Refuting Creationism - Hibernating Social Snakes - 38 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Fossilized skeleton of Hibernophis breithaupti,
which lived 38 million years ago

Photo: Jasmine Croghan

Newly discovered snake species provides insight into reptile social behaviour and development | Folio

The discovery of the new snake species has yielded insights into the evolution of modern snakes like the Amazon tree boa (left) and scrub python (right).

Photos: Michael Lee, Flinders University/South Australian Museum.

Red-sided garter snakes hibernate together in a hibernaculum.

Photo: Greg Schechter via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

A new paper published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society should give creationists cause to wonder if the people who wrote their favourite creation myth knew what they were talking about. That's assuming they have enough courage and intellectual integrity to consider that evidence trumps superstition and not the other way round, which is a big ask for most creationists as it would also mean their mummy and daddy could have been wrong too.

The evidence the new paper reveals is that of a collection of fossilised snakes found in Oligocene rocks in western Wyoming are those of a new species from 38 million years before creationists believe the Universe was created out of nothing by magic, when snakes had legs and could talk, and didn't have to eat nothing but dust [sic].

Malevolent Design - Combatting The Highly Toxic, Tissue Destroying Spitting Cobra Venom

African black-necked spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis

Warren Klein via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Black-necked spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis

© Marius Burger, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

First effective treatment found for spitting cobra snakebite - Lancaster University

Snake venom is usually a potent cocktail of multiple different toxins, 'designed' to kill, mostly small vertebrate prey very quickly, so the snake can strike, then wait for the prey to become paralyzed or die before it can go very far.

The reason for this rich cocktail is an interesting piece of evolutionary biology that would embarrass any creationist with the courage to learn about it. It is the result of repeated arms races between the snake and its prey species. Not only that, but it involves new genetic information arising, by gene duplication and mutations - contrary to creationist dogma that such a thing is impossible.

As one prey species starts to evolve resistance there is selection pressure on the snake to change its venom to overcome the resistance or loose one source of food, but, there must be a balance between retaining one food species but loosing several others if the changed venom is less effective against them. Resistance usually arises when there is a change in receptor sites on cell surfaces, on which the venom acts so the active venom molecule doesn't bind to it.