Refuting Creationism - Co-Evolution of Trees And Mastodons In South America

The extinct proboscidean species Notiomastodon platensis is observed feeding on Chilean palm fruit in La Campana National Park.

Author: Mauricio Álvarez

The disappearance of mastodons still threatens the native forests of South America - Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona - UAB Barcelona

Reconstruction of the paleoenvironments in which Chilean mastodons lived, from the semi-arid north to the cold rainforests of Patagonia.

Credit: Mauricio Álvarez

Just ten millennia ago, the mighty mastodons of South America played a crucial role in sustaining vast forests by spreading the seeds of large‑fruited trees—and now, new fossil evidence confirms that without these giants, entire ecosystems are crumbling [1, 2]. This groundbreaking research, published recently in Nature Ecology & Evolution, conclusively demonstrates that Notiomastodon platensis was an active frugivore based on detailed wear patterns and starch residues found in fossilised teeth [3].

For creationists who claim that life existed in its present form from the very beginning, this revelation is deeply unsettling. The discovery undermines the belief that forest ecosystems were always fully functional without the need for extinct megafauna—those massive mammals were not mere background actors but ecological engineers whose disappearance left communities of fruit‑bearing plants stranded, fragmented, and genetically impoverished.

Most strikingly, nearly 40 % of plant species once reliant on these now‑vanished seed spreaders are currently classified as threatened—up to four times the rate seen in regions still served by extant dispersers like tapirs or monkeys [2]. For creationists, this means that the natural world was far more dynamic—and far more dependent on evolutionary processes over deep time—than their models allow. If entire forests trebled on species interactions across thousands of years, then the simplistic view that everything was created perfectly, all at once, is seriously called into question.

A new study led by the University of O’Higgins, Chile, with key contributions from Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (IPHES-CERCA), demonstrates for the first time—based on direct fossil evidence—that these extinct elephant relatives regularly consumed fruit and were essential allies of many tree species. The researchers have just published their findings in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Creationism Refuted - How The Survivors of a Mass Extinction Evolved Into Dinosaurs

Euparkeria capensis, a small, 60 cm long reptile from the early Triassic period (245 - 237 million years ago).

Credit: Taenadoman, 2011
via Wikimedia Commons
CC A-SA 3.0

Triassic reptiles took 10,000 mile trips through “hellish” conditions, study suggests - University of Birmingham

Contrary to the child-like naivety and carefully cultivated ignorance of creationists, Earth is not — and never has been — a paradise perfectly designed for life, let alone tailor-made for humans. In reality, the vast majority of Earth's history — around 99.9975% of it — took place long before creationists believe the planet even existed, during which time the environment has frequently become so hostile that mass extinctions wiped out the majority of living species. Life as we know it today descends from the lucky few that managed to survive and adapt to radically altered conditions.

One of the most devastating of these extinction events was the end-Permian climate catastrophe, during which one group of reptiles — the archosauromorphs — managed to endure. From this resilient lineage emerged the dinosaurs, who would go on to dominate the planet until they too were annihilated by a cataclysmic meteor impact 66 million years ago.

While palaeontologists have long known about the survival and evolutionary significance of archosauromorphs, a lingering mystery remained: how did they manage to disperse across vast "dead zones" of the tropics, where temperatures were thought to be lethally high? A new study by researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Bristol has now shed light on this question. Their findings have been published, open access, in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Refuting Creationism - Yes, It's Another Of Those 'Non-Exitent' Transitional Fossils!

Reconstruction of the Burgess Shale concilitergan Helmetia expansa.

Artwork by Marianne Collins.

Holotype of Helmetia expansa USNM 83952, dorsal view. Cross polarized light.

Losso, S. R., Caron, J. B., & Ortega-Hernández, J. (2025).

