The Creationists' Nightmare

[Tobie]

Those gaps could just as easily disabuse us of some particular notion as they could reinforce them, which is why, for example, I asked for a pre-cambrian platypus.

You're asking for a date that doesn't exist. According to creationism, the earth is no more than 6,000 years old. If you carbon-dated the oldest fossils, that's how old they would come out to be (google carbon-dated dinosaurs; not only do they contain carbon they should no longer have, but the dates correspond exactly to the Christian Bible). All cambrian dates are done with K-Ar or similar methods done on the rocks around the fossil. The methods require an assumption that the earth is old. If the earth is young, K-Ar is not accurate. We see this in the rocks of recent volcanic eruptions. We know the rocks are young, but they date to millions or billions of years (it's all over the place). They are simply too contaminated with the daughter isotope.

Your whole argument rests on one big "if", which isn't particularly plausible. You will need more support than christian dogma.

As to what you said about K-Ar; The rocks may not have been on the surface for very long, but have been in the earth for as long as the K-Ar dating says they have.