The number of different kinds of living organisms is one measure of biological diversity, or what has become known as “biodiversity.” Our world’s oceans have the highest known biodiversity, second only to the number of species found in the tropical rainforest.
Have you ever snorkeled or scuba dove in a coral reef? If you have, and I asked you to describe the experience in less than five words, I bet your answer would be an explosion of color. Well, maybe you would express it slightly differently, but I am sure that you would include the word color in your description. Coral reefs are one of the most colorful spectacles of nature; electric blues, vivid yellows,…
There are only three known groups of volant vertebrates. Two are extant: birds and bats. The third group is completely extinct and known only from fossils: pterosaurs. Often referred to colloquially as “pterodactyls”, pterosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles totally foreign to our modern minds, yet in some ways they are incredibly familiar, resembling the dragons of folklore.
Is it possible to study the dinosaurs (and other fossils) from a perspective consistent with the biblical account of creation?
Most Christians, however, believe that dinosaurs were destroyed during the flood. Others believe that this particular group of animals had been altered so drastically by sin that they were not allowed on the ark and so their kind was totally lost.
Recent research suggests dinosaurs were not as heavy as previously thought.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 2008, covering topics such as human skeletons on Palau, the bacterial flagellum, antiobiotic resistance, abrupt appearance of fossil bats, Cretaceous feathers, dinosaur respiration. Published in Origins, n. 62.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 2007, covering topics such as Antarctic biogeography, body plan development, English Channel flood, snowball Earth, fossil collagen, death posture in fossils, dinosaur swimming, parallel speciation in songbirds, and a gene for dog size. Published in Origins, n. 61.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 2003, covering topics such as bird conservation, convergence in corals, biogeography, banded iron formations, Cretaceous and Permian mass extinctions, Mediterranean evaporite, Homo floresienses, Archaeopteryx brain, fossil patterns, fossil insect, fossil hummingbird, fossil mammals, and speciation. Published in Origins n. 57.
Currently evolutionary geology explains the fossil record as the result of slow processes and change occurring over long periods of time. However, an increasing number of rock formations and fossil occurrences previously interpreted within such an evolutionary framework must be reinterpreted as the result of rapid, or even catastrophic, processes operating on a different time scale.
A collection of short commentaries o nscientific papers published in 2000, covering topics such as trilobite complexity, tilting of Earth's axis, degradation of duplicated genes, origin of life, dinosaurs, and living Permian bacteria.
Fossils speak of catastrophic burial by water in many areas of the world, thus contradicting the uniformitarian model. A growing number of modern geologists concur with this view, although they may not accept the theory of a universal flood. Those of us who rely in the biblical story of a universal flood find in the fossil record abundant evidence that the surface of the earth once experienced the convulsions of a catastrophic destruction.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 1998, 1999, covering topics such as developmental genes in sea urchins, dinosaur lungs, Archaeopteryx bones, Darwin's finches, parallel evolution, evolutionism, variation in bacteria, genetic load, human origins, Neanderthal DNA, molecular evolution, origin of life, biogeography of Madagascar, fossil record, problems in phylogeny of microbes and whales. Published in Origins n. 51.
A report of the 2000 meeting of the Geological Society of America in Reno, Nevada. Published in Origins n. 51.
How can we accommodate the paleontological record with Scripture? If our approach to science is as it should be, we can acknowledge that there are still many unanswered questions for all sides, and we should have no fear of deeper investigation in science the data are not all in.
A collection of short commentaries of scientific papers published in 1996, covering topics such as biogeography, Milankovitch cycles, turtles, degeneration by mutation, fossil sharks, fossil bird, ichthyosaurs, speciation rates in cichlid fish, plate tectonic anomaly. Published in Origins v. 23, n. 2.
Given the current database on fossil hominids, caution is warranted. Indeed, it would be premature to draw any definitive conclusions with regard to the origins of these organisms and their relationship to the Genesis record.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 1996, covering topics such as Homo erectus, the Permian mass extinction, mutations in Chernobyl rodents, dropstones, yeast genome, Heart Mt detachment, carbonate cycles, eye development gene, RNA World, Archaeopteryx, Cambrian chordate, turtles, stromatolites, and pseudogenes. Published in Origins v. 23, n. 1.
A collection of short commentaries on scientific papers published in 1993-1995, covering topics such as biodiversity, gene transfer, genomics, ancient DNA, comparative immunoglobulin genes, Burgess Shale, fossil whales. Published in Origins v. 21, n. 2.
A review of the book, The Quest for Life in Amber. Published in Origins v. 21, n. 2.