Ancient fossil sheds big light on evolution mystery: solving a 100-year arthropod mystery | Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

A fundamental problem with creationism is that it depends on wilfully ignoring the vast and ever-growing body of contrary evidence. The intellectual dishonesty required to sustain this belief system makes its adherents the subject of ridicule—not just among scientists, but even among many fellow theists. Its prominent proponents, often elevated to near-prophetic status by their followers, are notorious for misrepresenting or outright lying about scientific findings. Unsurprisingly, they are treated with contempt by the scientific community.

One of the more blatantly counterfactual claims in the creationist repertoire is the assertion that there are no transitional fossils, and no evidence supporting the evolution of species from common ancestors. This denialism is essential to preserve belief in the spontaneous, magical creation of all species a few thousand years ago, without any ancestral lineage.

Accordingly, the creationist industry will need to deploy its usual strategies of misdirection and denial in response to a fascinating Cambrian stem arthropod, first discovered in 1918 in the Burgess Shale of Canada. Initially described from a single specimen, this enigmatic fossil has now been thoroughly reclassified thanks to the work of a team of Harvard researchers led by Dr Sarah Losso, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Their analysis, based on 36 newly examined specimens, sheds significant light on early arthropod evolution.

Their findings are detailed in an open-access paper published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, and summarised in a Harvard University news article.

Refuting Creationism - A Technologically Advanced Civilisation in the Philippines - 25,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

A map of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Sunda region as it appeared roughly 25,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age, with locations of archaeological sites surveyed by the Mindoro Archaeology Project.

Base Map: www.gebco.net, 2014

A map of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Sunda region as it appeared roughly 25,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age, with locations of archaeological sites surveyed by the Mindoro Archaeology Project. The sites yielded artifacts with remarkably similar characteristics despite separation by thousands of kilometers and deep waters that are almost impossible to cross without sufficiently advanced seafaring knowledge and technology.

Base Map: www.gebco.net, 2014.

Philippine islands had technologically advanced maritime culture 35,000 years ago | News | Ateneo de Manila University

It’s shaping up to be another difficult week for creationists. Hot on the heels of news that humans were fighting and killing in northern Italy 7,000 years before the alleged ‘Creation Week’ and ‘The Fall’—events which biblical literalists claim introduced death into the world—comes fresh evidence of a sophisticated maritime culture flourishing in what is now the Philippines 18,000 years before that.

Another significant challenge for the creationist narrative is that, like the skeletal remains found in Italy, this archaeological evidence in the Philippines was not obliterated by the supposed global flood—an essential element of young Earth creationism for which there is no credible supporting evidence.

The discoveries in the Philippines were made by scientists from Ateneo de Manila University, in collaboration with international experts and institutions. Their research reveals early human migration, technological innovation, and long-distance intercultural connections dating back more than 35,000 years. The findings have been published in Archaeological Research in Asia, and are also explained in a news release from Ateneo de Manila University.

Refuting Creationism - Human Conflict And Death - 7,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Illustration depicting intergroup violence and conflict during the Stone Age.
Shanxi Provincial Museum, Taiyuan.

Gary Todd/Public domain

Three projectile impact marks found on Tagliente 1’s left femur.

Credit: Sparacello VS et al., Scientific Reports (2025)

17,000-year-old skeleton reveals earliest evidence of Stone Age ambush and human conflict | Archaeology News Online Magazine

Towards the end of that immensely long pre-Creation Week period of Earth’s history — when 99.9975% of everything had already happened before creationists believe their god made a small, flat Earth with a dome over it in the Middle East, as described in the Bible — humans were already fighting battles in what is now northern Italy. To be precise, this occurred around 7,000 years before 'Creation Week'.

This conclusion comes from the analysis of a 17,000-year-old skeleton belonging to a man aged between 22 and 30, bearing unmistakable injuries caused by flint-tipped projectiles—likely arrows or spears. The skeleton, discovered in 1973 at the Riparo Tagliente rock shelter in the Lessini Mountains of northeastern Italy, only recently revealed its violent past thanks to modern forensic techniques.

