Creation Moment 3/19/2024 - Black Cats are still "cats"

Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. Genesis 1:24

"Maryland scientists studied why some cats are black and reported

their genetic investigation in the cover story in Current Biology (3/03). 

Apparently melanism (black coloration) is recessive in domestic cats but dominant in jaguars; in some species it is frequent but never predominant. 

They identified two genes that cause melanism in some species but not others. They feel there must be “at least four independent genetic origins for melanism in the cat family. The inferred multiple origins and independent historical elevation in population frequency of felid melanistic mutations suggest the occurrence of adaptive evolution of this visible phenotype in a group of related free-ranging species.”

Q: And your point is? 

This is supposed to be a paper about why black cats evolved. You read the paper and there are observations about which species have this or that gene, but no theory as to why black color is adaptive. They say, “To date, little is known about the molecular or adaptive basis of coat color variation in free-ranging mammals, and so far no study has addressed this issue in multiple polymorphic species from the same family.” So did they come to the rescue and find a reason for natural selection to select melanism? See if you can find one in their conclusion:

"The elevation of independent gene variants in parallel Felidae lineages raises the possibility of an adaptive advantage of melanistic

mutants under certain ecological circumstances. An interesting example is the jaguarundi, whose “wild-type” dark coloration is here shown to be a derived condition, having replaced the ancestral reddish form throughout its continental range. The prospect of directly inspecting gene variants that specify phenotypic variation potentially subject to natural selection will allow the direct study of such traits in free-ranging populations. These and other applications of such integrated genetic approaches will hopefully enhance our understanding of species survival, diversification, and adaptive evolution over space and time."

You can hunt through this jargon jungle without ever finding the promised nugget of evolutionary wisdom; it’s just empty promises and futureware. 

So some cats are black. 

Q: They’re still 100% cats, aren’t they? 

Q: What’s Darwin got to do with it?" 

CEH