descent; McLatchie’s article provides his critique of what Wikipedia has to say about the evidence for common descent from paleontology. (For his other commentaries on the Wikipedia article, see here, here, here, and here.) In his article on the paleontological evidence, McLatchie discusses:

  • Archeaopteryx, the purported reptile-to-bird transitional species
  • Horse evolution
  • Whale evolution
  • Tiktaalik, a purported fish-to-amphibian transitional species
  • The Cambrian explosion

I have only skimmed the article, but I thought it looked interesting and so I am passing it along to readers interested in intelligent design, creationism, and evolution.

As always, links do not constitute endorsement. Feel free to debate in the combox, but please keep it respectful.