Animal Family Reunion: Hybrids

We’ve looked at how Biblical Creationists are said to believe in something called “Fixism” or, the idea that God created all creatures just as we see them today. Scientific observation will show anyone that idea can’t be true.

We also know Evolutionists believe every organism is part of one big family going back to a single ancestor (or very small group of single-celled ancestors). This also goes against everything we observe in science. Instead we see each creature having children close, but not identical, to their parents. Most of the time we have no problem saying they are part of the same species.

But sometimes things get really shaken up.

We live in exciting times for Creation Science. With the help of DNA studies and all the scientific advances in the world, it is way easier to discover real family relationships. Even 50 years ago, most of what scientists had to go on was how a creature looked and acted. Today all kinds of organisms are being reclassified because we’ve found their genetics to be different from what we’d figured they had to be. (For an example, check out the confusion over the Giant Panda’s closest genetic neighbors).

BTW, what does this tell us about fossil creatures where we can’t possibly compare their genetics? How can anyone say it’s a fact that some things are related? They have no option but to assume the way the bones and other things look prove their case.

There is also a push right now to get a good idea of the kinds of animals God would have brought to Noah on the ark. This is an important thing to know. Did Noah need to take pairs from each of the 100,000+ species with him? If we thought he did, we would end up throwing out the whole story because there is no way they could all fit!

So, Answers in Genesis (who are saving up to build a full-sized replica of the Ark) and others are really studying these things. Here are some of the things they’ve found:

“Swoose” Honking (Photo credit: OakleyOriginals)

• Camels can have babies with Llamas (called a Cama, and are they cute!)
• A Toothed Whale can have babies with a Dolphin (called a Wholphin)
• A Swan and a Goose can have a baby (called a Swoose)

Many (but not all) of these hybrids can’t have babies themselves like a mule (a horse/donkey mix), but it does make you wonder. When the world was much closer to the “very good” condition God originally created and all creatures had a huge variety of genes for differences, could there have been one “super” creature for each of these groups?

What’s more interesting is when creatures separated by oceans can still have children together. When they can’t fly, like the camels and llamas, Uniformitarians will tell us they have been evolving apart for millions of years.

As with all origins science, we have to use our imaginations, make guesses, and try to check if our assumptions fit the facts. There were only a handful of eyewitnesses of the Flood, and no records of what the animals on board the Ark actually looked like!

They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. Genesis 7:14-15

For more, check out these articles:

Answers in Genesis:

Mammalian Ark Kinds (long, but lots of pictures)

Frog Kinds on the Ark (brand new!)

Creation’s Hidden Potential (a short talk about how Creation Scientists think about creatures changing)

Creation Ministries International:

Thinking biblically about termites and lizards

Ligers and wholphins? What next?

Identification of species within the cattle monobaramin (kind)