h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For someone looking for evidence against evolution, whenever a species is found which appears to be intermediate between two previously known species, it's easy to move the goalposts and say 'Ah, but what about the now *two* intermediate species for which there is no fossil evidence?'

Fossils are classified depending on their similarities to other fossils. Given a set of characteristics chosen for classification, and a line of fossils apparenty varying between two extremes, if two neighbours are close enough, they may be considered as being of the same species, and if not, they may be considered as separate species. Assuming that the two initial extremes vary enough to be classified as different, then it is clear that whatever the process used, there will ultimately be a some number of species declared.

Between any two non-adjacent species, there will be intermediates (the evolutionary glass is half full), but between any two adjacent species, there will be gaps (the evolutionary glass is half-empty).

Since there are a finite number of fossils, 'missing' intermediates are obviously an unavoidable outcome of any system which attempts to say 'This fossil is species A, but that one is species B'.

The fact that only a tiny fraction of organisms become fossilised, only a tiny fraction of those fossils are available near the surface, and only a tiny fraction of *those* are discovered and analyzed can hardly help matters.

Arguing that the lack of 'intermediates' between similar species is evidence against evolution when the very act of defining species implies some noticeable degree of separation seems to me like shaky, if not nonexistent, logic.

I find it amazing you can still hear people mention words like "missing link". Usually when it comes to apes and humans. It seems they expect to find some animal with a gorilla body and a human head. The mutations are not that crude, so there will be a fluent line between them. It's like looking at a color gradient and trying to determine where one color begins and another one stops.