Sudden Appearance of Fossils

“It is as though they [fossils] were just planted there, without any evolutionary history. Needless to say this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationists. ... Both schools of thought ['Punctuationists' and 'Gradualists'] despise so-called scientific creationists equally, and both agree that the major gaps are real, that they are true imperfections in the fossil record. The only alternative explanation of the sudden appearance of so many complex animal types in the Cambrian era is divine creation and both [schools] would reject this alternative.” Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 1996, p. 229-230)