The Corsican wildcat is a sub species

 Image courtesy of  Martin Boone. 

Joel Kontinen

Genetics research has shown that the cat fox is not half cat and half fox, but Corsican wildcats get their "cat-fox" nickname from their fox-like colour and large tail. but they are real cats.

The cat is a species but it should not be confused with foxes and cats. The Corsican wildcats is an own species called Felis Silvestris  and it can hybridize with other wild cats.

Noah did not thus have to take more than two animals of the cat kind into the ark.

A male and a female of this baramin (created kind) could produce all the varieties of cats that we see around us, from the tiniest domestic cat to Cecil the Lion.

Other hybrids include ligers, zonkeys, wholpins, geeps and grolars, 

 Source:

Pester, Patrick, 2023.  Legendary 'cat-fox' could be a new subspecies, Live Science 22 March

Scientist Spot A Narwhale-Beluga Whale Hybrid

Image courtesy of Markus Bühler.



Joel Kontinen

The fixity of species is a Darwinian myth. We have seen species that don’t follow the rules of biologists and have hybrid animals, for instance the ligers, geeps (goats and sheep) are obviously a mystery for Darwinian evolution, but they fit in well with the Genesis-based creation model.

Then we have zonkeys and and grizzy and polar bear hybrids. And yes, we have wholpins.

Sheep and goats belong to the same Genesis kind, which is a much wider concept than the biological term species. Sheep and goats actually belong to the same biblical kind, just like dogs and wolves make up one kind.

Now, 3o years ago an Inuit man in west Greenland shot a trio of strange cetaceans, with front fins like belugas and tails like narwhals.

He saved one of the skulls, hanging it on the outside of his shed.

A few years later, a scientist visiting the area spotted the skull and ended up taking it to the Natural History Museum of Denmark. It was a strange specimen: larger than either a skull from a beluga or narwhal whale, but with teeth that looked somehow between the two.

And genetic data on narwhals and belugas suggests that the two species diverged "5 million years ago" and haven't hybridized in any noticeable numbers for at least 1.25 million years.



Source:

Pappas, Stephanie. 2019. First-Ever Beluga-Narwhal Hybrid Found in the Arctic. Live Science (20 June).

Australian Wrens Co-Operate with Individuals of a Different Species

A splendid fairy-wren male (Malurus splendens). Image courtesy of Aviceda, CC BY-SA 3.0.



Joel Kontinen

Who hasn’t heard the expression 'Birds of a feather flock together'? However, sometimes birds form mixed flocks.

What is more, they often live their lives as though they belonged to the same species.

A paper published in the journal Behavioral Ecology looks at how two small Australian songbirds – variegated fairy-wrens and splendid fairy-wrens – “not only recognize individual birds from other species, but also form long-term partnerships that help them forage and defend their shared space as a group.”

These wrens have a lot in common. According to Science Daily,

“Both species feed on insects, live in large family groups, and breed during the same time of year. They are also non-migratory, meaning they live in one area for their entire lives, occupying the same eucalyptus scrublands that provide plenty of bushes and trees for cover.

When these territories overlap, the two species interact with each other. They forage together, travel together, and seem to be aware of what the other species is doing. They also help each other defend their territory from rivals. Variegated fairy-wrens will defend their shared territory from both variegated and splendid outsiders; splendid fairy-wrens will do the same, while fending off unfamiliar birds from both species.”

These tiny birds take a very un-Darwinian approach to life.

The paper obviously fails to mention that the term ‘species’ can occasionally be rather fuzzy.

A case in point is a Darwinian icon. Even at best, the differences between the various varieties of Darwin’s finches are vague, and the birds don’t comply with Darwinian expectations.

Moreover, the term 'species' is anything but an accurate description of a particular type of organism.

The great number of hybrids, such as ligers, zonkeys, wholpins, geeps, grolars and leopons, supports the view that the biblical concept ‘kind’ differs considerably from the biological term ‘species’, being more inclusive.

The Australian fairy-wrens confirm the Genesis after its kind principle in that they most probably belong to the same 'min' or kind.


Source:

University of Chicago Medical Center. 2018. Birds from different species recognize each other and cooperate: Researchers show for the first time how birds from two different species recognize individuals and cooperate for mutual benefit. Science Daily. (21 May).

