Perspectives

“Translated the scene reads: Woolly and kind is at the family level, there were µ,KDYHEHHQURDVWLQJVLQFHWKH probably no more than 2,000 animals beginning of time—I have never Columbian on the Ark.4 Woodmorappe was VHHQWKHOLNHRIWKLVJRRVH¶ more conservative and assumed the “The three vertically placed mammoths likely average kind was at the genus level, hieroglyphs (read top to bottom) in the same species and therefore 16,000 animals were IURQWRIWKHPDQ¶VKHDGDQGUDLVHG required on the Ark. Both estimates hand are the one form of the Michael J. Oard show that there was plenty of room (J\SWLDQIRUµJRRVH¶LH on the Ark for all the air-breathing srw (see the three top to bottom). terrestrial animals.5 Critics should run The other is 6.” he Bible says in Genesis 1 that their own calculations before speaking animals and plants reproduce Note the similarity of the T about the lack of room on the Ark or goose being roasted to the hieroglyph after their own kind. A Genesis kind making any challenge to creationists in question, including the alleged is in most cases not the same as for that matter. µIOLSSHUV¶WKHKHDGDQGQHFNDUH the subjective man-made category of species. A species is generally missing for obvious culinary reasons. Woolly and Columbian GH¿QHGDVDQLQWHUEUHHGLQJXQLWWKDW And when the hieroglyph is viewed mammoths interbred close up, the head looks more like that is reproductively isolated from other of a waterbird than anything else. species, or in other words it does not Although there is a proliferation of or cannot interbreed with members names, mammoths have generally been References outside its species. FODVVL¿HGLQWRWZRJHQHUDZLWKLQWKH order Proboscidea, which supposedly 1. See creation.com/brass_behemoth. Determining the boundaries of the Genesis kind is the subject of the did not or could not interbreed.6 One 2. www.msnbc.msn.com/d/6511148/ns/us_news is the woolly mammoth, Mammuthus -weird_news/t/virgin-mary-grilled-cheese- creationist research initiative called sells/, accessed 13 April 2012. baraminology.1,2 It appears that many primigenius, which generally inhabited the high latitudes and continental  taxonomy.3 One interiors at mid-latitudes of the ZDWFK"Y $W<;M2,H= IHDWXUH FRQWH[W F of the primary markers of a kind is the Northern Hemisphere. The second is RQWH[W &IH$'YM94D3SF)1EDV/Y ability of different species to reproduce the Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus FKYP,TZ%\Y6WDXM)]-',V:4 and have fertile offspring, such as the columbi, which generally is found 4. Vygus, M., Vygus Dictionary, www. wolf and the domestic dog. So by this at mid-latitudes of the Northern pyramidtextsonline.com/documents/Vygus Hemisphere but further south than DictionaryApril2012.pdf, p. 680, 2012; GHILQLWLRQRIµVSHFLHV¶WKHVSHFLHV accessed 2 April 2012. WKDWSURGXFHµK\EULGV¶VKRXOGUHDOO\ the woolly mammoth. However, there 5. Featured in: Blackman, A.M., The Rock Tombs be one species. On the other hand, is overlap in the ranges of these two of Meir, vols. I and II, Egypt Exploration the inability for two species or genera mammoths. Society, London, 1914 and 1915. It was to interbreed does not necessarily The classification scheme is GUDZQE\5LFKDUG3DUNLQVRQ'HSDUWPHQWRI make them separate kinds, since the generally based on differences in their Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum and size, the height and shape of the teeth, features in Collier, M. and Manley, B., How to reproductive system has been affected Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, British Museum by the Curse in Genesis 3. Some number of ridges on the crown, and Press, London, p. 1, 1998. animals do not normally interbreed enamel thickness. Woolly mammoths 6. As illustrated in Collier and Manley, ref. 5 p. 6. because of behavioural characteristics are about 3 m tall at the shoulder while but can have fertile offspring, and so Columbian mammoths are very tall at would be in the same Genesis kind. about 4 m and are estimated to weight NJ ¿JXUH 7KH&ROXPELDQ mammoth is thought to have evolved The application of the kind in North America while the woolly to the number of animals on mammoth is believed to have entered the Ark North America from Siberia. Determining the average level of %XWWKHVHWZRµVSHFLHV¶DUHQRW the kind has practical applications. distinct. There is a continuum between One is determining the number of the two types of mammoths, making animals needed on the Ark, which the designation of separate species critics claim are way too many for suspect. Mammoth expert Gary the size of the Ark. But if the average Haynes states:

12 JOURNAL OF CREATION 26(2) 2012 Perspectives

conclude that these elephants should belong to the same species.

