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Biologists classify organisms into various groups. In this systematic classification, known as taxonomy, hierarchical categories are set out according to the various characteristics of organisms.
Under this system, life forms are first classified as kingdoms. They are then divided into phyla, which in turn are divided into other sub-categories. The hierarchical classification runs like this;
- Kingdom
- Phylum (plural phyla)
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus (plural genera)
- Species
Scientists divide the animal world into five kingdoms,—which number has recently varied between six and three, depending on different classifications—and then divide these into 25 to 35 phyla. The factors determining phyla are rather basic, including such details as the number and kinds of organs and tissues, body symmetry and the presence and nature of bodily cavities.41Accordingly, you can see that the factors determining phyla are based more upon internal organization than external features. For example, the elongated shape of an earthworm is a feature shared by several phyla. Yet although different creatures share a similar worm-like appearance, because their internal structures are completely different they are viewed as independent species belonging to entirely different phyla. Internal organization involves such things as the exchange of gasses like oxygen and carbon dioxide inside the tissues, food absorption and how reproduction takes place. The largest phylum is that of shelled organisms. The 35 or so animal phyla include such diverse phyla as the Mollusca which contains some soft-bodied creatures, and the Nemotada, which includes roundworms.Arthropods, for instance, (insects, spiders and other invertebrates with stiff exoskeletons) represent a completely separate phylum. Chordata, on the other hand, includes creatures with a notochord—a long rod in the embryo consisting of a string of cells that will constitute the creature’s spinal cord—or more often, a spinal column. All vertebrates, such as birds, fish, reptiles and mammals, belong to this phylum. Mollusca is a separate phylum, including clams, oysters and slugs. Annelids are yet another phylum, to which earthworms belong.
The internal organization determining the phyla is controlled by a large number of genes. This means that in order for evolution to take place in such a way as for one organism to develop into another and for two distinct phyla to emerge, all the details of the first organism’s internal structure need to change. To accomplish that, all its genes would have to undergo mutations at the same time. Each of these random mutations would also have to be beneficial. Such an accumulation of changes is scientifically impossible.
Mutations are 99% harmful. The other 1% have no effect at all. The internal characteristics of even the smallest organisms are too complex to come about in stages. Genes cannot change in such a way as to serve new functions, and cannot transform into different genes that give rise to new properties. In the same way, the genetics of any organism are very little influenced by external factors. It is impossible for two organisms to develop a similar, common internal characteristic under the pressure of external factors dependent on various conditions. The probability of this happening is the same as that of rolling a thousand dice and their all landing on a 6—in other words, 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, or 1 in a quintillion.42
What is a phylum?
The phylum is the largest taxonomic category ranked below kingdom. Chordata, which includes vertebrates, Arthropoda, which includes insects, and Mollusca, which includes all soft shelled animals, are among the best known phyla. All animals in these phyla have body plans unique to them. Phyla are also divided into various sub-groups. In decreasing order of size, the hierarchical classification in question runs:
kingdom > phylum > class > order > family > genus > species
This information has been provided to demonstrate, in general terms, how life forms differ from one another. Living things cannot acquire an organ that did not previously exist by way of random factors. This applies even to the smallest taxonomical unit: One species cannot turn into another; this is impossible. And the variety of life that emerged in the Cambrian gave rise to different phyla more than simply new species!
Fifty separate phyla, including the 35 alive today, emerged suddenly in the Cambrian Period. Among the great many details regarding the Cambrian that evolutionists cannot account for, the sudden emergence of phyla exhibiting hundreds, perhaps even many more, of different anatomical features and characteristics—plus the fact that there were more of these phyla than exist today—is a phenomenon that evolutionists cannot possibly explain. The fossil record makes abundantly clear that the theory of evolution cannot be valid.
The famous French zoologist Pierre Grassé has this to say:
Naturalists must remember that the process of evolution is revealed only through fossil forms. . . . Only paleontology [the study of fossils] can provide them with the evidence of evolution and reveal its course or mechanisms.43
The truth paleontology reveals is that evolution has no place in natural history. During the Cambrian explosion, the main living groups began suddenly and with flawless bodily structures. Despite evolutionists’ best endeavors, no intermediate form between them has ever been found, and paleontology has undermined the tenets of Darwinism. This process of collapse began with an unpublicized discovery made in Canada in 1909.