There is a grave and unmistakable lack of intermediates in the fossil record. The fact that creationists gloat over it should not tempt others to ignore it. The gaps did not go away in the least.
Most species exhibit no directional change during their tenure on Earth.
In the eyes of science historians, Darwin's most consequential claim was that the discontinuous face of life as a whole was an illusion. It was the type that mattered, while individuals conformed more or less to the type. The barriers erected by species were porous and illusory. By shifting the discontinuity from species to every individual, Darwin vaporized it. Life was one evenly distributed being.