The findings, led by bioarchaeologist Vitale Sparacello of the University of Cagliari, were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Creationism Refuted - Fossil Euarthropod - From 444 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'!

Keurbos susanae, close-up of segments

Gabbott, S.E., et al. (2025)

Keurbos susanae, close-up of segments

Gabbott, S.E., et al. (2025)

Marine fossil found in South Africa is one of a kind, thanks to unusual preservation

In the face of overwhelming evidence contradicting the creationist view of reality, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that such beliefs are rooted in a deep-seated psychological need—one that drives wilful ignorance and a denial of the observable world.

Consider, for example, the mountain of data showing that Earth is not a few thousand years old, nor was life magically created in its present form within days. Instead, the planet is over four billion years old, and the diversity of life we see today is the product of a long, gradual evolutionary process, shaped by environmental change and punctuated by countless extinctions.

One small yet compelling piece of that vast evolutionary puzzle comes in the form of an exquisitely preserved, 444-million-year-old fossil, discovered some 25 years ago in a South African quarry. Only recently has it been identified as a stem-group arthropod by Professor Sarah Gabbott of the University of Leicester. She outlines her findings in an article for The Conversation and a detailed research paper published in *Papers in Palaeontology.

Professor Gabbott's article in The Conversation is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Creationism Refuted - Exquisite Fossils From 226 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

The Karoo Basin is a rich source of fossils for the Permian Period of life.

Image © WOLF AVNI/Shutterstock

Other life of this time included the lizard-like ancestors of tortoises, large amphibians that lurked like crocodiles just below the water surface, and forests dominated by a tree called Glossopteris with an understorey of spore-producing plants such as mosses, ferns and horsetails.

Photo: PEXELS

Exquisite new fossils from South Africa offer a glimpse into a thriving ecosystem 266 million years ago

In the realm of palaeontology, few discoveries are as illuminating as those that offer a window into ecosystems long vanished. A recent study published in The Conversation by palaeontologist Rosemary Prevec of Rhodes University, South Africa, unveils such a discovery: an exquisitely preserved fossil site in South Africa's Northern Cape province, dating back 266 million years to the middle Permian period. This site reveals a thriving ecosystem teeming with diverse plant life and a myriad of insect species, providing an unprecedented glimpse into pre-dinosaur terrestrial life.[1]

The significance of this find extends beyond its immediate scientific value; it directly challenges fundamental creationist assertions. By presenting concrete evidence of complex ecosystems existing millions of years before the advent of humans, it undermines the young-Earth creationist timeline that posits a 6,000 to 10,000-year-old Earth. The detailed stratigraphy and radiometric dating techniques employed corroborate the Earth's ancient history, aligning with the broader scientific consensus on geological and biological evolution.

Moreover, the discovery underscores the continuity and gradual progression of life forms, countering the notion of sudden creation. The intricate details preserved in these fossils—ranging from delicate insect wings to diverse plant structures—highlight the complexity and diversity of life well before the emergence of humans. Such findings reinforce the evolutionary narrative of life's development over hundreds of millions of years, offering tangible evidence against creationist models that reject evolutionary theory.

Rosemary Prevec's article in The Conversation is reprinted here under a Creative Commons licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Unintelligent Design - Why Your Toothache Has Ancient Origins - In Your Ancestral Fish

Artistic rendering of the sensory exoskeletons of the early jawless vertebrate Astraspis being attacked by the sea-scorpion Megalograptus in dark shallow waters.

Brian Engh

CT scan of the front of a skate, showing the hard, tooth-like denticles on its skin (shown in orange).

Yara Haridy

Toothache from eating something cold? Blame these ancient fish | Biological Sciences Division | The University of Chicago

Have you ever taken a mouthful of ice cream or cold water, only to be rewarded with a sudden, stabbing pain in your teeth? It vanishes in a few seconds, but for that brief moment, it’s excruciating.

You might wonder what kind of intelligent designer would produce such a feature—one that serves no apparent purpose other than to make you suffer. The answer, of course, is that it wasn’t designed at all.

