Why Transformation?
When God created the world, it was perfect. All creatures lived in harmony and there was no pain. Once sin entered the world, however, the ground was cursed. To deal with the new, imperfect conditions, plants and animals were transformed. Although the world is now marked with parasites, death, and error, we can still see glimpses of how God originally intended creatures to interact.

In the previous article, we discussed how the genome is capable of variation. It is possible to produce dramatic changes in form and structure by modifying how the genes are expressed, by changing the developmental expressions, or by activating or deactivating of genes within the genome.

In this article, we will look at several examples of the transformation caused by environmental changes.

Plants
According to Genesis, the ground was cursed after the fall, and plants and animals were transformed. Some plants were to bring forth thorns and thistles. Thorns and spines are really just stems and leave that have modified growth processes. There is no new information here, just a modification of the existing pattern.

Bacteria
Some organisms can become dangerous when forced to survive in a new habitat.

Here is an example of how transformation could have occurred in bacteria, causing the development of disease organisms. Originally, bacteria could all have had highly specific roles to play in assisting numerous processes in the body and in the environment, just as useful bacteria still do today, and their original role could have been only beneficial. These bacteria lived in the gastrointestinal tract. If they ended up elsewhere, they could have undergone physiological changes, producing harmful substances that wreak havoc on humans and animals.ⁱ

Parasites
A changing environment could also induce organisms to exploit new and different food sources, forcing them to become parasites. For example, protozoa that were designed to assist in animal nutrition could have been transformed into deadly pathogens.

Parasitic worms show dramatic levels of degeneration of organs, and the tapeworm and numerous other species of parasitic worms have been transformed into little other than reproductive organisms.

Sacculina, a parasite of crabs, has no digestive tract. Instead of maturing into a normal barnacle, it is transformed into a blob of cells. The loss of organs is not necessarily the result of mutations, but could just be the result of deactivation of the gene systems that are not required under the new circumstances.

There is no evidence here of evolution, only of devolution.

Insects
Insects could also have been modified to develop mechanisms of defense. Female mosquitoes use their syringe-like mouthparts to suck blood from a host, but the male of the species uses the same mouthparts to extract plant juices. Is it possible that plant juice was no longer sufficient to provide the energy the female mosquito needs, and that the apparatus that was created for sucking plant juices became the tool used to suck blood?

Venomous Creatures
In general, venom is just a normal secretion that has been modified. The venom of poisonous fish is a product of the glands that normally produce protective slime to coat the fish. The spines on the fish that deliver the venom are modified fin rays. The venom of snakes and spiders may simply be modified digestive proteins.

Carnivores
Carnivores are equipped with the necessary weapons to kill and catch other animals, but this equipment need not necessarily have been designed for that purpose. Pandas, for example, are classified as carnivores on the strength of their teeth, but they eat bamboo. Their teeth can kill and tear flesh, but that wasn’t what they were made to do.

The same can be said for bears. They will eat fish if available and can be opportunist carnivores, but usually subsist on a vegetarian diet of berries.

In evolutionary thinking, survival pressures lead to evolutionary advance in both the prey and the predator. However, this transformation of animals into killing machines, seen from a Creation perspective, is an adaptive condition that points to degeneration rather than evolutionary advance. Carnivory is not an advanced state, but rather a sad consequence of the introduction of death and violence into the system.

Preadaption and Rapid Change
The earth was originally created perfect. It became marred and cursed when sin entered, and there is evidence of creatures quickly adapting to their imperfect habitats ever since. Food choices and level of aggression are examples of traits that can change rapidly in creatures when they are faced with different environments.

Whereas the theory of evolution suggests that species evolve over millions of years, Creation suggests that animals were preadapted to deal with changes in their environments. Moreover, some species could survive even drastic changes if they were preadapted with the tools that would allow them to enter entirely new adaptive zones, such as changing from a vegetarian to meat-eating lifestyle.

Changes in Diet
When lions make a kill, they prefer to first eat the rumen, which contains fermented plant products, before they eat the meat. Could this be because lions were originally created as vegetarians but had to adapt to greater competition and fewer food sources?

