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Showing posts with the label Biogeography

Biogeography and Floating Islands

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A question for both biblical creationists and uniformitarian secular scientists is how creatures dispersed to different continents. This is called biogeography . Land bridges during low sea levels probably occurred, but would not provide for large migrations. Then there is rafting (making use of floating islands of vegetation). Those things exist today, but secular scientists admit that there are numerous difficulties involved for carrying living things out across the oceans to other continents. Uniformitarian scientists are assuming things today have been the same in the past. Wrong. Floating Islands, Titicaca Lake, Peru, Flickr / Emmanuel Dyan ( CC BY 2.0 ) When one considers creation science Genesis Flood models, floating islands as a means of travel make much more sense. After the Flood, conditions were changing and the Ice Age was beginning. Meanwhile, fruitful critters were multiplying. The Flood was a violent event, and the floating islands seen today are far different from wh

The Friendly but Puzzling Baobab Tree

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Okay, a tree can only be friendly when it is given human traits in stories. But if one could actually be friendly, it would be the baobab (its counterpart would be the poisonous manchineel tree ). Nine species have been counted that have some basic similarities. A grown baobab may have been in place for a thousand years, so it has an impressive circumference. Leaves? It only grows them during the very short wet season. Although the top branches look like roots, the actual roots run deep. The Creator built it to survive those harsh conditions. Avenue of the Baobabs in Madagascar, Pexels / Beau Botschuijver Baobab trees have many uses. The leaves are edible, the branches trap rainfall, even the seeds can be eaten. The bark can be used to make clothing and rope. But baobabs are not in a hurry to grow, so they are difficult to cultivate — except researchers in Ghana have some promising work happening. These trees are in several diverse regions, which causes so much controversy among evolut

A Silly Secular Excuse for Biogeography

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The question of how kangaroos disembarked Noah's Ark and reached Australia is a common one, both with Christians and unbelievers. It is a question of biogeography. Also, it is a fair question. There are many things to take into account when considering it. How did roos get from Mount Ararat all the way to Straya? Scoffers will use that as a kind of "Gotcha!" question for creationists because it does seem absurd on the surface that they would have hopped all the way over there. However, they are assuming that animals evolved in the places they are found today, even though there is no evidence for their evolution. The dispersion of animals is a problem for secular scientists as well, and one came up with a really wild-eyed idea to evosplain it. Brown kangaroo, Unsplash / Ashish Upadhyay Uniformitarian scientists need to explain how critters — including kangaroos — journeyed from one place go another. How about plate tectonics? Those are moving — Nah, too slow. Rafting? Darw

The Falkland Islands Wolf and Reduced Date Range

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There was a critter on the Falkland Islands that puzzled Charles Darwin and others, since it seemingly should not be there. It had several names such as the warrah, Falkland Islands wolf/fox. It became extinct partly because people wanted to kill it to own its fur. Some pinheads thought it was a threat to sheep. Stuffed specimens exist in museums, and some interesting research involved taking samples of their mitochondrial DNA and comparing it (and mutations) with South American canids. The Warrah may have been a descendant of the maned wolf. Falkland Islands warrah/fox/wolf, WikiComm / John Gerrard Keulemans (public domain), modified at Pixlr So how and when did it get to the Falklands? The DNA testing is problematic for adherents of deep time because it conflicts with when secularists say canids entered South America. There is speculation that the warrah crossed land bridges, or possibly rafted on floating vegetation. New evidence suggests that Fuegian Indians were in the Falklands

Visitors to the Americas — First by Boat?

