OPEN ACCESS Article CBS Annual Conference Abstracts 2020 Baraminological Study of Mammalian Order still much closer to each other within each group than they were Lagomorpha and Stem Lagomorphs to species of their respective family in the other group. This is C. Araujo seemingly in contrast to Wood’s (2008) study which suggested that San Diego Christian College Leporidae and Ochotonidae were each monobaraminic. However, two Leporidae genera appear to be forming a “bridge” between Well-known for their tendency to proliferate, rabbits and hares the Leporidae species in the respective groups. It is possible that have managed to spread to nearly every continent on Earth. with a larger dataset and further analysis, the two groups could be They, as well as mountain-dwelling pikas, are grouped within shown to actually be one larger, continuous group. Although these order Lagomorpha. Rabbits and hares are considered members of results are unusual and unexpected, two analyses by Thompson family Leporidae, with rabbits represented by several genera and and Wood (2018) were also both inconclusive on the baraminic hares grouped in genus Lepus, while pikas make up the family status of lagomorphs. It is still possible that families Leporidae Ochotonidae. There is only one fossil pika, represented by genus and Ochotonidae are both monobaramins, but additional research Prolagus. There is also a mostly extinct family of Lagomorpha needs to be done. called Prolagidae; it has one extant species, Prolagus imperialis. Overall, there are about 90 extant species of lagomorphs and over Caravaggi A. 2018. Lagomorpha life history. In: Vonk, J, and T. Shackelford, eds. Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer International 230 species represented in the fossil record (Caravaggi 2018). The Publishing. Switzerland. pp. 1-9. stem lagomorphs included in this study are representative species Fostowicz-Frelik Ł, and J. Meng. 2013. Comparative morphology of premolar of genera Aktashmys and Dawsonolagus. Previous baraminological foramen in lagomorphs (Mammalia:Glires) and its functional and phylogenetic study was done on the Order Lagomorpha, which concluded that implications. PLoS One 8:e79794. Thompson, C. and T.C. Wood. 2018. A survey of Cenozoic mammal baramins. based on available data families Leporidae and Ochotonidae are In Whitmore, J.H., ed. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on likely monobaramins, respectively, and that Leporidae could be a Creationism. Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh, pp. 217-221. holobaramin (Wood, 2008). However, the dataset used was very Wood T.C. 2008. Animal and plant baramins. CORE Issues in Creation 1:1-241. small, consisting of the craniomandibular characteristics of six Wood T.C. 2001. BDIST software, v. 1.0. Center for Origins Research and Education, Bryan College. Distributed by the author. of the eleven extant lagomorph genera. More research needed to be done before any of the initial results could be considered conclusive. With this in mind, another morphological character Baraminology of Pareiasauria (Amniota: set was subjected to standard baraminological analysis (Wood, Parareptilia) 2001). Published by Fostowicz-Frelik and Meng (2013), this M.A. McLain dataset included 22 taxa representing all major groups of extinct Department of Biological and Physical Sciences, The Master’s University, Santa and extant Lagomorpha as well as one outgroup, Mimitona wana. Clarita, CA These were evaluated using 80 dental, cranial, and mandibular characters. After applying a character relevance cutoff of 0.95 to Pareiasaurs were medium- to large-sized herbivores with the dataset, 29 characters were used in the analysis. Twenty-six of stocky bodies found in Middle to Upper Permian deposits. Their these were dental characters, and 3 were for the skull. None of the fossils have been found in Russia, South Africa, China, Morocco, mandibular characters were used, making this study less holistic. Niger, Brazil, Germany, Scotland, Tanzania, and Zambia The baraminic distance correlation (BDC) showed two distinct (Macedo Farias, et al. 2019). Pareiasaurs possessed osteoderms groupings. The groups consist of both Leporidae and Ochotonidae along their dorsal surface and many had remarkable bony bosses, split fairly evenly between each group, with 6 ochotonids and 6 protuberances, or horns on their skulls. Pareiasaurs are recovered leporids represented in one group and 2 ochotonids and 5 leporids in most phylogenies as members of Parareptilia forming the along with 2 stem lagomorphs in the other group. Two genera, clade Pareiasauromorpha with Nycteroleteridae, which may be Mimotona and Paleolagus, were not positively correlated with paraphyletic (e.g., Tsuji 2013). The