Evolutionary naturalism is locked into seeing the entire living world as having evolved from a single common ancestor many millions of years ago.¹ If true, the fossil record should document this slow and gradual change with untold transitional forms that smoothly bridge one kind of creature to another as depicted by Darwin’s tree of life. But

Darwin’s tree illustrated a long macroevolutionary past that never happened. Darwinian gradualism would predict that over time different species should show a series of slight, successive modifications of genes from simple to complex. However, the tree of life “lies in tatters, torn to pieces by an onslaught of negative evidence. . . . [D]ifferent genes told contradictory evolutionary stories.” Finally, evolutionary biologists seem to be catching up with creation biologists.²

Indeed, if the theory of Darwinian or phyletic gradualism (minor variation leading to large changes or vertical evolution over long time periods) is true, then it would be difficult to see at what point an animal or plant becomes a new creature from the previous one, such as an invertebrate becoming a fish.

Of course, this is not at all what is seen in the fossil record. Various kinds of fossilized life suddenly appear in the sedimentary rocks complete and fully-formed, whether they are flowers or dinosaurs.^3,4

Recently, “a new study reveals that the majority of Earth’s species stem from a few evolutionary explosions, where new traits or habitats sparked rapid diversification. From flowers to birds, these bursts explain most of the planet’s biodiversity.”⁵ Contrary to phyletic gradualism, evolutionists are seeing “explosions,” “bursts,” and rapid diversification in the living world. A key theme in this diversity of life research is adaptive radiation, “a burst of evolution, with rapid divergence from a single ancestral form.”⁶

ICR’s Dr. Brian Thomas stated, “Adaptive radiation is a rapid phenomenon because the variation is fully observable in many wild populations. Since macroevolutionary hypotheses of simple-to-complex evolutionary progress require vast eons, alterations produced by adaptive radiation occur quickly by comparison.”⁷

Evolutionists Wiens and Moen stated in their paper that “adaptive radiations, are of considerable interest to evolutionary biologists, in large part because they are thought to underlie much of the species diversity of life.”⁸ In fact, they state, “Adaptive radiation has become a central topic in modern evolutionary biology,” and “these exceptionally rapid radiations contain most of Earth’s extant [existing] species diversity” even though the ancestral forms of any of these groups are unknown.⁸

The ScienceDaily article addressing these explosive bursts of evolution attempts to give bat and Darwinian finch examples, but they just show variation within the created kind.^9,10 In fact, the rapid radiation study, published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, makes several statements that support the creation model.

Overall, these results show for the first time that most of the known species’ richness of life is explained by rapid radiations. Moreover, phenotypic evidence from previous studies suggests that some of the most species-rich rapid radiations across life, animals, and plants may also qualify as adaptive radiations.⁸

Rapid radiation has nothing to do with cryptic vertical evolution. Animals and plants are designed by God to move in and fill new ecological niches as they adapt, diverge, and spread. Indeed, “‘ Rapid radiations’ of species are thought to occur when a new ecological niche opens up.”⁵ But there are natural limits in plants and animals that radiate: “Why species do not enlarge their range indefinitely, by incrementally adapting to conditions farther and farther away, is a major question in evolutionary biology.”¹¹

To conclude, according to evolutionists, it’s a paradox as to “how rapid radiation is sustained over long timescales,” but it is not a paradox if the Earth is young and God designed creatures to continuously track their environments and quickly adapt.⁸ Observing such amazing and rapid minor variation within the botanical and zoological worlds fits well within the creation model.

References

1. Sherwin, F. Evolution’s Hypothetical Last Universal Common Ancestor. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org September 16, 2024.
2. Thomas, B. Darwin’s Evolutionary Tree ‘Annihilated.’ Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org February 3, 2009, quoting Lawton, G. 2009. Why Darwin Was Wrong About the Tree of Life. New Scientist. 2692: 34–39.
3. Thomas, B. Flower Fossils 100,000,000 Years Out of Place? Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org October 11, 2013.
4. Hebert, J. Secular Scientists Admit Dinosaurs Appeared Abruptly. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org April 30, 2018. 
5. Most of Earth’s Species Came from Explosive Bursts of Evolution. Frontiers. Posted on sciencedaily.com August 23, 2025.
6. Allaby, M. 2020. Dictionary of Zoology, 5th edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 9.
7. Thomas, B. Flower Color Changes: Evolution or Creation in Action? Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org July 23, 2009.
8. Wiens, J. and S. Moen. 2025. Rapid Radiations Underlie Most of the Known Diversity of Life. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 13.
9. Sherwin, F. An “Early” Origin for Modern Echolocation in Bats. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org November 16, 2023.
10. Clarey, T. and M. Boyle. 2025. Evolutionary Myths of Conventional Science. Acts & Facts. 54 (5): 4.
11. Futuyma, D. and M. Kirkpatrick. 2017. Evolution. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, 487.

* Dr. Sherwin is a science news writer at the Institute for Creation Research. He earned an M.A. in invertebrate zoology from the University of Northern Colorado and received an honorary doctorate of science from Pensacola Christian College.

Stage Image Caption: Hummingbird at Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tuscon, Minnesota
Image Credit: Lorie Shaull, CC BY-SA 4.0