(A) Generalized body plan of a gammaridean amphipod, (B) Caprella equilibra, (C) family Corophiidae, and (D) Gammarus tigrinus.
Ritter, Carmen J.; Bourne, David G. (2024)[2]
Among the Bible’s more obviously false claims is the one found in the second creation account, where God first creates Adam, then creates all the animals as “help meets” [sic] for him. In the earlier account, all the animals are created before Adam and Eve. In the revised version, however, none of the animals proves suitable for Adam, so God then creates Eve to be his “help meet”.
In virtually every depiction of Adam and Eve, however, both are shown with navels, implying placental reproduction rather than magical creation. Adam was also supposedly created with genitalia, although it is unclear what purpose these served before God created Eve, after his first attempt to provide Adam with companions had failed through, presumably, a lack of foresight.
Leaving aside the implausibility of that story, there is another major problem that creationists never address: if God created all the animals for the benefit of Adam and his descendants, over whom they were supposedly given dominion, why were so many of them hidden away in inaccessible places such as the deep ocean floor, where we are only now becoming aware of them?
For example, a team of 16 experts led by Dr Anna Jażdżewska of the University of Lodz (UL) and Tammy Horton of the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) have just announced the identification of 24 new species of amphipods found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a 6 million square kilometre region of the Pacific Ocean between Hawai'i and Mexico.
These new species comprise ten new families of predators and scavengers, including a new family (Mirabestiidae), a new superfamily (Mirabestioidea), and two new genera of predators and scavengers, Mirabestia and Pseudolepechinella.
These findings form part of the International Seabed Authority’s Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative (SSKI), which aims to describe 1,000 new species by the end of the decade.
None of these species was known to humans until now, nor do they appear to provide us with any obvious benefit of the kind implied by the Bible’s claim that animals were created for human use. It is almost as though creationism’s creator god forgot what these species were supposedly for and slipped instead into a purposeless, automatic process of generating biodiversity for its own sake — much as biologists understand the undirected natural process of evolution to do.
What are amphipods?Amphipods are small crustaceans — relatives of shrimps, crabs and lobsters — although they usually look more like tiny, laterally compressed “scuds” or shrimp-like animals than like crabs. They occur in almost every aquatic habitat, from shallow coasts and sandy beaches to the open ocean, seafloor, and even the deepest ocean trenches. Marine species are especially diverse, with amphipods occupying habitats ranging from seaweed beds and coral reefs to abyssal plains and hadal trenches. [1]
The confirmed and predicted ecological roles and trophic interactions of marine amphipods across mangrove, seagrass, coral reef, open ocean, deep sea, and polar habitats.Ritter, Carmen J.; Bourne, David G. (2024)[2]
What do they do in marine ecosystems?
Amphipods are one of those unglamorous but essential groups that keep marine ecosystems functioning. Different species feed in different ways: some are herbivores grazing on algae, some are detritivores feeding on decaying organic matter, some are scavengers consuming dead animals, and others are predators or micropredators hunting smaller prey. Because of this variety, they help move energy through food webs and connect primary production, decomposition, and higher predators. [1]
Why are they important?
Ecologically, amphipods help recycle nutrients, break down organic debris, and stir or rework seafloor sediments, which can improve oxygen penetration and nutrient exchange. They are also a major food source for fish and many other marine animals, so they form an important link between microscopic or decaying material and larger animals higher up the food chain. In deep-sea environments, certain amphipods are among the dominant scavengers, rapidly locating and consuming carrion that sinks to the seabed. [2]
Why do newly discovered deep-sea amphipods matter?
Discoveries such as those from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone matter because amphipods are often key components of seabed ecosystems, yet many species remain undescribed. Finding new families and genera in the deep Pacific shows how much biodiversity is still hidden in places humans rarely reach, and how little we still know about the functioning of deep-ocean ecosystems. [2]
An account of the group’s work is given in a press release from Pensoft Publishers, via EurekAlert!
Biodiversity Boost: 24 new deep-sea species discovered in major Pacific research
Researchers have announced the discovery of 24 new deep-sea amphipod species – including one new superfamily – from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), in the central Pacific Ocean.
The discoveries, which have been published today (Tuesday 24 March) as part of a new open-access ZooKeys special issue, mark a significant advance in identifying the biodiversity of the CCZ – an area which spans six million square kilometres between Hawai’i and Mexico.
Led by Dr Anna Jażdżewska, University of Lodz (UL), and Tammy Horton, National Oceanography Centre (NOC), 16 experts and early-career scientists came together for a week-long taxonomy workshop dedicated to describing new amphipod species from the CCZ, which was organised at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, UL in 2024.
Their findings form part of the International Seabed Authority’s Sustainable Seabed Knowledge Initiative (SSKI) and its ‘One Thousand Reasons’ project, which aims to describe 1,000 new species by the end of the decade.