Creationist implication The new discovery that woolly and Columbian mammoths are really one species further indicates that taxonomic splitters have established species, mainly by morphology, too liberally. Moreover, it adds one more piece of data that supports the biblical kind at a higher taxonomic level than the species, and that all elephants, living and fossils, are probably one kind. Image courtesy of Sergiodlarosa

Figure 1. Columbian mammoth References 1. Frair, W., Baraminology—Classification “However, there may be a It seems like the taxonomic of Created Organisms &UHDWLRQ 5HVHDUFK gradient [continuum] based on splitters had a strong influence in Society Books, Chino Valley, AZ, 2000. body size and tooth morphology mammoth classification, since the 2. Wood, T.C. and Murray, M.J., Understanding that could indicate that M. woolly and Columbian mammoths the Pattern of Life: Origins and Organization of the Species %URDGPDQ  +ROPDQ columbi and M. primigenius are not that different. The discovery, Publishers, Nashville, TN, 2003. were not descendants of two of course, is disputed by some who 3. Wood, T.C., The current status of entirely separate dispersals … . believe a lot more DNA evidence is baraminology, CRSQ 43(3):149–158, 2006. No clear differences in postcranial needed to draw such a conclusion, such 4. Jones, A.J., How many animals in the Ark? morphology distinguish the two as an analysis of the nuclear DNA. CRSQ 10(2):102–108, 1973. species; enamel thickness is 5. Woodmorappe, J., Noah’s Ark: A Feasibility considered partially diagnostic, Is the order Proboscidea one Study, ,QVWLWXWHIRU&UHDWLRQ5HVHDUFK'DOODV but individual teeth and even parts kind? 7; of a given tooth have variable 6. Oard, M.J., Frozen in Time: Woolly enamel thickness.”7 Mammoths are only one genus of Mammoths, the Ice Age, and the Biblical Key New information was just the elephant order called Proboscidea, to Their Secrets, Master Books, Green Forest, $5SS± revealed at the 71st meeting of the which also includes living elephants, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology extinct mastodons, and extinct 7. Haynes, G., Mammoths, Mastodonts, and gomphotheres—elephants with two Elephants, Cambridge University Press, that indicates woolly and Columbian Cambridge, UK, p. 6, 1991. mammoths should be considered more tusks in their lower jaw, one type 8. Milius, S., DNA: mammoths may have 8 of gomphothere that has shovel-shaped varieties within one species. A mixed—supposedly separate types may really mitochondrial DNA analysis of two lower tusks. Could all these elephant have been one, Science News 180(12):13, Columbian mammoth specimens from types be all one kind? Sarfati and I 2011. Utah and Wyoming, USA, indicates both think that they are possibly all one 9. Oard, ref. 6, pp. 187–188. 9,10 that they carry woolly-mammoth- kind. Furthermore, it is known that 10. Sarfati, J., Mammoths—riddle of the Ice Age, OLNH'1$5RVV0DF3KHHZDVYHU\ the two living types of elephants, the Creation 22(2):10–15, 2000. surprised by his analysis and is quoted $VLDQDQG$IULFDQHOHSKDQWVGH¿QHG as saying: as two different genera within the “Woolly and Columbian mam- family Elephantiidae, can interbreed. moths may be so close that they Since the animals do not live together, should really be regarded as the the successful mating occurred same thing … . One extraordinarily by accident in the Chester Zoo in variable species.”8 England.6 The baby elephant died, He goes on to say: however, 10 days later of a disease. “There will be resistance to this If they did live together, there likely conclusion because it is so un- would be all kinds of intermediate expected.”8 types, and researchers would probably

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