Like so much else about the human body, the sensitivity of our teeth is the product of evolution—a long, meandering process shaped not by foresight or intent, but by whatever natural selection happened to favour at the time. That over-sensitive layer of dentine beneath the enamel traces its origins back to ancient jawless fish, whose bony body armour included sensory structures capable of detecting changes in their environment. These structures were crucial for survival and heavily favoured by selection.

As evolution repurposed this structure over millions of years—eventually becoming part of our teeth—there was no strong selection pressure to reduce its sensitivity. In the aquatic world of those primitive fish, a keen sensory system might have meant the difference between life and death. In modern humans, however, it serves no meaningful function. A momentary sting when we drink something cold doesn’t affect our survival or reproductive success, so we’re left with a redundant sensory feature that occasionally causes pain.

If ever there were a perfect illustration of how evolution works—and why no intelligence is required—this is it. Unless, of course, you believe the designer in question is a malevolent deity with a particular interest in toothaches.

The discovery of this direct connection with our remote ancestral past was made by researchers at the University of Chicago who have just published their findings, open access in Science.

Creationism Refuted - How Mammalian Cold Adaptation Evolved - Starting 2.6 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Musk Ox, Ovibos moschatus

Arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus

Study reveals different phases of evolution during ice age | Bournemouth University

Creationists have yet another inconvenient science paper to ignore, misrepresent, or distort. A new study led by Professor John Stewart of Bournemouth University, UK, and published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, presents compelling evidence that environmental change—specifically the climatic fluctuations of the Ice Age—has been a major driver of evolution.

By examining both fossil and palaeogenetic data in the context of glaciation records, the research team has shown that adaptations to cold climates began emerging around 2.6 million years ago. This evolutionary process significantly accelerated about 700,000 years ago, when glacial cycles shifted and cold periods began lasting twice as long. During warmer interglacial phases, cold-adapted species appear to have retreated into climatic refugia, only to expand again as the ice returned.

The main, but not the only, cause of these periods of alternating glaciation and warmer climate were the Milankovitch cycles. For details, see the AI information panel.

Reindeer, Rangifer tarandus

This study aligns closely with Darwinian evolutionary theory, and, contrary to claims by creationists that biologists are abandoning Darwinian evolution in favour of creationism, not with the metaphysical claims of intelligent design. Unsurprisingly, the researchers make no appeal to supernatural forces or pseudo-scientific conjecture. Instead, their work builds on and reinforces the evolutionary framework that has repeatedly proven its explanatory and predictive power.

Perhaps most damning to creationist dogma, the evolutionary events described took place hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of years before young-Earth creationists claim the planet was even formed. Depending on which apologetic is in play, creationists must now choose between proposing ludicrously accelerated post-Flood evolution or invoking the second law of thermodynamics in ways physicists and biologists would find baffling, using it to try to argue that events which can be observed could not have happened due to a fundamental law of physics.

Creationism Refuted - Now It's an Australian Tree Frog From 55 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'.

Artist’s reconstruction of the new species Litoria tylerantiqua (right) and previously described species Platyplectrum casca (left) from Murgon, south-eastern Queensland

Samantha Yabsley
https://www.instagram.com/s.h.y_art.

Clockwise from bottom: An artist’s reconstruction of a turtle Murgonemys braithwaitei, a bird Murgonornis archeri, a mammal Thylacotinga bartholomaii, a bat Australonycteris clarkae and a frog Platyplectrum casca from Murgon, south-eastern Queensland.

Peter Schouten

Australia’s oldest prehistoric tree frog hops 22 million years back in time

In addition to the recent discovery of early reptile tracks in Australia—dated to 350 million years before 'Creation Week'—creationists have just been given another reason to resent Australia: a 55-million-year-old fossil tree frog.

