Each basic kind of animal appears in the fossil record complete, with no ancestors in an incomplete form. All mammals, whether living or fossil, have three ear bones and a single bone in the lower jaw. All reptiles, living or fossil, have a single ear bone and at least four bones in the lower jaw. There are no in-between forms. We are told that mammals evolved from reptiles although the method by which they evolved has not been discovered. All 32 orders of mammals appear as distinct groups in lower Tertiary rock. The most highly specialized, the flying bats and swimming whales, appear at the beginning of the mammal explosion as fully developed and separate kinds.
All fossils are of distinct types. For example, reptiles and mammals are just plain different, totally, and there is nothing in between. There is no fossil evidence of reptiles slowly turning into mammals over millions of years. All the fossils are of the same basic types that we still have, nothing in between. Fossils are of birds, or amphibians, or mammals, or fish, or etc. There is just no proof in the fossil record that any one kind of animal evolved into another.
The lack of the "transitional forms" was thought to be such a big problem for the theory of evolution that evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould came up with a new theory called Punctuated Equilibrium which explains why there are no transitional forms.
The theory is basically this:
1. Evolution happened.
2. There are no transitional fossils, therefore.
3. Evolution was done in giant leaps, leaving no evidence.
Gould, Stephen Jay, "The Return of Hopeful Monsters," Natural History, vol. 86 (June/July 1977), pp. 22-30.p. 22 "The fossil record with its abrupt transitions offers no support for gradual change, and the principle of natural selection does not require it-selection can operate rapidly."p. 24 "As a Darwinian, I wish to defend Goldschmidt's postulate that macroevolution is not simply microevolution extrapolated and that major structural transitions can occur rapidly without a smooth series of intermediate stages."p. 24 "All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt."p. 28 "The essence of Darwinism lies in a single phrase: natural selection is the creative force of evolutionary change. No one denies that natural selection will play a negative role in eliminating the unfit. Darwinian theories require that it create the fit as well."