Jar,
This is just a mild critique of your statement:
There are many species that have existed for a long, long time. Some, many in fact, have existed pretty much unchanged since the time of the dinosaur.
No species is known to have existed for more than a few thousand years. I hear the claim for a few million but doubt it (genetic drift, etc). Either way, living fossils are major taxonomic groups that have remained relatively unchanged over time. Fossil cockroaches, xiphosurans (horseshoe crabs), and Odonates (dragonflies) are very similar in form to modern representatives of those groups but are by no means the same species or even the same families. I am sure you recognize this but wanted to point it out before some creos grabbed the wrong end of the stick and proceeded to beat around the bush with it (stolen mixed metaphor from the Rutles).
™ Version 4.2