The discovery was made by three palaeontologists at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, NSW, Australia. Their findings have just been published, open access, in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. It will no doubt take some of creationism's sharpest minds to devise excuses for dismissing this evidence, while continuing to cling to the childish fantasy that Earth was conjured into existence by a magical, immaterial deity just 6,000 to 10,000 years ago—along with all life, fully formed and without ancestors.

The first line of attack will likely involve misrepresenting the dating methods used, in an attempt to cast doubt on their reliability, followed by accusations that the scientists falsified their data to conform to evolutionary 'dogma' and secure publication.

What creationists must never do, however, is admit that the fossil really does date to 55 million years ago. To do so would be to concede that a literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation story is false—thereby undermining the entire premise that the Bible was written by, or inspired by, an all-knowing creator god.

Creationism Refuted - New Finding Shows That Reptiles Were Around At Least 350 million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Early amniote reconstruction.

Martin Ambrozik.

Fossil tracks revise march of early life on Earth – News

In a paper that creationists will no doubt feel compelled to ignore, misrepresent, or dismiss, scientists report the discovery of reptile tracks in 350-million-year-old Australian rocks. This remarkable find pushes back the earliest known trace of reptiles by some 40 million years.

For mainstream science, this discovery provides further clarification of the timeline for the evolution of terrestrial tetrapods. However, for creationists—who continue to compress Earth's 3.8-billion-year history into a mere 6,000 to 10,000 years in order to preserve a literal interpretation of Genesis—it presents yet another challenge to their beliefs.

It is the kind of evidence that science routinely uncovers, forcing creationists into ever more creative contortions to avoid confronting the reality of evolution.

The discovery was made by Professor John Long of Flinders University and colleagues, who have detailed their findings and their significance in a Flinders University press release. Additionally, Professor Long, together with Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki and Professor Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University, Sweden, has published an open-access article discussing the research in The Conversation.

Their article in The Conversation is reproduced here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Refuting CReationism - A Transitional Salmon Ancestor from 73 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Horseshoeichthys armaserratus from the Prince Creek Formation (PCF) and Dinosaur Park Formation compared.

See caption below

New ancient fish species earliest known salmon ancestor | UAF news and information

Cypriniform abdominal centrum from the Prince Creek Formation (A, UAMES 54154) compared with an extant cypriniform abdominal centrum (B, Catostomus Catostomus, TMP 1990.0007.303) in (from left to right): anterior, left lateral, posterior, dorsal and ventral view. Images in A are digital reconstructions from computed tomography scans; images in B are photographs of specimens dusted with ammonium chloride. Scale bars represent 1 mm.

Contrary to the childish fairy tales believed by creationists which tell tales of magic creation ex nihilo just a few thousand years ago, real grown-up science repeatedly shows that 99.9975% of Earth's history happened before then and living species are the result of an evolutionary process.

It’s no surprise then that this is just another such paper. It reports on the discovery of fossil ancestors of modern salmon which lived in Alaskan rivers, 70 million years ago, pushing back the earliest ancestral salmon so far discovered by 20 million years.

The discovery was made by palaeontologists from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks led by Patrick Druckenmiller, director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North. They have just published their findings, open access, in the journal, Papers in Palaeontology. Their work is also explained in a University of Alaska, Fairbanks, news item:

Refuting Creationism - What T. Rex's Ancestors Were Doing More Than 70 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'.

T. rex’s direct ancestor crossed from Asia to North America | UCL News - UCL – University College London

This artwork illustrates the disparity of the northern and southern hemisphere’s evolution of terrestrial Cretaceous faunas after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum. On the left, End Cretaceous Southern Hemisphere (Western Gondwana) became dominated by megaraptorid theropods and titanosaur sauropods. The centre of the piece summarises the extinction event of terrestrial fauna at the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, where the apex predators the carcharodontosaurids and allosaurs went extinct and tyrannosauroids (including megaraptoran and the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex) were small. On the right, the end Cretaceous northern hemisphere fauna dominated by tyrannosaurids (such as Tyrannosaurus rex), hadrosaurs and ceratopsian ornithischian dinosaurs. The environment also became more mesic compared to the more semi-arid seasonal environment earlier in the Cretaceous.

