And God made the beast of the earth after his kind,... Genesis 1:25
"What’s black and white and testifies to dynamic design in creation?
If you’re thinking zebras, you’d be right.
More than just fashionable horses, these iconic African mammals have captivated—and mystified—humans for millennia.
In ancient Rome, the hippotigris (‘horse tiger’) thrilled crowds at circuses.
In the nineteenth century, humans attempted, not very successfully, to tame zebras for being ridden with saddles and for pulling carriages.
And to this day, zebras continue to surprise the scientists who study them. Ironically, one of the most puzzling things about zebras is the very feature that makes them so outstanding—those unforgettable stripes.
If we were to backtrack through history to check out the inhabitants of Noah’s Ark for the pair of zebras that are often depicted as going on board, what would we find?
According to many creation scientists, we would likely not find anything looking exactly like zebras today, but rather a pair of horse-like creatures.
At least one of them would likely feature stripes (just like some
horses and asses do on parts of their body), though perhaps not as spectacular and body-wide as the stripes on zebras today.
You see, zebras belong to the ‘horse kind’, which includes modern horses, donkeys, and other members of the genus Equus, hence sometimes called the ‘equine’ kind.
So Noah wouldn’t have needed two of each of these animals on the Ark—two zebras , two donkeys, two Shetland ponies and so on. He would only have needed one male and one female of this kind, which would have incorporated in various degrees the characteristics of those familiar to us today.
A single created kind like equines can still contain an impressive amount of variation. Instances of this variation exist even among the three different zebras species alive today: plains zebras , Grevy’s zebras and mountain zebras .
Differences between these species are evident not only in their
subtly different markings, with plains zebras sporting the thickest stripes and Grevy’s zebras the thinnest, but also in their different numbers of chromosomes.
While mountain zebras have only 32 chromosomes—the fewest of any living equine—plains zebras have 44 and Grevy’s zebras have 46. The equine with the greatest number of chromosomes is the rare, endangered species Przewalski’s horse, with 66.
This variation in chromosome number, however, appears to be mainly due to the rearrangement or fusion of pre-existing chromosomes.
Considering this remarkable variation within the genus Equus,
Q: how do we know that zebras, horses, and donkeys all belong to the same ‘kind’ created on Day 6 of Creation Week?
A: For one thing, these different equines can interbreed. So many different combinations of hybrid foals have been born.
Q: If all the members of Equus belong to the same kind, why do zebras look so different from other equines?
A: One of the oldest and most commonly-held ideas is that stripes help zebras to camouflage themselves or to confuse predators. While this idea goes back to the 19th century, recent research
suggests that there’s more to this story. By passing images of zebras through filters that enabled scientists to view zebra stripes the way that predators like lions do, for instance, the researchers realized that predators cannot even see the striped pattern on zebras at long distances.
Except in wooded areas at close ranges then, stripes apparently do not help break up the zebras’ body outlines or otherwise confuse carnivores.
A: However, still other research shows that zebra striping relates more to regional differences in environmental temperature than to parasite distribution, suggesting that stripes play a role in
thermoregulation. One hypothesis is that dark stripes absorb sunlight more strongly than light stripes, so the former become hotter. So air will rise above dark stripes and air from the light stripes will flow in to replace it. The air circulation cools the zebra.
A: After this article was published, new research further supported the parasite-defence function, in particular, biting flies. The stripes
don’t repel flies as such, but make it much harder for them to make a controlled landing, which is required for them to be able to suck blood.
.....these studies all assume that zebras stripes have a purpose and function. They agree that knowing this function would automatically explain the stripes’ origin—because they assume microbes-to-man evolution by natural selection to be true (and deliberate design false) in the first place.
But design for a particular function is a perfectly scientifically valid explanation for striping—or any other biological feature.
And what if these equine stripes—which humans can easily resolve at far distances, even if lions can’t—also serve as functional art, meant for human eyes?
That would reflect a Creator who is both adept at designing lifeforms which are functionally efficient and who is inherently creative.
And one who is interested in displaying His glory for the eyes of His most special creation—humanity."
CMI
"What’s black and white and testifies to dynamic design in creation?
If you’re thinking zebras, you’d be right.
More than just fashionable horses, these iconic African mammals have captivated—and mystified—humans for millennia.
In ancient Rome, the hippotigris (‘horse tiger’) thrilled crowds at circuses.
In the nineteenth century, humans attempted, not very successfully, to tame zebras for being ridden with saddles and for pulling carriages.
And to this day, zebras continue to surprise the scientists who study them. Ironically, one of the most puzzling things about zebras is the very feature that makes them so outstanding—those unforgettable stripes.
If we were to backtrack through history to check out the inhabitants of Noah’s Ark for the pair of zebras that are often depicted as going on board, what would we find?
According to many creation scientists, we would likely not find anything looking exactly like zebras today, but rather a pair of horse-like creatures.
At least one of them would likely feature stripes (just like some
You see, zebras belong to the ‘horse kind’, which includes modern horses, donkeys, and other members of the genus Equus, hence sometimes called the ‘equine’ kind.
So Noah wouldn’t have needed two of each of these animals on the Ark—two zebras , two donkeys, two Shetland ponies and so on. He would only have needed one male and one female of this kind, which would have incorporated in various degrees the characteristics of those familiar to us today.
A single created kind like equines can still contain an impressive amount of variation. Instances of this variation exist even among the three different zebras species alive today: plains zebras , Grevy’s zebras and mountain zebras .
Differences between these species are evident not only in their
While mountain zebras have only 32 chromosomes—the fewest of any living equine—plains zebras have 44 and Grevy’s zebras have 46. The equine with the greatest number of chromosomes is the rare, endangered species Przewalski’s horse, with 66.
This variation in chromosome number, however, appears to be mainly due to the rearrangement or fusion of pre-existing chromosomes.
Considering this remarkable variation within the genus Equus,
Q: how do we know that zebras, horses, and donkeys all belong to the same ‘kind’ created on Day 6 of Creation Week?
A: For one thing, these different equines can interbreed. So many different combinations of hybrid foals have been born.
Q: If all the members of Equus belong to the same kind, why do zebras look so different from other equines?
A: One of the oldest and most commonly-held ideas is that stripes help zebras to camouflage themselves or to confuse predators. While this idea goes back to the 19th century, recent research
Except in wooded areas at close ranges then, stripes apparently do not help break up the zebras’ body outlines or otherwise confuse carnivores.
A: However, still other research shows that zebra striping relates more to regional differences in environmental temperature than to parasite distribution, suggesting that stripes play a role in
A: After this article was published, new research further supported the parasite-defence function, in particular, biting flies. The stripes
.....these studies all assume that zebras stripes have a purpose and function. They agree that knowing this function would automatically explain the stripes’ origin—because they assume microbes-to-man evolution by natural selection to be true (and deliberate design false) in the first place.
But design for a particular function is a perfectly scientifically valid explanation for striping—or any other biological feature.
And what if these equine stripes—which humans can easily resolve at far distances, even if lions can’t—also serve as functional art, meant for human eyes?
That would reflect a Creator who is both adept at designing lifeforms which are functionally efficient and who is inherently creative.
And one who is interested in displaying His glory for the eyes of His most special creation—humanity."
CMI