Scientists in Portugal unearthed a "super salamander" which, although "weird compared to anything today," is still very much a salamander.1
The fossilized bones of the six-foot (two meter) animal were discovered on a hillside dig "chock-full" of bones and declared to originate from the "Upper Triassic" period, some 200 million years ago according to evolutionary dating. While evolutionists like to claim that variations in traits within a species are proof of evolution, salamanders have always been salamanders regardless of their size.
Creationists see this as yet another discovery of a created animal that grew to large dimensions in the fertile world before the Flood, and was subsequently buried during the Flood itself. Examples of gigantism in other pre-Flood animals abound: dragonflies with wingspans of almost thirty inches, giant sea scorpions nine feet long—the largest arthropod ever—and monster millipedes.
Salamanders were created during creation week and through the thousands of years of Earth history have diversified into the various salamander species in our world today. Evolutionists find tracing the ancestry of even this "super salamander" variation to be a challenge, let alone the supposed macroevolution of amphibians from a non-amphibian ancestor.
Evolutionist Michael Benton comments, "…where the modern amphibians arose from among extinct forms," and "the relationship of clades within [living amphibians] have also been controversial."2
In 2013 an unscientific appeal to evolution's "invisible finger" was made by an evolutionist at the University of Connecticut.3 This application was in regard to the adaptive evolution of spotted and marbled salamanders as they interact in ponds. Indeed, who can document, or argue with, something that's invisible? Creationists counter that these animals were programmed by the Creator to make small adjustments to accommodate (i.e. "fill") a variety of environments.
Trait variation within the created kind is clear evidence of genetic programming by the Creator, not undirected macroevolution. From the beginning to the end of this study the amphibians involved were simply varieties of salamanders.
Evolutionists disagree, though there is no scientific evidence to back their conclusions:
Because of this dearth of fossils, the origin of [modern amphibians] remains controversial, and it is now by far the least well documented and understood of any of the major vertebrate evolutionary transitions.4
Evolution's mythical invisible finger doesn't exist, but God's creative hand does. That's why there's "this dearth of fossils"—no evidence of salamander evolution from non-salamanders, past or present.
References
- Researchers find fossil of 'Super Salamander' species. Yahoo News. Posted on yahoo.com March 24, 2015, accessed March 25, 2015.
- Benton, M. 2015. Vertebrate Paleontology, 4th ed. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 113.
- Study of salamanders in ponds demonstrates 'invisible finger of evolution'. Phys.Org. Posted on phys.org/news May 29, 2013, accessed March 25, 2015.
- Clack, J. 2012. Gaining Ground, 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 381.
Image Credit: Copyright © 2015 AP Photo, University of Edinburgh, J. Bruno. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.
*Mr. Sherwin is Research Associate, Senior Lecturer, and Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on April 16, 2015.