Credit: Pedro Salas and Sergey Krasovskiy.

One of the major challenges for creationism is how to ignore the overwhelming volume of evidence that contradicts it—especially from the vast span of Earth’s pre-'Creation Week' history, during which 99.9975% of geological time unfolded. Even allowing for their standard claim that scientists fake their dates and Earth is really only a few thousand years old, there is a vast amount of history to compress into so short a timeline.

During that immense period, something remarkable was happening: a distant ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex, destined to become one of the most formidable land predators the planet has ever seen, was making its way across a land bridge from Asia into North America.

That’s the conclusion of a new study led by researchers at University College London (UCL), recently published in Royal Society Open Science. The team found that this transcontinental migration—via the Beringian land bridge over 70 million years ago—marked a key moment in the evolution of tyrannosaurids. They also noted a rapid increase in body size that appears to have coincided with a global cooling event following a climatic peak around 92 million years ago. The study was a collaboration between scientists from UCL and the universities of Oxford, Pittsburgh, Aberdeen, Arizona, Anglia Ruskin, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

Refuting Creationism - Why Gaps In The Fossil Record Are To Be Expected, Naturally

Cretaceous fossil shrimp from Jbel Oum Tkout, Morocco
registered at the Museum d’histoire naturelle de Marrakech.

© Sinéad Lynch - UNIL

Why did some ancient animals fossilize while others vanished?

One of creationism’s favourite fallacies is the claim that gaps in the fossil record disprove evolution, based on a misrepresentation of something Charles Darwin wrote. According to this argument, Darwin supposedly insisted there should be a complete and continuous series of transitional fossils and admitted that any gaps would be fatal to his theory.

As with many creationist arguments, this is a distortion of both Darwin’s actual words and how science works. It reflects a peculiar misunderstanding of science as a belief system centred on the writings of historical figures — Darwin, in this case, cast as the ‘prophet’ of ‘evolutionism’. The implication is that by discrediting Darwin personally, or selectively quoting his early uncertainties, one can somehow bring down an entire field of modern science built on nearly two centuries of accumulating evidence.

The tactic ignores the fact that Darwin's style was to introduce the reader to a seemingly unaswerable problem, or potential difficulty for his theory, before explaining how his theory of evolution by natural selection provided an answer.

But why would any reasonable person expect the fossil record to preserve every generation of every species, in every habitat, across hundreds of millions of years—and for those remains to be conveniently accessible to palaeontologists today? The idea that scientists expect such completeness betrays a deep scientific illiteracy. Fossilisation is an exceptionally rare process requiring very specific conditions. There are many reasons why an organism is unlikely to fossilise, and relatively few that make fossilisation even possible.

Refuting Creationism - More Pterrible News For Creationists As Scientists Track The Evolution of Terrestrial Pterosaurs

Quetzalcoatlus northropi (artist's impression)

Witton MP, Naish D (2008),
CC BY 3.0, Link

Ptero Firma: footprints pinpoint when ancient flying reptiles conquered the ground | News | University of Leicester

False-colour depth map revealing the shape and pressure of each step, showing that these creatures bore more weight on their hands while walking.

Most people—apart, perhaps, from creationists who deny such creatures ever existed—are aware that a group of reptiles evolved the ability to fly and took to the skies long before birds and bats emerged to exploit this medium.

What many people don’t know, however, is that some members of this group, including larger species, later returned to land and adopted a coastal wading lifestyle. We know this because their fossilised tracks have been found preserved in what was once coastal mud.

Young Earth creationists routinely point to geological formations derived from coastal or estuarine mud as 'evidence' of a supposed global flood, yet they consistently fail to explain how such a flood could have preserved so many footprints—left by waders such as ducks, geese, redshanks, and sandpipers—as well as delicate raindrop impressions. Even harder to explain is the evidence showing that these footprints were made at different times, spanning several million years, up until the mass extinction caused by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago.

