WEEK 5 OUTLINE

LIVING FOSSILS

1. Tuatara

This lizard was only found in "135,000,000" year old Cretacious rock, and no younger-ever.
The ones found living in New Zealand are virtually indistinguishable from the fossil ones found in Jurrasic rocks in Europe.

2. Metasequoia

Metasequoia trees are supposed to be extinct as of "20,000,000" years ago.
Found living in remote areas of China.
One is over one hundred feet tall.
There is a grove in one place numbering a hundred trees. Not nearly extinct!

3. Coelecanth

Found only in "70,000,000" year old rocks, this fish was once thought to be the Evolutionary ancestor to all amphibians and land dwelling creatures.
Lo and behold there it was in 1939- fresh from the ocean to you!
Then in later years they were discovered to be alive and kicking!

4. Neopilina Galatheae-The Deep Sea Mollusk

Supposed to be extinct during the Devonian period("280,000,000" years ago), this creature was found alive in the Acapulco Trench at 11,700 feet down in the ocean.

5. Crustaceans Like Lepidocaris

> The same time period as above is given for this creature. Extinct somewhere around "300,000,000" years ago, it showed up fresh on the shores of Long Island in the fifties.

6. One Like The Trilobite

A Quote from The Genesis Flood, Dr. Henry Morris, p. 179:

"A specimen of a "living fossil," perhaps the most primitive extant member of one of the major classes of animals, has recently been added to the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. This is a crustacean of the long extinct trilobites, the earth's dominant animals of a half-billion years ago, fossils of which are among the earliest traces of a high order of life on the planet....Presumably it is exclusively an inhabitant of the mud bottoms of shallow inland waters and never comes to the surface or has a free-swimming existence. This may account for the fact that it has remained unknown so long."

They are quoting from an article called "Living Fossil Resembles Long Extinct Trilobite," Science Digest, Vol.42, December 1957.
A search was underway for trilobites from this discovery, by Scripps Institute's Dr. Robert H. Parker and Denmark's Dr. Henning Lemche.
They are sure that trilobites are not extinct.
What if they found a trilobite? The "living" index fossil would throw off the entire Evolutionary dating methods, already in deepest waters.

PLANTS

1. Bladderwort

Tiny air bubble-like growths on the stems are actually traps to catch microorganisms. The spring on the door is like a hair trigger. It opens the door instantly to suck the animal in. The animal barely fits through the door. The animal is then digested. The plant is not good for fish tanks with breeding fish as the fry can become victims of this plant.
The point is, if you wanted to hire a group of engineers, draftsmen, assemblers, to make one like this, it would be a marvel in engineering, requiring thousands of millions of dollars to design, make, and test. They would have to make it to go underwater, microscopic, and fully functional the FIRST TIME.
The result MIGHT be a shadow of the real thing IF it could be done at all. The invention would be non-living, barely functional, computer operated, expensive.

Do These Things Happen By Chance??????

2. Venus Fly Trap

This plant is similar to the above, only it's terrestrial. The mechanism is equally complicated. The plant has a trigger that is literally a hair-trigger. The hairs on the inside of the two halves are precisely located and actually have a combination. If an insect presses the correct hairs in the correct order the first time(combination lock?), THEN AND ONLY THEN will the trap close. This system is virtually mistake proof as it is almost impossible to accidently trip the mechanism as an insect.
It is also almost equally impossible to get through the trap without setting it off. The plant closes by an instant growth in the cells on the outside of the trap and not on the inside.
The plant then needs the nutrition to grow and reopen on the inside cells.
A series of accidental springings of the trap will subsequently kill the plant. People usually do this when they have the plant at home.

"About the origin of the carnivorous plants, however much as these questions may intrigue the mind, little can be said, nor have I attempted to discuss them. How the highly specialized organs of capture could have evolved seems to defy our present knowledge."

F.E. Lloyd,(1942) The Carnivorous Plants, Chronica Botanical Co., Waltham, Mass. p.7.

3. Oak Tree Cells

If you think about it, the single cell of anything is really very wimpy. Yet combined together as in an oak tree, the result is that you can build boats, houses, furniture, etc., with it. Do these types of strengths, built in to the cells just happen? Each cell broken down, really is not that strong. But look at the result of combined efforts!

4. Seedless House Plants

The Pothos Ivy in your house has no seeds, flowers, bulbs, or any sex organs. Where are the original parents of this plant? You can break off any piece, water it, and you will continue the plant as a vine. There are hundreds of similar examples. They are in the fossil record as they are today.

5. Flower Colors/Bees

The relationship with the bees and the flowers is rather involved, complicated, and co-dependent. They need each other. Bees can only see the main colors of the flowers that they gather nectar from. How did this relationship, being so complex, evolve?

The bee needs the nectar, the flower needs the pollination; that is to say that neither one can survive without the other. What happened before this relationship evolved?

Flowers have always been flowers and bees have always been bees, as the fossil record shows:So what really evolved? Which one thought of the relationship first, the bee or the flower? Both had to evolve the same idea, at the same time,at the same rate, the entire time flawlessly with 0% mistakes. Is this possible?

6. Air Plants

These plants are generally found in the stores nowadays. They just SIT in the piece of wood that they sell them in.

7. Oldest Known 5000 Years

The oldest known plant on the earth is a creosote bush in the Mojave desert. This does not prove anything, but the time of the flood is estimated at about 5,000 years ago by some Creationists. If Evolution is true, why are there no 50,000 year old trees, bushes, plants, etc.?

