by Jake Hebert, Ph.D., and Michael J. Boyle, Ph.D.*

“Make believe” are the first two words in the lyrics of Henry Mancini’s 1961 song, “Baby Elephant Walk.” “Make believe” aptly describes “Body Builders,” the third episode in the PBS television series Evolution, which purports to show how billions of years of evolution crafted different animal body forms, with particular emphasis on the elephant.¹

“Body Builders” opens with a bold assertion: “And this great variety of body shapes can be traced back to a single origin.”¹ That story began with the Urmetazoan, the eukaryotic ancestor of all animals that arose from an assumed transition from single-celled to multicellular organisms no less than 600 million years ago. But even the Urmetazoan had an ancestor: a hypothetical single-celled Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA).¹ By now it should be obvious that we’ve left the refutable, testable, and falsifiable field of empirical science.

Astonishingly, conventional scientists venture even further back to the origin of life itself, which supposedly arose from chemicals on a “primitive” earth. And yet while it is clear that life only comes from life, and the codes of biological life (e.g., RNA and DNA) have never been observed to arise from physical or chemical processes, the magic wand of evolution by natural selection pushes onward. In other words, none of the ancestral cellular forms of life in “Body Builders” have ever been shown to exist. They are truly unverifiable missing links in the evolutionary chain leading to the elephant! So, no, body shapes on Earth can’t be traced back to a single origin.

And despite discussing the propeller-like flagellum found in numerous unicellular and multicellular organisms, “Body Builders” made no attempt to explain its origin. Creationists and intelligent design proponents alike have long pointed out that mutational trial and error could never have produced this tiny nanotech motor.² If evolutionists had any clue how natural selection, rather than engineered design, could have produced this nanotech wonder, wouldn’t you think they’d reveal it in the show? This television series was a golden opportunity to loudly trumpet their solution to the world. Their silence speaks volumes.

Also, the Urmetazoan is said to have lived during a global deep freeze called Snowball Earth. Anti-creationists have long used Snowball Earth as an argument against flood geology, arguing (correctly) that a global ice age could not have occurred during the yearlong global Flood described in the book of Genesis. However, both uniformitarian and creationist geologists have long pointed out the equivocal nature of this evidence, which is more consistent with giant underwater debris flows that might have occurred during a cataclysmic global flood.^3–6

“Body Builders” holds up a lobe-finned fish classified as an Elpistostegalian creature with “pre-adaptations” to living on land.¹ Yet, Elpistostegalians have always been seen as true fish. Wikipedia (no friend of biblical creation) states, “Although historically Elpistostegalia (referred to as Panderichthyida) was considered an order of prehistoric lobe-finned fishes, it was cladistically redefined to include tetrapods [four-legged animals].”^7,8 Are evolutionists manufacturing evidence for evolution simply by reclassifying fossils and redefining the meaning of words? Apparently, yes. Elpistostegalians are no longer merely lobe-finned fish, but are part of a broader collection of animals including creatures with true feet! Thus, conventional paleontologists are blurring the lines between real data and evolutionary speculation.⁹ That evolutionists have been reduced to defining into existence (i.e., fabricating) their evidence for evolution is a clear sign of just how weak their arguments really are.

As in the first two episodes, difficulties, gaps, and missing links in the evolutionary narrative are glossed over with “magic” words and phrases: “bodies . . . evolve new tools”; “life evolved these new traits”; “evolution transformed a single cell into the largest land animal alive today”; “sex cells, nerve cells, and muscle cells evolve,” etc.¹ However, naked assertions do not constitute evidence, but they do reveal multiple failing foundations of evolutionary biology.¹⁰

This third episode also touches on other topics, including dinosaur extinction, microbes, and other elephant-like creatures such as Eritherium and Palaeomastodon, but again, the show proceeds without any persuasive or substantiated evidence for evolution. The “true believers” of evolution will love the impressive visuals, but critical thinkers looking for actual evidence supporting the evolutionary narrative will, like a parade of baby elephants marching to a dried-up watering hole, remain thirsty!

References

1. Bone, F., dir. NOVA. Season 53, episode 15, “Evolution: Body Builders.” Aired October 28, 2026, on PBS. Accessed November 4, 2026.
2. Thomas, B. and D. Thomas. 2023. Bacterial Flagella: Molecular Motors Show Masterful Design. Acts & Facts. 52 (7): 16–17.
3. Schermerhorn, L. J. G. 1974. Late Precambrian Mixtites: Glacial and/or Nonglacial? American Journal of Science. 274 (7): 673–824.
4. Schermerhorn, L. J. G. 1974. No Evidence for Glacial Origin of Late Precambrian Tilloids in Angola. Nature. 252: 114–115.
5. Molén, M. 1990. Diamictites: Ice-Ages or Gravity Flows? Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism. 2: 177–190.
6. Oard, M. 2009. Landslides Win in a Landslide over Ancient “Ice Ages.” In Rock Solid Answers: The Biblical Truth Behind 14 Geological Questions. M. Oard and J. K. Reed, eds. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 111–123.
7. Elpistostegalia. Wikipedia. Posted on en.wikipedia.org November 6, 2026, accessed November 4, 2026.
8. Cladistics is a method of classifying animals based on an assumed evolutionary history.
9. And creationists have clearly noted that evolutionists deploy similar tactics when it comes to purported evidence for dinosaur-to-bird evolution and their highly speculative interpretations of “feathered dinosaurs.” See Haynes, G. 2026. The Push for Feathered Dinosaurs: A Little Background. Acts & Facts. 55 (4): 19. See also Clarey, T. 2026. If It Walks Like a Bird: 10 Myths Busted About Birds and Dinosaurs. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
10. Guliuzza, R. J. 2010. Unmasking Evolution’s Magic Words. Acts & Facts. 39 (3): 10–11.

* Dr. Hebert is a research scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Boyle is a research scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in zoology from University of Hawaii at Manoa.