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A few days ago, Roland Meadows and I were riding out near Stinking Lake (which is not as bad as it sounds) and the horses got nervous when we drew nearer to Deception Pass and the Darwin Ranch. We took another trail. Away. The ranch got us jawing about how animals dispersed after the Flood, and humans spread out after the language incident at Babel. I said that in the early nineteenth century, Russians came to Alaska and into California — note the bear and stars on their flag. Brazilian coast, ESA ( CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ), usage does not imply endorsement of site contents Roland stated that around the Ice Age, animals dispersed by land and by rafting on log mats . He also told me that Greenland was green when the Vikings sailed to it way back yonder. What was very interesting to me, however, that Shoeleather Express was not the only means of travel. They were able to sail the seas earlier than evolutionists thought. There is also evidence that ancient peoples came to the Americas by boat

Log Mats Answer Genesis Flood Questions

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Biblical creationists rightly make much use of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, as it provides many illustrations of the Genesis Flood on a smaller scale. There are some unexpected things that were discovered later. Studying log mats led to further study that was useful. After the eruption, logs ended up in Spirit Lake and even covered a large portion of its surface . These and other log mats (basically, floating islands) have been studied by creationists and secular scientists alike, including for animal dispersion. Log mat on Spirit Lake, Flickr / Kelly Michals ( CC BY-NC 2.0 ) Misotheists have laughed at creationists for proposing that animals rafted after the Flood, but secular scientists also believe that animals have used floating logs and other conveyances to relocate. These things were huge. They were also their own ecosystems. There are several speculations by creationists about what happened after the Flood involving log mats, but these are feasible and many are based on

Evolutionists Believe in Rafting and Luck

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Misotheist C. Richard Dawkins and others tell us that our existence is a series of improbable events, and some actually go so far as to admit they believe that everything is the product of luck . However, believers in fish-to-fool evolution often make Evolution and Natural Selection into entities. This defeats how chance and randomness that were married up with time and mutations. It does not go well, especially since mutations are not so random after all. Then things get...truly bizarre. Mostly made at Atom Smasher Another interesting fact is how internet evolutionists ridicule creationists for the concept of animals rafting as part of the post-Flood dispersal . Knowledgeable people are aware that evolutionists have problems with animal distribution, and they also use the same concept as creationists! (Type "animal rafting" into a search engine and see your ownself.) In fact, luck and rafting are essential to biogeography and evolution. Remember, this kind of fact-free spec

Surprising Companions in the Ice Age?

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Readers have seen many times here that secular scientists face a number of serious problems with the Ice Age. They offer ideas that sound like they were made up on the spot, such as numerous ice ages occurring, but there is no evidence because each one destroys evidence of the last one. Sure, you betcha! Another difficulty is that they cannot propose a plausible model of how any ice ages formed in the first place. Add to this the fact that disharmonious associations  exist. That is, fossils of creatures from diverse climates were discovered that should have never met. We have a pair of articles on these and related subjects to consider. Original image before adding text at Imgflip : Unsplash / Hannah Troupe I am once again asking people to remember that the word fossil  is used in a variety of ways. Most of the time, the word is used to indicate that things are permineralized (turned to stone). However, Ice Age fossils rarely show that characteristic. The "disharmonious" part

Log Rafts and Animal Dispersion

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Biogeography is the expensive word for how critters became spread around the world, and it is studied by both secular and biblical creation scientists. Creationists suggest models of how living things reached their destinations after — or during — the Genesis Flood. Proponents of universal common ancestor are left treading water with no answers . Image credit: morgueFile / stickerstack We have discussed animal dispersal before including the red fox , and also material on how animals can raft across oceans , including observed of animals using whatever was available to travel the Pacific after a tsunami . Evolutionists and atheists have ridiculed the idea of floating log rafts and the like, but some are hitching a ride on this concept. Mat and raft concepts have been floating around for many years. Dr. Steve Austin presented a floating mat model for coal seams, and others began developing this model for animal and plant biogeography. The following article discusses some of the h

Microbal Disperson and the Genesis Flood

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Both creationists and Darwinists study biogeography, which is the dispersal of living things around the globe. Creationists say that critters (more precisely, macroorganisms) dispersed after the Genesis Flood by various means. Some creationary suggestions ( such as rafting ) have been supported by secular scientists. What about on the microorganism level? This is a slide culture of a Streptomyces sp. bacteria, which had been cultivated on tap water agar. Credit: CDC / Dr. David Berd (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Microbes do not have a history of traveling well, but many of the same kinds (biblical kinds apply here as well as on the macroorganism level ). The paper linked below discusses how evolutionists cannot explain the biogeography of microorganisms, but the Genesis Flood is the most plausible model. It is rather technical and lengthy, but people with knowledge of science can still get something out of it as well as those with advanced training. Th

