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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CC251:

Evolutionists claim that conifers are descended from a group of plants called progymnosperms. But there is no evidence that progymnosperms ever existed.

Source:

Williams, Alexander, 2001-2002. Kingdom of the plants. Creation 24(1): 46-48. http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/magazines/docs/v24n1_kingdom.asp

Response:

  1. Progymnosperms are not hypothetical. They are an important group of fossil plants, now extinct, which include the earliest trees (Meyer-Berthaud et al. 1999). Creationists can choose to believe that progymnosperms are not transitional forms, but they certainly existed.

Links:

Arens, N. C., 1998. Progymnosperms. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/IB181/VPL/Osp/Osp2.html

Speer, B. R. and Nan Crystal Arens, 1996. Introduction to the progymnosperms. http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/seedplants/progymnosperms.html

References:

  1. Meyer-Berthaud, B., S. E. Scheckler and J. Wendt. 1999. Archaeopteris is the earliest known modern tree. Nature 398: 700-701.

Further Reading:

Scheckler, S. E. 1999. Progymnosperms. In: Encyclopedia of Paleontology, R. Singer, ed., Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publ., vol 2, pp. 992-995.
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created 2003-10-7