Koalas climb like apes, according to Inside JEB 17 December 2019 and Journal of Experimental Biology 17 December 2019 doi: 10.1242/jeb.207506.
The typical picture of a koala is one of a semi-comatose animal sitting passively in the fork of a tree. This is understandable as koalas sleep for up to 18 hours a day. However, they can move about treetops with surprising agility. Scientists from the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia have studied the way koalas climb and move around by filming koalas from different angles.
They found the koalas move using “diagonally coupled gaits.” They grasp the branch with opposite side hands and feet, e.g. left hand and right foot, while moving their other limbs. This is a very effective and stable method of climbing that was thought to be distinctive of tree-dwelling primates. The scientists also noted this method of climbing may be related to the Koalas unique two-thumbed hands, along with their thick footpads and claws, stating the effective climbing methods is “likely only possible because of the unique gripping hand morphology of both the fore and hind feet of koalas.”
As koalas are marsupials, and therefore claimed to be only distantly related to primates on the evolutionary tree, the scientists concluded: “The locomotion strategies of koalas provide key insights into an independent evolutionary branch for an arboreal specialist, highlighting how locomotor strategies can convergently evolve between distant lineages.”
Editorial Comment: Don’t miss it folks: evolutionists are claiming the reason there are no ‘dropping bears’ in Australia is they have evolved the same tree hugging ability that monkeys and apes did! Never forget that evolutionists use common features as the best evidence for the evolutionary tree, except when trying to explain similarities in an obviously unrelated critter hanging off an evolutionary branch by its thumbs. Then they resort to the fictional convergent evolution, a concept invented to explain common features seen in two living things that are too far apart on the evolutionary tree to explain by descent from a common ancestor.
Convergent evolution is based on the evolutionary myth that all that’s needed to change living things from one kind into another, e.g. non-climbing animal into a climbing one, is to be in a particular environment. Such wishful thinking falls out of the tree when we ask how could the clumsy efforts of a non-climbing animal change into the efficient, and stable ‘diagonally coupled gait’ needed for climbing? This involves more than just changing muscles, bones and joints. It also means changing movement control circuits in its brain? Furthermore, and don’t miss it, as the scientists noted, koalas’ hands and feet have two thumbs on their hands, as well as the necessary thick pads on hands and feet along with the sharp claws needed for tree hugging. Simply trying to climb trees would never have made those features develop.
Let’s face it! Koalas climb like apes because like apes, they were designed to live in trees, and their Creator made all climbing animals as fully functional separate kinds, just as Genesis tells us.
Koalas extinct? After the recent bushfires in Australia the Australian Koala Foundation claimed there were now 80,000 koalas left in Australia, which makes them “virtually or functionally extinct”. Animal experts we have contacted regard this claim as a nonsense statement, as they would be happy to have 80,000 of any endangered animal.
Evidence
News vol. 20, No. 2
12 February 2020
Creation Research Australia