A new species of what appears to be a fossil centipede was found in sediments that conventional scientists believe were deposited offshore.1 The problem for them is that the creature had legs for walking on dry land, leaving them to wonder why these animals evolved terrestrial-style “legs while still living underwater.”2
The new fossil, Waukartus muscularis, was found in Wisconsin’s Lower Silurian System Brandon Bridge Formation.3 This unit has been labeled a lagerstätte due to its high fossil content and detailed preservation. Publishing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, lead author Derek E. G. Briggs of Yale University and his coauthors noted the discovery of many marine fossils in this same layer.
The Waukesha Lagerstätte has yielded about 12 different phyla represented by more than 50 genera including sponges, cnidarians, conulariids, palaeoscolecids, arthropods, brachiopods, annelids, graptolites and crinoids, many with preserved soft-tissues, as well as one of the few examples of a conodont animal with evidence of the body.1
The Brandon Bridge Formation consists of muddy carbonate rock known as a dolomitic shale. Dolomites, although rarely forming today, are commonly assumed to have formed in the ocean.
Furthermore, the authors of the study believed that even the many marine fossils were “washed in and buried.”1 But they were quick to note, “Even though the biota was presumably transported to the site of deposition, there is no evidence of the introduction of terrestrial taxa.”1 Is that really the case here?
Other researchers have found terrestrial-type animals like leech and scorpion fossils in this same rock layer.1 However, the researchers claim that interpreting these as land animals “has been questioned,” dismissing their likely terrestrial origins.1 They even go so far as to claim, “In any event both leeches and scorpions may have had marine representatives. Thus, Waukartus was most likely to have been marine.”1 Note the use of their words “may have had” and “most likely.” They are simply speculating that these were marine animals.
They concluded, “The short, segmented trunk limbs of Waukartus were equipped for walking—it clearly lived on the substrate.”1 As science writer Krystal Kasal wrote, “Waukartus [sic] appears to have been equipped with legs already adapted to live on land, but hadn’t quite made it out of the sea.”2 But is this reasonable or merely a far-fetched tale?
Fortunately, there is a better explanation. During the early part of the global Flood, many animals—marine and a few nonmarine—were transported and mixed together in the Brandon Bridge Formation, including land-dwelling leeches, scorpions, and the new centipede-like animal, Waukartus. Land and marine mixing was the rule, not the exception, during this worldwide catastrophe.4,5
It is unnecessary to claim that legs made for land somehow evolved on an ocean-dwelling centipede. If their legs were engineered to walk on land, they most likely did just that. Nothing about these centipede-like fossils demonstrate any adaption to living underwater. Instead, these were land animals that got washed into the ocean waves in the early months of the Flood year.6
References
- Briggs, D. E. G. et al. 2026. A Marine Stem-Myriapod from the Silurian Waukesha Lagerstätte, Wisconsin, USA: Terrestrial Traits Pre-Date the Transition to Land. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 293 (2070): 20260131.
- Kasal, K. Ancient Sea Fossils Indicate Millipede and Centipede Ancestors Evolved Their Legs While Still Underwater. Phys.org. Posted on phys.org May 7, 2026.
- Silurian System refers to a particular horizon in the early Flood rocks, not to a period of time that lasted for millions of years in the past. It is part of the globally extensive Tippecanoe Megasequence.
- Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaurs in Marine Sediments: A Worldwide Phenomenon. Acts & Facts. 44 (6): 16.
- Clarey, T. More Mixed Land and Marine Fossils in Wales. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 26, 2024, accessed May 8, 2026.
- Clarey, T. 2020. Carved in Stone: Geological Evidence of the Worldwide Flood. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
* Dr. Clarey is the director of research at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his doctorate in geology from Western Michigan University.
