Young life creationists, or baraminologists as they prefer to be called, have experienced a paradigm shift over the past three decades. Initially, young-life creationists (YLCs) made a point of identifying every possible unique characteristic of a species as the result of direct special creation and intelligent design. However, they are now increasingly embracing a model... Continue Reading →
Have you even wondered what students at a public university are taught in a general education biology class about the diversity of life?  I can't promise that what I am going to share is typical but it is what over 100 students heard yesterday in my class. Below I share a link to a recording (voice/PPT... Continue Reading →
A tidal wave of genomic information seems to wash up on shore each year.  In 2014, an especially large wave - in those days long ago! - came ashore in the form of 45 entire genome sequences of birds.  The relevance of these genomes and their hundreds of billions of letters of code representing all... Continue Reading →
There is a very recent form of fossil hunting that I have gotten to partake in to some small extent, and I can do it while sitting in front of a computer screen! With some computer skills and some knowledge of animal genomes it isn't difficult to join this hunt for fossils inside the genome of living organisms.
Last week I pointed out that the Bible provides no support for Ken Ham's contention that massive numbers of species have formed following their departure from Noah's ark 4500 years ago (YEC Biblical Evolution: I Have A Book That Says Otherwise). Â Now I'm following up with "observational" evidence from DNA sequences to test whether the... Continue Reading →
There are about 10,000 species of birds alive today. Almost 200 additional species have gone extinct since the year 1500 and there are innumerable fossil species of birds in the geological column. One of the persistent challenges for modern young earth creationists is how to fit the diversity of life on the Noah’s ark.  Answers... Continue Reading →
In my class yesterday I reviewed a paper selected by my students that explored the sweet tasting abilities of bats. We learned that most, but not all, bats can taste sugar like other mammals.  I did not know much about mammalian taste receptors (that is one problems with letting students pick the topics!) and I... Continue Reading →
I think it is safe to say that the average person has little appreciation for the diversity (eg. number of species) and the total numbers of whales in the world. What most people hear about whales is that there are some that are hunted to near extinction. This tends to create the impression that whales are rare animals. Yes, there are many rare and endangered species of whales but there there are many that are very abundant.
Naturalis Historia 