Egg-laying Echidna Could Not Have Evolved | The Institute for Creation Research

Egg-laying Echidna Could Not Have Evolved

A research intern for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Muse Opiang, completed the first field study ever conducted on the long-beaked echidna, an egg-laying mammal found only in New Guinea.1 Representing four years and 6,000 man-hours of work, Opiang’s field observations include a catalog of dwellings and habits that befit an animal clearly formed with a collection of mosaic features, characteristics shared by various creatures that have been unified into a functional whole.

The study required remarkable effort because echidnas are active only at night and stay mostly underground. The tracked echidnas each ranged through a territory of about 96 acres, and their diet included insects and worms. Echidna dens were found mostly in dense thickets or underground. These details are of particular interest to conservationists developing programs to protect the endangered creatures.

The adult Eastern Long-beaked Echidna possesses a slender, pointed snout used to poke holes in the ground to search for subterranean meals. The echidna has very effective digging claws, and has coarse hair and spines similar to an anteater’s. However, it lays eggs like most reptiles, and has a reptile-like “sprawling gait” and a single opening that releases both waste and gametes. The features in monotremes, a category that includes both echidnas and platypuses, have “forced zoologists to change their very definitions of what a mammal is.”2

There is no clear evolutionary explanation for the development of the echidna kind. There are Miocene fossils of echidnas, which creation scientists attribute to post-Flood local floods, but “the oldest monotreme fossils show little difference from today's animals, so there is no fossil record to indicate they have evolved from any other type of creature.”3 Nor is there a clear connection between the echidna and the platypus, which both lay eggs but are otherwise very different animals.

The strange combination of mammalian and reptilian features may defy a Darwinian description of origins, but they fit perfectly with a Creator who is able to shape living forms with whatever features He wants them to have. All indications point to echidnas being uniquely created to live as underground nocturnal creatures and to reproduce only more echidnas. Hopefully, the fruits of this groundbreaking and painstakingly-obtained research will help ensure that echidnas continue to thrive, since they are such marvelous manifestations from the mind of their Maker.

References

  1. Opiang, M. D. 2009. Home Ranges, Movement, and Den Use in Long-Beaked Echidnas, Zaglossus Bartoni, from Papua New Guinea. Journal of Mammalogy. 90 (2): 340-346.
  2. WCS Supports World's First Study of Odd-Ball, Egg-Laying Mammal. Wildlife Conservation Society press release, June 9, 2009.
  3. Doolan, R. 1996. The echidna enigma...and the platypus puzzle. Creation. 18 (2): 26-27.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on June 23, 2009.

The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Homo Naledi: The Lies Behind Evolution's Rising Star | The Creation...
Homo naledi, once evolution's 'rising star,' was considered to be a prime example of human evolution. But is it really proof? Or...

NEWS
A Subsurface Ocean on Mimas?
Scientists have analyzed data obtained from the Cassini spacecraft and concluded that irregularities in the orbit of Saturn’s moon Mimas indicate...

NEWS
In Theaters March 20 & 21: The Ark and the Darkness
Is Genesis true? What about Noah’s Flood? How did Noah fit the animals on the ark? Wasn’t it a local flood? Have you asked these questions? Though...

NEWS
Enigmatic Fossil Plants
The pre-Flood world thousands of years ago was unlike the world of today.1 Unfamiliar animals and plants were common, and there were a lot...

NEWS
Surprisingly Colorful Fossil Snail Shells
Finding organic compounds such as flexible dinosaur collagen and complete bone cells1,2 is becoming common, much to the shock and consternation...

NEWS
March 2024 ICR Wallpaper
"He is not here; for He is risen, as He said." (Matthew 28:6 NKJV) ICR March 2024 wallpaper is now available for mobile, tablet,...

CREATION PODCAST
Homo Erectus: The Shocking Truth About the "Ape Man"...
Homo erectus, or "Upright Man," has been upheld as a piece of mankind's "evolutionary history" since its discovery in 1891....

NEWS
Mystery of Moths' Warning Sound
Insects of all types continue to amaze entomologists with their design and physiology. Cleveland Hickman, Jr., et al. stated, “insect ears are...

NEWS
Geneticist Fired for Affirming Humans Once Lived 900 Years?
Geneticist Alexander Kudryavtsev, the head of the Russian Academy of Science’s Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, has been fired, reportedly...

ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Solar Eclipses
Designed by Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover fun facts...