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Fundamentally, it's impossible to reconstruct something from the fossil record that's convincing to these folks, because they will always arbitrarily decide "fossil 1 is kind X, and fossil 2 is kind Y, you need to find me fossil 1.5," no matter how close in time and likeness the fossils are.
So what they actually want is "evolve a lizard species into cats" which fundamentally misrepresents both A) how evolution works (it does not concern itself with human categories) and B) the vast timescale over which small changes accrue.
"Kinds" are just human categories we've mapped onto the results of billions of years of evolution after the fact.
So from real time observation we know viruses and bacteria can mutate and have small delta changes in their DNA.
From this we can deduce that over long period of time many small changes can equate to big changes in DNA.
Because we know DNA describes macro characteristics of all living beings and effects behavior, physicality and speciation by logic we know that through induction many many small changes together equals big change and thus evolution can result in speciation and different creatures.
This is the literal conclusion through Direct observation and the inescapable logic of induction. Not to mention it's inline with fossil evidence AND covid is clearly not the only species where we observe mutations. Mutations are observed everywhere, including humans. Cancer is mutation and selection as well.
Macro Evolution has always seemed like a philosophy/ideology/religion to me with a veneer of science.
If mutations can happen, then by logic many mutations can happen, if many mutations can happen then many many mutations can stack up and cause speciation. By believing in mutations, evolution follows via logical induction.
Your DNA can be edited with many many mutations until it becomes indistinguishable from penguin DNA. Take that DNA and insert it into an zygote embryo and you get a penguin, not a human.
This is not a conclusion formed by observation. This is basic logic, 1 + 1 = 2. If the axiom is mutation, evolution is the logical theorem that follows. It is undeniable.
You have to go through a lot of mental gymnastics to deny this logic, but it's worth it if such mental gymnastics formulates a conclusion that remains inline with your religious identity. People without this bias who don't have truth tied to their identity don't need to do this kind of thing.