8. Indigestible Seeds/Blowing Seeds

Many plants have seeds that are indigestible to the bird or animal that eats them. The shell is very tough, but upon passage through the digestive system of the animal, the seed germinates in only water and soil. In the stomach of the animal there are digestive acids which cannot digest the seed.
The purpose of the process is to insure that the seeds are dispersed over a large area. The animal carries the seed and later passes it on to another area.
How could this shell develop by chance? What happened to the species of plant before the tough shell evolved?
There are also seeds which transport themselves on the fur or feathers via sticky hooks in all directions on the seed. How did this evolve? How did the seed disperse before the hooks?

9. Seven Years Fallow Land

God in Leviticus 25:2-7 said "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee, And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat."
This model was followed by American farmers in the first 150 years. Then they stopped. The nutrient levels have now dropped tremendously, leading to the highest level of non-germ based diseases in history. The scientists have only offset this drop with advanced technology. But still, our soil has to be supplemented with fertilizers.
The Creationist scientists have known for a while why this is so, but the Evolutionist scientists deny the connection to the biblical command from GOD.
The proof is in the pudding.

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

The animal world is full of examples of design. One of the best areas in which to find design examples is in the area of the behavior of animals. Even the "simplest" forms of life exhibit extraordinary complexity in the area of behavior. One example is the single celled organisms. They sometimes exhibit an ability called Phototaxis, which is the ability to respond to light by going towards it, this being the most advantageous for survival.

Even in the Jellyfish, the Medusae, exhibit this behavior. They follow the sun all day, by going away from the moving shade as the sun moves overhead. At night they go down to the lower depths of the lake. But what did they do before they evolved this ability? Did they get insufficient light? Too much light?

1. Mimicry

Mimicry is a practice of one organism to look like another organism for a benefit, usually safety or camouflage.
There are many examples, but one good one is the Monarch Butterfly and the Viceroy butterfly.
They look almost identical, but the monarch is distasteful to birds, the Viceroy is not.
How could this evolve?
How does the Viceroy know that it is close to looking like the Monarch?

2. Commensalism

Commensalism is a relationship between two different species wherein one species benefits and the other is unaffected.
Many times the "host" species provides a home and/or a means of transportation for the other species. The relationship between the clownfish and the sea anemone is a good example.
Another example is the remora and the shark.

3. Mutualism

Mutualism is a symbiotic relationship in which both species of the relationship benefit.
Mutualistic relationships can allow organisms to obtain food or to avoid predation.
Many ants are found in the vicinity of aphids.
The aphids exude a sugary substance, which the ants feed on,or "milk".
In turn, the aphids enjoy the protection of the ants, in some cases even herding them like cattle.
Any aphids which stop producing are actually eaten! End of mutualism there, of course, as the aphid does not from benefit being a lunch for the ants.
Small fish called cleaner wrasses, feed on small organisms and parasites on the bodies of larger fish.
The larger fish get the benefit of having the parasites removed, the wrasses gett a free meal.

4. Parasitism

This is a symbiotic relationship between two organisms in which one species (parasite) benefits for growth and reproduction to the harm of the other species (host). It must be emphasized that parasite and host interact and that excessive harm done to a host, which makes it less competitive , also endangers the survival of the parasite species. Parasitism can be differentiated into

ectoparasites and
endoparasites,

depending respectively, on whether they live on or in the host. Lice, flea, ticks, etc. are examples of ectoparasites. Tape-worms, bilharzia and the malaria parasite are examples of endoparasites.

Examples:

Parasitism in Plants

A plant parasite is the Dodder (Cuscuta sp.). It is often found twined round the stems of clover plants or grasses, which it damages severly. Each Dodder plant consists of a long slender yellow or pinkish stem, with the leaves reduced to tiny scales, and roots being absent except for a short time after germination. At intervals along the twining stem small rootlike structures, called haustoria, link the Dodder to its host and penetrate to the host's vascular bundles. In this way the parasite obtains organic nutrients, water and mineral salts directly from the host. The Dodder is not fussy about its host. Any herbaceous plant can be infected. Woody plants are usually too hard for the haustoria to be able to penetrate. If plants are densely packed, dodder will spread rapidly to adjacent plants. It can cause a great deal of damage to wheat or lucerne fields.

Parasitism in Animals

The bilharzia parasite, Schistosoma haematobium, a parasitc flatworm, is a good example of a successful parasite. It completes its life cycle in two hosts. The male and female adults live in the blood of humans while larval forms live in the bodies of a type of snail, Bulinus africanus. The adults posses suckers with which they attach themselves to the walls of blood vessels. Their bodies are covered with thick cuticles. When mature, adults meet in the blood of man. The male and female become 'associated' in that the slightely broader male rolls its body into a tube in which the long, thin female lives. When the female is ready to lay eggs she frees herself and moves into small blood vesels in the wall of the bladder. There she lay eggs. When the egg comes into contact with the water, its shell breaks and a ciliated larva, called a miracidium, is released. If it comes in contact with a host it works itself into the body of the snail by means of hydrolysis. Sporocysts are produced by the miracidium. Cercariae are produced after several generations of sporocysts. The cercariae make their way into the water and make contact with a human. Their it comes into the blood stream and live their. Within six to twelve weeks the larvae develop into adults and the cycle is reported once more.

5. Migration

6. Altruism

Week 6 Notes