Carnivores who become vegetarians adapt rapidly to this diet, and survive very well. There are numerous accounts of lions that were raised on grain diets and would not even touch meat. These animals are great examples of how adaptation, especially in terms of diet, can be a very fast process.

Dogs and cats can also survive very well on vegetarian diets. In fact, they live much longer and are less aggressive on such diets. The meat-shearing teeth of these animals could have been used to shred tough plants in the past, and the fact that they don't do so now could simply be because their original food source was destroyed. There is plenty of evidence in the fossil record that more varieties of plants existed in the past than exist today.

Even in our day, animal diets are changed by the destruction of habitats. Chipmunks traditionally eat seeds in the forests, but these days we often see them eating roadkill to augment their diets. This is a case of a herbivore becoming a meat scavenger as a result of changing circumstances.

Kea parrots in New Zealand ordinarily dig for roots, but dwindling food supplies encourage them to attack sheep. The parrots use their sharp beaks and claws to tear open the backs of the sheep so that they can eat the fat around the kidneys.ⁱⁱ If their food source is restored, the parrots will go back to eating roots.

Kea parrots have the same sharp talons and powerful beaks as birds of prey, but use them for harmless purposes. Lack of food often leads to aggression, and this could be one of the reasons why they aggressively attack a creature that cannot defend itself.

A further example of rapid adaptation is the Vampire Finch of the Galapagos Islands. These normally vegetarian birds have recently been shown to raid nests and suck blood from nesting booby birds, a change in diet induced by increasing competition for vegetarian resources.^iii,viThe finches feed on these sea birds during extended periods of drought. They peck at the base of the feathers until the blood flows and then they sip it. This is a change in diet and behavior induced by negative environmental circumstances and did not require millions of years to develop.

Changes in Levels of Aggression
Aggression potentially exists in all creatures, but it need not have been there in the beginning. For example, out of the wild species from which the domestic dog has been bred, there have been developed incredibly docile, friendly, and loving dogs of all shapes and sizes. Selective breeding can also produce the most vicious killers out of the same gene pool. Aggressive natures thus have a genetic basis and can be reduced rapidly through selection.

The Russian scientist Dmitry Belyaev and others who studied the process of domestication of foxes found that changes in behavior could be selected for rapidly.^v Out of a variety of foxes, those that responded without fear to humans were selected and the fearful ones discarded, and by the sixth generation the foxes were displaying behavior patterns similar to domestic dogs—whimpering to attract attention and licking their keepers. This behavior increased to one pup in six by the tenth generation and to three pups in four by the 30^th generation.

The changes were accompanied by anatomical changes—including increases in serotonin levels. Highly aggressive or schizophrenic people are known to have low serotonin levels and are treated to compensate for this condition. The development of aggression and fear of humans need thus not have developed over millions of years but could have come about very rapidly.

There is also evidence that the ancestors of the piranha were once plant eaters. Many species of South American pacu fish, which are closely related to the piranha, use their powerful jaws and strong teeth not to attack other creatures, but to eat plants and fruits. The piranha and the pacu are very similar in form and structure. In fact, there is no clear morphological distinction between the vicious piranha and the vegetarian pacu.^vi,vii

Conclusion
If environmental conditions were to change, plants and animals could adapt to those conditions by differentially employing the genes and gene controlling mechanisms available in order to survive. There would be no need to wait for some fortuitous mutation to occur in order to overcome new obstacles because, in a sense, all organisms have been preadapted to deal with change within the limits set by their genetic composition.

 

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i G.T. Keusch, “Ecology of the intestinal tract,” Nature 83 (1974):70-77. 

ii Nature Australia, (2000): 5.

iii J. Weiner, The Beak of the Finch, (London: Jonathan Cape Random House, 1994).

iv "Islands of the Vampire Birds," ABC TV Australia, Broadcasted October 13, 1999.

v L. Trut, "Early canid domestication: the farm-fox experiment," American Scientist 87 (1999): 160-169.

vi "Piranha and new DNA evidence," www.angelfire.com/biz/pirahna038/pg2.html, April 28, 2000.

vii "sub-family Serrasalmina," www.angelfire.com/biz/pirahna038/pg2.html, April 28, 2000.