Some of my best friends are vertebrates. Also, some of my favorite foods. It is a pretty important group. After years of research, they thought they had a good idea about the evolutionary origin of this key group. Until now- the new truth is "Long-Accepted Theory of Vertebrate Origin Upended By Fossilized Fish Larva".
They thought the larva of lampreys were a pretty good stand-in for the common ancestor of all of us creatures with back-bones. Then they found ancient fossil lamprey larva. It turns out, modern lamprey larva don't look like ancient ones. The ancient ones look like little adult lampreys. The modern larvae might be said to have simplified rather than an original simple creature that looked like the modern larvae becoming a more complicated modern adult through an evolutionary increase in complexity.
It is still "evolution" in the sense that lampreys seemed to have changed their larval form. But that's not really what people mean when they speak of "evolution" as an explanation of how life got more complex. Still, if it is being spun as an advance in understanding how vertebrates evolved then I think that is incorrect. Rather, it sheds light on how they DID NOT evolve via a particular path and does nothing to show how they might have. The origin becomes more mysterious than we thought because the best candidate turned out to be a blind alley.
Early Genesis as a text claims the earth does have some creative power, in the sense that God commanded the land and seas to bring forth living creatures. But the text subsequently records that God intervened in nature somehow to help creation fulfill His commands. So this universe can't always do God's will without God's help. That makes it a fit place for beings like us to live in- we can't either! That is surely a prominent theme in classical Christianity.
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