distinctiveness of pareiasaurs either of those two groups. On viewing the 3D multidimensional compared to other parareptiles suggests that they might not scaling (MDS) results, the stem lagomorphs are grouped together share ancestry with other members of Parareptilia. There are no separate from any other group, and Mimotona wana is distant to the extant parareptiles, although for a time turtles were thought to be other groups. There was discontinuity between the families within living members of this group since they shared an anapsid skull the two distinct groups, but the ochotonids and leporids were construction (e.g., Lee 1993, 1997). However, most researchers ©2020 The authors. These abstracts are open access and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium as long as the original author and medium are credited. Citation: Journal of Creation Theology and Science Series B: Life Sciences 10:1-8. now favor a diapsid (e.g., Rieppel and deBraga 1996) and likely Evidence for a Recent Transition into Parasitism archosauromorph position for turtles (e.g., Iwabe et al. 2004). within four Phyla of Marine Animals In order to better understand the patterns of continuity and A.S. Rhodes, M.G. Wentley, and J.D. Blaschke discontinuity of the pareiasaurs, a published morphological Union University character dataset (Liu and Bever 2018) containing 139 characters (78 craniomandibular and dental; 61 postcranial) and 30 taxa The flatworm Urostoma cyprinae lives inside the gills of the (22 pareiasaurs, 8 other parareptiles) was analyzed. 25 taxa were blue mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis (Robledo et al. 1994, Brun retained for the statistical baraminological analysis (5 pareiasaurs et al. 1999). Although the worm is minute, when a blue mussel [Sanchuanosaurus, Obirkovia, Honania, Parasaurus, and Elginia is heavily infested, large lesions can form on the mussel’s gills. wuyongae] were removed for having character relevance cutoffs Blood cells are drawn to the damaged areas and are lost through of less than 0.30) using BARCLAY (Wood 2020) at a 0.75 taxic the tissue, further harming the mussel. As a result of the infestation, relevance cutoff, which allowed for the retention of 51 characters. the mussel’s feeding and breathing is severely impaired (Robledo Baraminic distance correlation (BDC) results show two clear et al. 1994). Parasites like the flatworm U. cyprinae pose a blocks of positive correlation (Pareiasauria and the outgroup taxa, particularly difficult problem for Young-Earth Creationists (YEC) respectively) with negative correlation or no correlation between who believe that the creator of U. cyprinae is a perfectly loving, the two blocks. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) results viewed deeply relational being (Francis 2009). Parasitism represents in three dimensions show two clusters, which correspond to the a corruption of harmony and unity between creatures of God’s two blocks of positive correlation in the BDC plot, separated by an creation. It seems counterintuitive that a loving God would have obvious gap in morphological space. The pareiasaur Shihtienfenia created parasites to inhabit a “very good” world (Genesis 1:31). is widely separated from the rest of the pareiasaurs but is not any And yet, parasites currently represent over 50% of all species on closer to the outgroup than the other pareiasaurs. Similarly, the earth (Weinstein and Kuris 2016). Therefore, YEC must explain nycteroleterid Rhipaeosaurus is far from the other outgroup taxa the origin of the numerous and diverse parasites we see today but is not any closer to the pareiasaurs than the other outgroup (Blaschke 2018). taxa. One possible explanation for parasite origins can be gleaned The clear positive correlation in the BDC plot and close from their biology. Interestingly, some individuals of U. cyprinae clustering in MDS of pareiasaurs is strong evidence for continuity exhibit a much less gruesome lifestyle. Rather than feeding within Pareiasauria. The negative correlation surrounding the on mussel tissue, they feed on microorganisms found in algae group in BDC and the large gap in multidimensional space between and mud on the ocean floor (Robledo et al. 1994). In this case, pareiasaurs and other parareptiles in MDS is strong evidence for parasitism is facultative--the flatworm is not biologically obligated discontinuity surrounding Pareiasauria. These results indicate that to be parasitic. In a YEC model of parasite diversification, God Pareiasauria is a holobaramin, which suggests that all pareiasaurs would have created the free-living form of U. cyprinae in the belong to the same created kind. This study marks the first attempt beginning and only after the Fall did the parasitic form