Speciation Model Support
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
A team of ecologists and biologists has developed additional supporting field evidence for the Reasons To Believe model for speciation and extinction outlined in The Genesis Question (https://store.reasons.org/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_prod.html?p_prodid=542). This biblical model posits that while extinction rates have remained high and attributable to natural causes, speciation rates (introduction of new species) have dropped to virtually zero since God began His rest after He created human beings. Until this recent research, supporting field evidence was essentially limited to birds, large animals, and bacteria. The new studies broaden the supporting field evidence to cover virtually the entire animal kingdom. A summary quote from the most recent paper states, “Extinction, however, is generally a nonrandom process with risk determined by life-history traits such as rarity, body size, and sensitivity to environmental stressors like pollution.” Such data challenges evolutionary models but vindicates the Scriptures, which describe God’s creative activity in six epochs, followed by a period of rest.
- Martin Solan et al., “Extinction and Ecosystem Function in the Marine Benthos,” Science 306 (2004): 1177-80.
- https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/306/5699/1177
- Diane S. Srivastava, “The Role of Conservation in Expanding Biodiversity Research,” Oikos 98 (2002): 351-60.
- https://www.oikos.ekol.lu.se/Oikos.98.2.abstracts/11619Srivastava.htm
- Daniel Pauly et al., “Fishing Down Marine Food Webs,” Science 279 (1998): 860-63.
- https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/279/5352/860
- Michael L. McKinney, “Extinction Vulnerability and Selectivity: Combining Ecological and Paleontological Views,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 28 (1997): 495-516.
- https://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.495