Biology Commons^™

Testing The Cavefish Model: An Organism-Focused Theory Of Biological Design, Michael J. Boyle, Scott Arledge, Brian Thomas, Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Randy J. Guliuzza

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Poster Abstract

The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) is experimentally testing an engineering-based model of rapid biological adaptation: Continuous Environmental Tracking (CET). This model infers that organisms actively track conditions within specific environments to self-adjust through internal mechanisms and initiate adaptive functionality. The animal under investigation is Astyanax mexicanus (Mexican tetra), a freshwater fish with well-differentiated, interfertile morphotypes: eyed surface-dwelling fish (surface fish) with distinct pigmentation patterns, and eyeless cave-dwelling fish (cavefish) with minimal pigmentation. Aquaria within our newly established laboratory contain breeding pairs of cavefish exposed to either (A) cyclical light/dark patterns of full-spectrum high-intensity light, (B) minimal light …

Hybridization And Genetic Distances Suggest One Large Monobaramin In The Gourd Family (Cucurbitales: Cucurbitaceae), Timothy R. Brophy, Jack R. Gregory, Brigitte Townsend

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The gourds form a primarily tropical and subtropical family (Cucurbitales: Cucurbitaceae) of herbaceous climbers and woody lianas composed of approximately 960 species in 95 genera and 15 tribes. Many of these are globally important food crops and ornamentals including cucumbers, gourds, squashes, melons, pumpkins, and luffas. Utilizing published literature, there is evidence of interspecific hybridization (natural, experimental cross-pollination, and embryo/ovule culture) in five of the 15 tribes. These consist of successful crosses between 131 unique species pairs, including two intergeneric and one intertribal cross, forming eight monobaramins. In addition, species that do not hybridize directly, but hybridize with the same …

Paleo-Ontogenetic Growth Curves: Evidence For Extreme Past Animal Longevity?, Leo Hebert Iii

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

One of the Bible's most ridiculed claims is its assertion that pre-Flood and immediate post-Flood humans experienced lifespans of hundreds of years. Hence, the ability to partially corroborate the Bible's claim in this regard should be of great interest to creation researchers. Paleontologists have within the last two decades become increasingly interested in using growth rings recorded in fossil forms to make inferences about past growth rates, sizes, and lifespans. Examination of these growth rings suggest that some creatures in the pre-Flood world matured quite slowly compared to similar extant forms. Also, multiple studies have shown that slower development and …

A Novel Software For Organelle Genome-Based Baraminology Studies, Matthew Cserhati

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Background

There are 24,165 organelle DNA sequences at the Organelle Genome webpage at the NCBI website, as of June 19, 2022. Of these, 14,799 are mitochondrial genomes and 8,050 are chloroplast genomes. Since organelle genomes are very small and very abundant within the cell, they are easy to isolate and sequence. This means that there is a very large number of organelle genome data available for baraminologists to explore and analyze. Using organelle genomes is a quick way to map a large number of species to their respective baramins in preliminary baraminology studies.

The first mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies in …

New Analyses Suggest That All Horses (Perissodactyla: Equidae) Belong To A Single Holobaramin, Timothy R. Brophy, Jack R. Gregory

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The horse family (Perissodactyla: Equidae) is composed of approximately 35 genera, primarily extinct forms from Cenozoic sediments, that include the modern genus Equus. The equids, along with some other extinct perissodactyls (e.g., palaeotheriids) form the superfamily (or clade) Equoidea. Our previous research confirmed the conclusions of several other baraminological analyses that all members of the horse family belong to the same monobaramin. No baraminological studies, however, have detected consistent discontinuity between the horses and any outgroup taxa. The goal of this study is to investigate potential discontinuity and holobaraminic status of horses and other similar taxa using new datasets …

Messages In The Genetic Code: The Dram Form, John M. Demassa

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Does the Genetic code contain non-structural information or even intelligible messages? The present work offers a mathematical investigation of the genetic code using a novel numeric procedure applied to both nucleobases and amino acids found in standard code tables. The numeric two step procedure amounts to an atom count of all the atoms in standard genetic code tables and shall be called Compound Numeric Triangulation. The first step called Compound Numeric Indexing (CNI) converts the DNA codon table (purines and pyrimidines),the RNA codon table (purines and pyrimidines) and the 20 standard amino acids into representative index numbers. In this step, …

Molecular And Morphological Analyses Confirm That All Loons (Aves: Gaviiformes) Form A Single Holobaramin, Timothy R. Brophy, Mary-Clark A. Matthews, Mckayla M. Guillory, Alexis M. Ramerth

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Loons or divers (Aves: Gaviiformes), a group of waterbirds found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, are comprised of several extinct taxa as well as an extant family (Gaviidae) with one genus (Gavia) and five species. Recent phylogenetic studies suggest that the Sphenisciformes (penguins) and Procellariiformes (petrels, albatrosses, and shearwaters) form a sister group to the loons. Our previous research, based on hybridization, morphological, and vocalization data, found that all extant loons form a single holobaramin (i.e., created kind). This previous study, however, was inconclusive as to the membership of fossil taxa within the kind. The goal of the …

