THERE’S NO EVIDENCE FOR MAMMALS’ FUR EVOLVING FROM REPTILE SCALES, NOR THAT THEIR JAW AND EAR BONES MIGRATED
By Geoff Chapman
Mammals come in many different shapes and sizes, and have colonised almost every part of our planet. Although most live on land, some are aquatic, and one kind (bats) can fly.
Evolution tells us that mammals evolved from reptiles. What does the evidence tell us?
1. No evidence that mammals’ body hair evolved from reptile scales
Mammals have body hair (or fur). Many evolutionists claim that mammals evolved fur to keep them warm.
It is true that hair is an excellent insulator, but they have a problem explaining how mammals got their hair. They claim it evolved from reptiles’ scales, possibly starting as sensitive whiskers, but there is no evidence for this.
There are important differences between reptilian scales and mammalian hair. Scales are rigid plates, and when reptiles moult the whole sheet of scales is discarded. Mammals’ hairs (like birds’ feathers) are rooted in the skin as individual follicles, and are lost singly when moulting. Both scales and hair have been found in the fossil record, but no evidence of hair evolution, despite more than a century of searching.
beaver-like Castorocauda, had
fully developed hair
The oldest fossil mammal, a beaver-like creature named ‘Castorocauda’, had fully developed hair. According to BBC News online (24 February 2006), this discovery “could challenge some currently accepted ideas on mammal evolution,” partly because it is alleged to have lived “164 million years ago”, yet it had hair, a beaver-like tail, strong arms for digging, and teeth like modern river otters.
The report continued: “Such advanced features have surprised many scientists. The mammals of the time were once thought to be largely primitive shrew-like creatures, scuttling at the feet of dinosaurs, and only flourishing when the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago.”
In other words, the first mammals were much like mammals are today, including hair.
2. No evidence for bones moving
Evolutionists also have “ear problems”. All reptiles, living and fossil, have several jaw bones and only one ear bone, but all mammals, living and fossil, have only one jaw bone and three ear bones. How could a transitional creature eat or hear properly, while its bones were migrating from the jaw to the ear?
Another serious objection to evolution is the fact that all mammals have an amazing and essential hearing organ known as the ‘Organ of Corti’, a delicate spiral structure in the cochlea. Mammals couldn’t hear without it, yet reptiles don’t have it, and there is nothing in the reptilian ear that it could have evolved from.
3. No evidence for sweat glands evolving into milk-producing mammary glands
Reptiles don’t have mammary glands, so what could they have evolved from? Evolutionists have suggested they are adapted sweat glands, but this is just a guess — there is absolutely no evidence.
Sweat is actually a waste product, so how could sweat glands gradually evolve into mammary glands which produce milk, full of rich nourishment, and essential to the young mammals’ survival? In any case, reptiles don’t have sweat glands either!
The scientific evidence strongly points to special creation by God being the best explanation for the origin of mammals. More information from Creation Resources Trust: www.crt.org.uk