Back flip caused fish to evolve, according an article in Nature News and Science (AAAS) News 15 February 2018.
In 2014 Steven Balbus of Oxford University UK claimed that the moon was 10% closer to the earth 400 million years ago and this would have resulted in larger tides, which would have left fish stranded in tidal pools, especially in places where tidal differences are enhanced by the shape of the coastline. According to the evolutionary timetable this corresponds with the time vertebrates were transiting onto the land.
Now Mattias Green, an ocean scientist at Bangor University, UK and colleagues have carried out a simulation of the sea floor and continents according to modern plate tectonic theories to see where the largest tidal variation would have occurred. They found some of the large tidal regions were in places where “transitional” fossils such as Tiktaalik have been found.
The researchers claim these large tides could have left fish stranded at the highest point of the tide for up to two weeks, and that would put strong evolutionary pressure to evolve limbs. Mattias Green explained: “After a few days in these pools, you become food or you run out of food. The fish that had large limbs had an advantage because they could flip themselves back into the water.”
According to Nature News “The idea that the first land-walking animals could have evolved from those stranded in tide pools is generally well accepted and dates back decades.” Green and colleagues claim they are now explaining why the pools formed and why they were drying out and therefore driving the evolution of walking.
Not all scientists are impressed with the theory. Jennifer Clack, a palaeontologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, commented: “It’s only one of a plethora of ideas for the origin of land-dwelling tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer.”
Editorial Comment: Speaking as a fisherman who has waded tidal pools since his youth chasing trapped fish by running them out onto the dry land, this author wants you to note well that Matthias Green’s idea of fish with strong limbs flipping themselves back into the water, simply puts the fish back in the ocean where they started. Today, any that don’t make it back to the sea die on the land, especially when I have been chasing them.
A successful ‘backflip’ into the water maybe an example of survival of the fittest, but it is not evolution. Back-flippers already had this strong limb ability before they flipped out (and back). Nothing has changed from beginning to end.
The question that none of the evolutionists even try to answer is: How can being stranded high and dry create the genes needed to build and use legs and add them to fish that don’t have such genes in the three minutes before the stranded fish dies?
Fish that can flip themselves back into water using their fins actually do exist in the world today, and they show no signs of evolving into walking tetrapods (four-legged creatures).
There may be a plethora of evolving ideas for the origin of land dwelling tetrapods but none of the evolutionary ideas make any sense. A far more sensible idea is to consult the record of the Creator, as set out in Genesis, which tells us that the God who is Jesus Christ, made all the land dwelling walking creatures in fully functional mode according to their kinds.
Evidence News vol. 18, No. 3
11 April 2018
Creation Research Australia
Were you helped by this item? If so, consider making a donation so we can keep sending out Evidence News and add more items to this archive. For USA tax deductible donations click here. For UK tax deductible donations click here. For Australia and rest of world click here.