Extinct mammals not dead yet, according to articles in ABC News in Science and Daily Mail 29 Sept 2010 and ScienceNOW 1 Oct 2010. Diana Fisher and Simon Blomberg of the University of Queensland in Australia have created a database of 187 mammal species that have been identified as extinct or possibly extinct, and combed through the literature to find out which ones had been rediscovered. They found 67 had been re-discovered alive. They became interested in rediscovered extinct species after studying the bridled nailtail wallaby, an Australian mammal believed to be extinct for decades until it was found in 1973 on a central Queensland cattle property. The animals have since been re-introduced to other areas and are doing well. Fisher said: “I realized that there are very many reports of rediscovered species, but that no one had looked at these as a whole.” Other animals thought to be dead and gone forever, but found alive include the Okapi, the Cuban Solenodon (a rat-like mammal), the Christmas Island Shrew, the Vanikoro Flying Fox of the Solomon Islands, the Australian Central Rock Rat and the Talaud Flying Fox of Indonesia. In contrast the Daily Mail states, “Many scientists believe the world is going through a new ‘mass extinction’ fuelled by mankind – and that more species are disappearing now than at any time since the dinosaurs vanished 65million years ago.”
Editorial Comment: This study is a good lesson in humility. The large percentage of animals that proved not to be dead and gone is a good reminder of how much human beings don’t know, and how much of the earth’s surface has still to be studied. The media comment about mass extinction also exposes the hypocrisy of the more strident environmentalists who are also ardent evolutionary fundamentalists. Evolutionists claim the mass extinction 65 million years ago made way for the mammals, and therefore, humans to evolve. It follows that if we are going through a mass extinction now, evolutionists should we waiting in joyful expectation for lots of new species to evolve, even if man becomes extinct. Instead all they proclaim is doom and gloom. Maybe they think something smarter than humans will evolve and beat us up in the struggle for existence. (Ref. conservation, animals)
Evidence News 27 Oct 2010