The Exquisite Design Of Somatic Hypermutation To Enhance Antibody Diversity, Binding Affinity And Self-Tolerance, Frank Maas

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Somatic hypermutation (SHM) of antibody genes is commonly cited as preeminent evidence of the Darwinian “survival of the fittest” in nature. Just as SHM generates antibodies with the strongest binding affinity through a process of random mutation and selection in somatic cells of an individual, the same process occurring in germ cells on a population level can result in macroevolution according to proponents of the latter theory. Although SHM appears to produce point mutations randomly, such mutations are actually generated by a well-designed intricate mechanism contributing to species preservation. Non-random characteristics of SHM are summarized as well as recent findings …

Molecular Baraminology Of Marine And Freshwater Fish, Matthew Cserhati

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Background

How did freshwater and saltwater fish survive the Flood? Is it even possible for fish to adapt rapidly between saltwater and freshwater? What kind of biological mechanism make this process possible? What is the distribution of freshwater and saltwater fish species in different fish baramins?

Erosion and volcanic activity would have made the post-Flood waters saltier than the pre-Flood waters. Species richness in freshwater is currently estimated to be 14 times greater than in saltwater (Carrete Vega and Wiens, 2012), and the approximate number of freshwater and saltwater fish is about the same: around 15,000 (Seehausen and Wagner, 2014). …

Hominin Baraminology Reconsidered With Postcranial Characters, Todd Charles Wood, P. S. Brummel

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Statistical baraminology studies of the fossil hominins began in 2010 with a provocative paper that identified a tentative holobaramin of humans that included such surprising taxa as Homo habilis and Australopithecus sediba. Subsequent research on Homo naledi reinforced the membership of this holobaramin, and recent studies with an expanded dataset and additional clustering methods also confirmed the original results. Nevertheless, the last decade of research has focused almost entirely on craniodental characteristics, which fall short of the holistic ideal of baraminology research. Past work with postcranial characters suffered from a small sample size, a small number of characters, and …

A Review Of Crs Ekinds Predictive Success And Known Genetic Mechanisms Affecting The Prevalence Of Alleles In A Population: Meiotic Drive As A Competing Explanation For Patterns Attributed To Natural Selection, Jean K. Lightner

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

I propose a full paper the begins by introducing the Creation Research Society’s eKINDS (examination of kinds in natural diversification and speciation) project. Then, I will narrow the focus to one key topic of this initiative: finding the mechanisms that underly the rapid diversification and speciation evident in various created kinds of creatures as they reproduced and filled the earth. This can be divided into two categories: (1) the origin of alleles and (2) factors affecting the frequencies of those alleles, especially in the context of adaptation. In the standard neo-Darwinian paradigm, random mutation is claimed to account for the …

A Preliminary Evaluation Of Ape Baramins, P. S. Brummel, Todd Charles Wood

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Creationists sometimes casually refer to “the ape baramin” as a distinction from human beings, but careful examinations of primate and ape baramins have been rare. Walker places 279 species of primates into 77 genera and 15 families, ranging from the large Cercopithecidae family with 21 genera and 96 species to the tiny lemuroid Daubentoniidae with just two species. Previous creationist analysis has proposed eight families as holobaramins: Galagonidae, Picrodontidae, Plesiadapidae, Lemuridae, Lepilemuridae, Carpolestidae, Omomyidae, and Cebidae. Based on hybridization, we can recognize Cercopithecidae as a monobaramin. None of those proposed baramins are great apes. Within the Hominoidea, analyses have offered …

Allometric And Metabolic Scaling: Arguments For Design... And Clues To Explaining Pre-Flood Longevity?, Leo Hebert Iii

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Within the creationist community, there has been recent interest in applying engineering principles to the study of living things. Engineers routinely attempt to maximize certain qualities, such as efficiency and durability, while minimizing others, such as cost of construction, within certain design limits or constraints. Biologists have long suspected that living things are in some sense “optimized” and there is a long history of attempting to understand biological systems in terms of this optimization. This is strong prima facie evidence of intelligent design, yet evolutionists attribute this optimization to evolution and natural selection.

