Occidental College geologist Donald Prothero explains, “If the fossil record is poor in one particular group, we look to other sources of data.” He concludes that two such sources of data, anatomical and molecular data, now “converge on a common answer”—one “that is almost certainly ‘the truth’ (as much as we can use that term in science).”10 But is all of this true? Does analysis of the genetic and anatomical similarity of the Cambrian animals really establish that the history of animal life is best depicted as a continuously branching tree? Does the pattern of a branching tree accurately
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