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Liger (lion-tiger hybrid) image credit: Ali West (CC by 2.0) |
While informed creationists recognize that species are not equivalent to kinds, we don’t have an adequate understanding of why different species exist within the various created kinds. Using the biblical history and information from the scientific literature, it appears there is good reason why speciation occurs. Organisms diversify as they reproduce and fill the earth. Maintaining separate diverse populations, which biologists usually classify as different species, provides a reservoir for variability. Through hybridization, this variability can be shared between the populations. There are examples where this has enabled a population to recover from unusually harsh environmental extremes. It has also been proposed that it provides the basis for adaptive radiation, where organisms rapidly diversify and fill a variety of environmental niches. In the end, the process we call speciation appears to be an important means by which God provides for His creatures even in the current fallen world.To read the rest of this technical article (be prepared to spend about half an hour with it if this material suits you), click on "Towards a creationary view of why speciation occurs".