And disconcertingly for creationists, a team of palaeontologists led by Robert Smyth, a doctoral researcher in the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution (School of Geography, Geology and the Environment) at the University of Leicester, has demonstrated that these fossil footprints can be used to trace the evolutionary history of the pterosaurs that made them.

Refuting Creationism - Giant Fast-Running Croccodiles In the Caribbean - 11 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Sebecids dominated South American landscapes for millions of years, but scientists were perplexed when their fossils started appearing in the Caribbean, too.

Florida Museum image by Jorge Machuky.

Giant croclike carnivore fossils found in the Caribbean – Research News

Six million years before biblical literalist creationists assert Earth and all living creatures were created ex nihilo, giant long-legged, crocodile-like predators known as sebecids were hunting their prey on Caribbean islands. Remarkably, these creatures persisted long after similar species had vanished from South America, where sebecids had become apex predators following the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Although sebecids went extinct on mainland South America about 11 million years ago, new evidence from Caribbean fossil records shows they survived considerably longer on islands, continuing as apex predators. This finding comes from recent research conducted by a team of palaeontologists from the Florida Museum, who have been compiling evidence over the past three decades. The team's detailed findings have now been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Further insights and context are available in an accompanying Florida Museum news article.

Refuting Creationism - A 'Hell Ant' For The Science Deniers

Vulcanidris cratensis (Scale bar, 2 mm.)

Figure 2 Photographs depicting details of Vulcanidris cratensis gen. et sp. nov. Holotype (MZSP-CRA-0002).

• (A) Head and anterior portion of mesosoma. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (B) Mesosoma. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (C) Left forewing. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (D) Right forewing. Scale bar, 1 mm.
• (E) Detail of head. Scale bar, 0.5 mm.
• (F) Detail of petiole. Scale bar, 0.5 mm.
• (G) Metasoma. Scale bar, 1 mm. Arrowheads indicate key characters mentioned in the text.

Ancient ‘Hell Ant’ Discovery Is Also The Oldest Ant Fossil Ever Unearthed | StudyFinds

Most dedicated creationist advocates will already be familiar with the mental gymnastics required to assert that a coelacanth allegedly remaining unchanged for tens of millions of years somehow disproves evolution, therefore life must have been magically created ex nihilo just a few thousand years ago.

Now they have a new specimen to test their contortions even further: a beautifully preserved 113-million-year-old ant fossil from Brazil—the oldest ant fossil discovered to date. Remarkably, by 113 million years ago, this now-extinct species was already highly specialised as a predator, equipped with distinctive scythe-like mandibles. These formidable features have earned it the informal nickname "hell ant."

The exquisitely preserved limestone fossil clearly reveals detailed wings and wing veins, characteristic of the insect order Hymenoptera, confirming ants' close evolutionary relationship with wasps and bees. Since wings are typically absent in worker ants, the presence of fully developed wings strongly suggests that this specimen represents a reproductive female—likely a queen.

This remarkable ant fossil was identified within a collection originating from the Crato Formation in northern Brazil, housed in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo. The Crato limestone was deposited in a shallow lake environment approximately 113 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period, at a time when the ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana had not yet fully separated into what would become modern-day Africa and South America.

Refuting Creationism - How Plate Tectonics Allowed The Interchange of Species, Including Human Ancestors, Between Africa and Asia

How Activity in Earth’s Mantle Led the Ancient Ancestors of Elephants, Giraffes, and Humans into Asia and Africa | Jackson School of Geosciences | The University of Texas at Austin

An international team of geophysicists has uncovered compelling evidence that tectonic activity approximately 20 million years ago created a land bridge between Eurasia and Africa via the Arabian Peninsula. This geological event facilitated the migration of various animal species, including the ancestors of modern elephants, giraffes, and hominins, from Eurasia into Africa, which had been relatively isolated since the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana.