The research revealed a number of firsts for science, with 24 newly described species spanning 10 amphipod families, including predators and scavengers.
Notable discoveries include:
- A new family (Mirabestiidae) and superfamily (Mirabestioidea), revealing completely new evolutionary branches.
- Two new genera (Mirabestia and Pseudolepechinella).
- Deepest-known records for multiple genera.
- First molecular barcodes for rare species.
To find a new superfamily is incredibly exciting, and very rarely happens so this is a discovery we will all remember. With more than 90% of species in the CCZ still unnamed, each species described is a vital step towards improving our understanding of this fascinating ecosystem. Describing the species encountered during these studies is a critical step in documenting the rich biodiversity of the CCZ, enabling us to communicate effectively about the fauna.
Dr Tammy Horton, co-author
National Oceanography Centre
Southampton
United Kingdom.
A Global Collaboration
Taxonomy is vital to understanding the fauna of the CCZ, providing fundamental knowledge of species, their distributions, and how each species contributes to the fragile ecosystem.
Eight of the species were identified and described by researchers from NOC, who joined colleagues from around the globe including institutions, such as University of Lodz, Natural History Museum, London, Canadian Museum of Nature, Earth Sciences New Zealand (NIWA), University of Hamburg, Senckenberg - Leibniz Institution for Biodiversity and Earth System Research (SGN) and University Museum of Bergen. The collaborative project also demonstrated the effectiveness of running coordinated and focused taxonomic workshops, providing a model way of working for the future.This was a truly collaborative process that allowed us to achieve the ambitious goal of describing more than 20 species new to science within a year - something that would not have been possible if each of us worked independently. The team’s findings provide information that is crucial for future conservation and policy decisions, and it highlights how important it is for this work to continue.
Anna Jażdżewska, co-author
University of Lodz
Lodz, Poland.
Through initiatives such as these describing around 25 species per year, the amphipods in the eastern CCZ could be almost completely known within 10 years.
What’s in a name?
New species must each be named, and that honour falls to the research team who often draw inspiration from those around them.
Many of the 24 new species have been given meaningful names by those who have spent time learning about them and describing them.
Co-leads Dr Tammy Horton and Anna Jażdżewska both saw species named for them, Byblis hortonae, Thrombasia ania and Byblisoides jazdzewskae (respectively).
Dr Horton named one of the species in the new superfamily (Mirabestia maisie) after her daughter, who has waited several years to join her siblings in having that unusual honour.
There was an opportunity to pay tribute to the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), with Eperopeus vermiculatus being given the name in recognition of WoRMS which researchers described as providing a ‘wonderful resource for all marine taxonomists’.
Involving early‑career scientists (including students) also allowed them to leave their mark in the species names, by commemorating their relatives and by creating intriguing links between the deep sea and the virtual world. According to the author, one species, Lepidepecreum myla, resembles Myla (a character from a video game), as both ‘are just little arthropods trying to survive in total darkness.’
The team also drew inspiration from linguistics for one species, with Pseudolepechinella apricity representing the spirit of warmth of friendship that came from the week-long workshop.
Apricity means the feeling of the warmth of the winter sun, and it is one of my favourite words. It was very apt to use during the workshop as we discussed our findings in the warmth of the February sun amid the snow of the Polish winter in Lodz. It was certainly fitting to also use it for one of our amphipod discoveries. We came together as research colleagues, but the spirit of collaboration and shared experience shone through, so it was important to recognise that in our work.
Dr Tammy Horton.
Publication:
So, once again, the real world bears no resemblance to the childish fable in Genesis. Life was not created in a single week a few thousand years ago for the convenience of a specially created human couple; it has been evolving, diversifying and adapting for hundreds of millions of years, filling every available niche from sunlit forests to the lightless floor of the abyss. The discovery of yet more entirely unknown species in one of the most inaccessible parts of the planet is exactly what evolutionary biology leads us to expect, but it makes no sense at all in the context of the Bible’s anthropocentric creation myth.
And that is the wider significance of finds like this. They show that biodiversity is not arranged around human needs or even human awareness. Vast numbers of species existed long before we knew anything about them, and many live out their entire existence in places we may never visit, playing roles in ecosystems that have nothing whatsoever to do with us. That is not the pattern of a world designed as a stage for humanity; it is the pattern of a planet shaped by natural processes, contingency, and evolution.
As ever, the scientists involved have no difficulty making sense of these discoveries within the framework of evolutionary theory and marine ecology. It is creationism that is left floundering, forced either to ignore the evidence or pretend that a supposedly purposeful creator filled the deep oceans with hidden species that serve no obvious human purpose at all. The evidence points in only one direction: nature is not the product of magic tailored for mankind, but of evolution unfolding over deep time, whether creationists are willing to acknowledge it or not.
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