Biological optimization is closely related to allometry, …

Testing The Cavefish Model: An Organism-Focused Theory Of Biological Design, Michael J. Boyle, Brian Thomas, Jeffery P. Tomkins, Randy J. Guliuzza

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The significance of this research is multifaceted. At the 8^th ICC, Guliuzza and Gaskill (2018) introduced a novel paradigm: Continuous Environmental Tracking (CET). This theory infers that organisms actively and continuously track conditions within their specific environments to self-adjust through internal mechanisms that integrate molecular, biochemical, physiological and behavioral functionality of the whole organism. These mechanisms are predicted to operate by the same integrative principles that govern human-engineered control systems, suggesting that fish and other animals make highly-regulated responses in order to compensate for changes in external conditions that may exceed their routine efforts to maintain homeostasis. Moreover, the …

A Creation Model Of Design: Application Of An Interface Systems Model In Key Global Symbiotic Relationships, Tom Hennigan, Randy Guliuzza, Matthew E. Ingle, Grace Lansdell

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Philosophical naturalists explain the origins of symbiotic relationships through initial random natural processes of evolution as these relationships evolved, and co-evolved through struggle and competition in simple organisms. This led to greater complexity and cooperation through system self-organization. We propose a new young-age creation model for the origin of symbioses using human engineered interface systems as analogues for understanding and describing globally important symbiotic mutual, commensal, and parasitic relationships. The relationships we will investigate in detail include, but are not limited to, mycorrhizae, nitrogen fixation, lichens, key parasites, and commensals (though commensal relationships are not fully understood). An interface model …

Genealogical Vs Phylogenetic Mutation Rates: Answering A Challenge, Robert Carter

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

There is a discrepancy between the mutation rate we can measure today and the rate at which evolution is supposed to have proceeded. The former is sometimes called the genealogical mutation rate, for it is obtained by comparing individuals whom we know to be related. The latter is sometimes called the phylogenetic mutation rate. It is calculated by counting the fixed differences between two species and dividing by the estimated time since their common ancestor. Genealogical mutation rates are generally several orders of magnitude faster than phylogenetic estimates. This causes problems for the evolutionary model. For example, using the genealogical …

Combinatorial Genomic Data Refute The Human Chromosome 2 Evolutionary Fusion And Build A Model Of Functional Design For Interstitial Telomeric Repeats, Jeffrey P. Tomkins

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

Evolutionists allege that human chromosome 2 is the product of an ancient fusion event in an ancient hominid ancestor descended from apes. However, both the alleged site of fusion and the so-called cryptic centromere of human chromosome 2 are situated inside active genes negating the idea of fusion. Not only are the alleged genomic fossils of fusion representative of functional intragenic sequence, but they are also both highly degenerate versions of their supposed evolutionary beginnings, suggesting something other than an evolutionary origin. Given that these data strongly refute an evolutionary fusion scenario, it behooves creationists to propose an alternative model …

The Crs Ekinds Research Initiative: Where We Have Been And Where We Are Headed From Here, Jean K. Lightner, Kevin Anderson

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The eKINDS research initiative began in 2016 in an effort to accelerate research on numerous outstanding questions related the diversification and speciation of plants and animals. The research encompasses three broad topics: a) identification of created kinds, b) identification of mechanisms that drive diversification and speciation within created kinds, and c) detailed analysis of individual created kinds in an attempt to propose a robust natural history that delineates key events as organisms reproduced and filled the earth following the time of the Flood.

As part of the eKINDS project, a new statistical tool is being developed to take advantage of …

Continuous Environmental Tracking: An Engineering Framework To Understand Adaptation And Diversification, Randy J. Guliuzza, Phil Gaskill

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

We offer a new framework for understanding biological adaptability based on interpreting the findings of 342 journal articles and 67 online reports related to adaptation, bioengineering, and design in view of the assumption that biological functions are most accurately explained by engineering principles. We hypothesize that organisms actively and continuously track environmental variables and respond by self-adjusting to changing environments—utilizing the engineering principles constraining how human-designed objects self-adjust to changes—which results in adaptation. We termed this hypothesis Continuous Environmental Tracking (CET). CET is an engineering-based, organism-focused characterization of adaptation. CET expects to find that organisms adapt via systems with elements …

The Extraordinary Design Of The Bombardier Beetle: A Classic Example Of Biomimetics, Andy C. Mcintosh, Joseph Lawrence

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The innocuous looking bombardier beetle is one of the most remarkable creatures in the insect world. This tiny insect (1-1.5 cms long) is able to fight off any spider, frog, ant or bird that comes too close, by blasting the attacker with a powerful jet of hot, toxic fluid. Furthermore, the beetle can aim its weapon in any direction (even over its head) with pinpoint accuracy, and can reach distances of up to 20 cm with its spray. The bombardier beetle is rare in Europe but common in Africa, Asia and the warmer parts of the Americas, and in order …

The Dinosauria: Baraminological And Multivariate Patterns, Neal A. Doran, Matthew Mclain, Natalie Young, Adam Sanderson

Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism

The Dinosauria pose both interesting and challenging questions for creationist systematists. One question is whether new dinosaur discoveries are closing morphospatial gaps between dinosaurian groups, revealing continuous morphological fossil series, such as between coelurosaurians and avialans. Questions such as these underscore the importance of systematics for resolving correct group memberships, including tools for visualizing morphospatial relationships. Baraminic distance correlation (BDC), three-dimensional multidimensional scaling (MDS), and a new method to baraminic studies – principal component analysis (PCA) – were applied to 18 character matrices from 2004. The data included saurischian and ornithischian dinosaur groups including (1) “basal” Saurischia, (2) Ceratosauria (including …