Darwin Was Wrong: There’s No Tree of Life

This Victorian gentleman was wrong.



Joel Kontinen

Once upon a time, the tree of life was a major albeit somewhat controversial fact of evolution. Now it is no more.

Even secular researchers have pointed out that Darwin was wrong and that the tree has fallen down.

New Scientist had its Darwin was Wrong cover story in 2009 and since then studies have shown that he was indeed mistaken.

The latest instalment can be seen in the journal Science. Elizabeth Pennisi looks at hybrids and concludes that they spell disaster for Darwin’s tree:

“In 2010 a comparison between a Neandertal genome and genomes from people today turned up evidence of ancient liaisons, a discovery that belied the common idea that animal species can't hybridize or, if they do, will produce infertile offspring—think mules."

But this was simply wrong:

"Such reproductive isolation is part of the classic definition of a species. This discovery brought credence to other work in plants, Darwin's finches in the Galápagos Islands, tropical butterflies, mosquitoes, and a few other animals showing that hybridization was not just common, but also important in shaping evolution. The techniques that revealed the Neandertal and Denisovan legacy in our own genome are now making it possible to peer into the genomic histories of many organisms to check for interbreeding. As more examples are discovered, researchers are questioning the definition of species and rethinking whether the tree of life is really a 'net' of life.”

The term 'species' is anything but an accurate description of a particular type of organism. The great number of hybrids such as ligers, zonkeys, wholpins, geeps, grolars and leopons, supports the view that the biblical concept ‘kind’ differs considerably from the biological term ‘species’, being more inclusive.

According to the biblical model, Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans form a single biblical ‘kind’.

Likewise, at best, the distinction between the various varieties of Darwin’s finches is vague.

Hybrids challenge the very concept of evolution. No new genetic information is added, but they merely share pre-existing information. Often, they display a loss of information.

Some microbes also defy Darwinian orthodoxy by using horizontal gene transfer (HGT) to share genetic traits.

Creationists have consistently assumed that the very idea of a tree was suspect. Way back in 2000, Dr. Pierre Jerlström had an article in the Journal of Creation entitled 'Is the evolutionary tree turning into a creationist orchard?'

Now it seems that they have been right all along and evolutionists have been wrong since Darwin’s day.

Sources:

Jerström, Pierre. 2000. Is the evolutionary tree turning into a creationist orchard? Journal of Creation 14(2), 11–13.

Pennisi, Elizabeth. 2016. Shaking up the Tree of Life. Science 354 (6314), 817 – 821.

Ghost Octopus Confirms Genesis After Its Kind Principle

Deep Sea Octopus. Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Hohonu Moana 2016.



Joel Kontinen

An octopus living over 4,000 metres (13,000 feet) deep below the surface in Hawaiian waters is new to science. Photographed by NOAA’s Deep Discoverer vessel, it might look a bit like a ghost, but it is definitely an octopus.

A report posted on the NOAA website states that although the strange animal resembles the common shallow-water octopus, it has unique traits:

“This animal was particularly unusual because it lacked the pigment cells, called chromatophores, typical of most cephalopods, and it did not seem very muscular. This resulted in a ghostlike appearance, leading to a comment on social media that it should be called Casper, like the friendly cartoon ghost. It is almost certainly an undescribed species and may not belong to any described genus.”

Invoking Darwinian explanations would be of little or no use, as this octopus shows that even weird animals conform to the after its kind principle mentioned in Genesis.

Hybrids, such as ligers, zonkeys, geeps, grolars, wholphins and leopons, likewise suggest that the Genesis principle is still valid.


Source:

Vecchione, Michael. 2016. Deep Discoverer Discovers a Very Deep, Ghostlike Octopod. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2 March).

Leopons Show Genesis Principle Is Valid

Leopons. Image courtesy of TRJN, Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).




Joel Kontinen

A leopon is a cross between a male leopard and a lioness. The first documented case of this exotic feline saw daylight in India in 1910 and several other leopons have since then been born in zoos.

In contrast to some other hybrids (such as grolars), they are not known to occur in the wild.

The take-away message from leopons and other hybrids is that species distinctions are fuzzy but the After Its Kind principle, introduced in Genesis, is still valid.

Source:

HYBRIDS BETWEEN LEOPARDS AND LIONS.