At the bottom of the geological column in the so called Cambrian rocks are found highly complex creatures: trilobites, worms, sponges, jellyfish, etc., all without ancestors. It's as though you "turned the light on" in the fossil record. These are highly complex life forms appearing on the scene without forerunners.
The Cambrian explosion has been found to not be as explosive as thought. Many organisms found there did have precursors, but these were not discovered earlier because they were small and soft-bodied and thus not easily fossilized. A mass extinction event at this time allowed rapid radiation into multiple organisms. Due to the short duration of the radiation many early organisms would not be preserved.
Insects - When found in the fossil record, they are already developed without ancestors.
The fossil record for the origin of insects is very poor because insects are small and their exoskeletons easily biodegrade. They evolved in the Devonian. The earliest insects we have are primitive wingless hexapods related to springtails, bristeltails, the tiny diplurans, and others. Wings evolved rapidly in the Carboniferous, and their origin is uncertain.
Invertebrates and vertebrates - Transitional forms leading to vertebrates are absent even though the transition supposedly took millions of years. It is theorized that life passed through a stage where a creature possessed a simple rod-like notochord. This has not been found.
This will come as quite a surprise to the invertebrate chordates.
Fish to Amphibian - Fin to feet... Evolutionist glibly cite a Fish --> Amphibian --> Reptile --> Mammal progression in their theory, however there is a large gap in the fossil record between fish and amphibians.
This gap is rapidly being closed, only a few weeks ago a fossil fish with jointed forelimbs was reported, this is a transitional species to the evolution of tetrapods.
Mammals just appear in the fossil record, again without transitional forms
This is disgusting. Mammals evolved from Permian cynodonts through a series of protomammals.
The primates - lemurs, monkeys, apes and man appear fully formed in the fossil record.
Not true.
And finally, dinosaurs. Again there is the absence of transitional series leading to these giants.
Again not true. Dinosaurs evolved from archosaurs. Two transitional species with intermediate traits are Herrerasaurus and Eoraptor.
The most often cited "example" of a transitional form is the Archaeopteryx which has been touted as a reptile to bird transition. However, this creature is controversial and enveloped in dispute.
I suppose you could say it is "controversial and enveloped in dispute" just because creationists don't like it. Among scientists it is agreed to be an actual organism transitional between reptiles and birds. The only debate there is whether birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs or if they split off before theropod dinosaurs diverged. All agree it is a transitional form.
Have you ever heard of the Burgess Shale? There are many fossils of soft-tissued organisms that have been found there, as well as tens of thousands of fossils invertebrates that have been collected there. The explantion that purported precursors have not been discovered because they were soft bodied is belied by these discoveries. If there are invertebrate precursors to verterbrates that have been discovered in the fossil record that document the transition I would like to see them, and I would like to know why prominent evolutionists admit that they do not appear in the fossil record if they indeed, do.
Cordially,