Catching the Vision: Blind Cave Fish (Astyanax mexicanus) as a Model System for Continuous Environmental Tracking and Adaptive Engineering

by Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Scott Arledge, and Randy J. Guliuzza

In Creation Research Society Quarterly 58 (4): 289-296

Abstract

A wide variety of fish, amphibians, and arthropods have colonized cave environments deploying complex suites of morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits specifically adaptive to a perpetually dark and resource-scarce environment. Among the many examples of this global phenomenon is the Mexican blind cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus) which has become a leading research model for this rapid and repeatable adaptation which is nearly entirely due to developmental phenotypic plasticity. Not only do blind Astyanax cavefish (compared to surface morphotypes) exhibit a lack of eye development, but they also display complex enhancements for chemo- and mechano-sensors, altered circadian cycles, modified neural and endocrine circuits, metabolic modifications in both rates and metabolism, epigenetic modifications, and behavioral changes that rely upon all of these complex physical and physiological modifications. These rapid, repeatable, and complex organism-wide system adaptations make little sense in the context of Darwinian evolution involving mutation and natural selection. However, the data fit perfectly with a model of engineered, organism-driven systems of adaptation built into creatures by the Creator that enable them to continuously track and appropriately adjust to specific environmental changes. Given that Astyanax have been well-researched and are relatively easily studied, reared, and bred in a laboratory setting, we propose using these fish in creationist research for the study of environmental tracking conferred primarily through phenotypic plasticity.

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The current state of creationist ice core research

In Journal of Creation 35 (3): 12–14, December 2021

Although the ability of the Flood to explain the Ice Age is one of the great strengths of the Creation model, Bible skeptics claim the vast ages assigned to deep Greenland and Antarctic ice cores are insurmountable challenges to the Bible’s 6,000-year chronology.

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God Floods Earth, yet Preserves Ark-Borne Humans and Animals: Exegetical and Geological Notes on Genesis Chapter 7

by James J. S. Johnson, J.D., Th.D., and Timothy L. Clarey, Ph.D.

In Creation Research Society Quarterly 57 (4): 248-262

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Using Vardiman’s Young-Earth Ice Sheet Model and a Simple Computer Code to Estimate Annual Layer Thicknesses

In Creation Research Society Quarterly 57 (3): 175-185

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Hierarchical clustering in dinosaur baraminology studies

by Matthew Cserhati, Brian Thomas, and Joel Tay

In Journal of Creation 34 (3): 53-63, December 2020

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