Creation Science and Paleo-Biogeography Models

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No need to be intimidated by the expensive words in the title. Break it down. First, paleo. People who study ancient things are paleontologists, and you read about them here quite often. It comes from Greek words that basically mean ancient being study.  Bio, meaning life, such as biology, the study of life. Geography, the study of the earth, environments, and people. So, put it all together.  Green Turaco image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Ian Wilson  ( CC BY 2.0 ) Both creationary and evolutionary scientists have worldviews, speculations, hypotheses, and models. Creationists have differing views on the mechanisms (but not the biblical reality) of the Genesis Flood. Evolutionists are constantly flustered by discoveries that don't comport with their belief system. This includes biogeography — "How did that  get there "? One such recent discovery helps creationary paleontological research. It also helps these creationists develop their paleo-biogeography model about o

Animal Dispersal by Raft

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Two things that get anti-creationists on the prod is when biblical creationists know more about aspects of fish-to-photographer evolution than its proponents. Added to that is when observable evidence supports creationary models far better than it supports evolutionary conjectures. In this instance, we have been ridiculed for suggesting an aspect of biogeograpy: that one way animals were dispersed is by using rafts. Evolutionists are often stymied by similar creatures living in widely separated areas, and often have to invoke the miracle of "convergent evolution" instead of presenting real science. Credit: Freeimages / Martyn E. Jones Don't go to disunderstanding me, I'm not saying they rented rafts like the ones used to shoot the rapids on the Colorado River or something. After all, most critters cannot carry charge cards. What I'm talking about is using whatever is available (and I suspicion it's often by accident) and going with the flow. Ever see

The Ice Age, Land Bridges, and Migration

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Adherents of old Earth geology are baffled by human migration around the world, and often propose land bridges between the continents when water levels were lower. One of the most famous is Beringia, the Bering Strait land bridge where people moved from Siberia to Alaska. However, a new study supports what creationists have been saying all along, that early humans were not stupid: some  didn't wait for the ice to thaw, but went by boat . Bering Land Bridge National Preserve image credit: US National Park Service (image use does not imply site content endorsement) But what of the animals? Biblical creation science models present the most plausible answer. The conditions during and after the Genesis Flood caused the Ice Age, so the ice built up and the water levels went down. Animals had a few hundred years to stroll across to the continents. Dry land migration routes could have facilitated the movement of large animals from the Ark to remote continents. The Ice Age after t

How Did Worm Lizards Get Dispersed?

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No, it's not a snake. No, it's not a worm, even though it burrows. It's called a worm lizard, or an amphisbaenian. It has the equipment of a lizard (teeth, eyes, certain scales, backbones and so on), so that's how it's classified. Even so, the specific order is being reconsidered, since they used to be setting up camp with Squamata (scaled lizards), but they may belong in a different classification. Not that they care, they'll go on about their business no matter what humans call them. Two Iberian worm lizards / Image resized from original / Wikimedia Commons / Richard Avery Aside from being a passel of classification hassle, these critters baffle evolutionists because of their wide dispersal (biogeography). Evolutionists thought that they were spread apart when the ancient supercontinent Pangaea broke up, but that idea has changed because observed evidence contradicts it. Although their circular reasoning and old earth dating assumptions are errant, th

Biogeography is Not Explained by Evolution

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stock.xchng/mrpac-man The varieties of plants and animals around the world are not explained by evolution. To have surprisingly similar plants and animals on different continents prompts evolutionary scientists to create ad hoc "just so stories". The Biblical explanations are far better, despite ignorant proclamations to the contrary. In March 2010, internationally renowned atheist Richard Dawkins addressed the Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, Australia. He said, “The pattern of geographical distribution [of plants and animals] is just what you would expect if evolution had happened.”  He then went on to say that the distribution is “not what you would expect on certain alternative ideas … like if they had all dispersed from Noah’s Ark.” However, a closer look at the science of biogeography (the study of the distributions of plants and animals) reveals a very different picture to the one Professor Dawkins painted. Read the rest of " Plants and animals