The formation of this land bridge resulted from the collision between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. This collision led to the uplift of the Arabian Peninsula and the closure of the Tethys Seaway, effectively splitting it into what are now the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas. The closure of the Tethys Seaway had significant climatic and ecological consequences, including alterations in ocean circulation patterns and the aridification of regions such as the Sahara Desert.

The newly formed land connection enabled a significant faunal exchange between Eurasia and Africa, known as the Proboscidean Datum Event. This event is marked by the migration of proboscideans (elephant ancestors) and other species into Africa, as well as the dispersal of African species into Eurasia . This biogeographical interchange had profound implications for the evolutionary trajectories of numerous species, including primates.

Refuting Creationism - Stone Tool Manufacture In a South African Cave - 10,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Prehistoric stone tools, specifically the “cores” used to create smaller blades.

Photo by Sara Watson

Left: Prehistoric stone tools, specifically the “cores” used to create smaller blades.

Photo by Sara Watson.

Right: Archaeological team excavating in the seaside cave.

Photo by Sara Watson.

Ancient tools from a South African cave reveal connections between prehistoric people - Field Museum

It's a telling example of how creationists can ignore substantial evidence when it conflicts with their belief that the Earth was created from nothing between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Among the evidence they dismiss are stone tools made by humans in South Africa at least 20,000 years ago — well over 10,000 years before their proposed timeline even begins. These tools reflect not only human ingenuity, but also the sharing of technology between different groups across southern Africa.

The tools, associated with what archaeologists term the Robberg technocomplex, were likely used in hunting the large game that roamed the vast coastal plains during the Last Glacial Maximum—land that is now submerged following post-Ice Age sea level rise. Evidence for their manufacture and use has been found in sites such as Knysna Eastern Heads Cave 1, which now overlooks the coast but would have stood further inland around 20,000 years ago.

In a recent paper published in the Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology, a research team led by Dr Sara Watson of the Field Museum’s Negaunee Integrative Research Center describes these lithic assemblages in detail. Their analysis of stone tool-making techniques offers insights into the ways prehistoric people moved through the landscape, interacted with one another, and transmitted their technological knowledge.

The team's research is explained in a press release from the Field Museum, Chicago, IL, USA:

Refuting Creationism - Filling The Gaps and Shrinking That Ever-Shrinking Little God

Helmetia expansa

Holotype of Helmetia expansa USNM 83952, dorsal view.

Jean-Bernard Caron and Sarah Losso.

Ancient fossil sheds big light on evolution mystery: solving a 100-year arthropod mystery | Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Creationist apologetics often involve attributing phenomena that science cannot yet explain to divine intervention, relying on the assumption that gaps in scientific knowledge serve as evidence for the existence of a deity. This approach frequently employs the false dichotomy fallacy, suggesting that if science lacks an explanation, then "God did it" by default. Such reasoning does not establish the existence of a god capable of addressing these gaps; instead, it often depends on the cultural biases of the audience to support this conclusion.

However, science continually seeks to fill these gaps with evidence-based explanations. A recent example is the formal description of the Cambrian fossil Helmetia expansa, which provides insights into arthropod evolution during the Cambrian Period. This period is often mischaracterized by creationist narratives as a time when multiple distinct body plans appeared suddenly without ancestral forms, purportedly indicating a single act of creation.

The study, published in the *Journal of Systematic Palaeontology* by Professor Sarah R. Losso and Javier Ortega-Hernández of Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, along with Jean-Bernard Caron of the Royal Ontario Museum's Department of Natural History (Palaeobiology Section) in Toronto, Canada, offers a comprehensive analysis of Helmetia expansa. Their research reveals that Helmetia expansa is an arthropod related to trilobites, shedding light on the evolutionary diversification of this group during the Cambrian. This finding provides evidence of gradual evolutionary processes, countering claims of abrupt appearance without ancestral lineage.

The study is further explained in a press release from Harvard University, which details how this research resolves a 100-year-old mystery surrounding this Cambrian arthropod.