And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:25
"In the most extensive published examination of animal and plant diversification rates to date, Dr John J. Wiens, professor at the University of Arizona, and Dr Daniel Moen, an assistant professor at the University of California Riverside found that “the majority of earth’s species stem from a few evolutionary explosions”. The study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution examined a taxonomic scope of over 2,000,000 species, from 2,545 families and 17 kingdoms, including over 300,000 species of plants, a million species of insects, over 66,000 species of vertebrates and 1.5 million invertebrates.
Using a “nearly complete” sample comprising of an estimated ~70% of known species (~67% animals, and ~78% vertebrates), the researchers found that “…among the major clades of living organisms and among land plant phyla and animal phyla, >80% of known species richness is contained within the few clades in the upper 90th percentile for diversification rates in each group.” These striking findings led the researchers to the following conclusion:
“…these results show for the first time that most of the known species’ richness of life is explained by rapid radiations.”
Q:What do these ‘rapid radiations’ mean for evolutionary theory?
A: The Significance of Rapid Radiations: An Affront to Gradualism
Uniformitarian assumptions influence the interpretation of almost all data in the realm of both biological and geological evolution. This long-held interpretation of slow, incremental and continuous change over millions of years, driven by random mutation and natural selection, was made famous by Charles Darwin himself. When Darwin wrote his seminal ‘On the Origin of Species’, he specifically regarded gradualism as a cornerstone of his theory.
Q:What do these ‘rapid radiations’ mean for evolutionary theory?
A: The Significance of Rapid Radiations: An Affront to Gradualism
Uniformitarian assumptions influence the interpretation of almost all data in the realm of both biological and geological evolution. This long-held interpretation of slow, incremental and continuous change over millions of years, driven by random mutation and natural selection, was made famous by Charles Darwin himself. When Darwin wrote his seminal ‘On the Origin of Species’, he specifically regarded gradualism as a cornerstone of his theory.
In his words:
“As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden
modifications; it can only act by very short and slow steps.” — Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859)
And again, he wrote:
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
***From these quotes, it is evident that Darwin sets a clear testable boundary for his theory: if gradualism fails to explain complexity, then natural selection collapses. This underscores how foundational gradualism was to his evolutionary framework.
However, rapid radiation theory suggests the opposite–that most species emerged in short bursts, not through gradual steady accumulation. If true, this directly undermines uniformitarian assumptions and raises further key questions about the plausibility of theorized evolutionary mechanisms to explain these observations. For instance:
“As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden
And again, he wrote:
“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.”
***From these quotes, it is evident that Darwin sets a clear testable boundary for his theory: if gradualism fails to explain complexity, then natural selection collapses. This underscores how foundational gradualism was to his evolutionary framework.
However, rapid radiation theory suggests the opposite–that most species emerged in short bursts, not through gradual steady accumulation. If true, this directly undermines uniformitarian assumptions and raises further key questions about the plausibility of theorized evolutionary mechanisms to explain these observations. For instance:
Q: Why do most species belong to a few clades, and why are such rapid speciation events said to be ‘rare’ yet dominant?
Intelligent Design theory presents a predictive contrast, as rapid radiation aligns more naturally with the idea of front-loaded potential or purposeful diversification.
Intelligent Design theory presents a predictive contrast, as rapid radiation aligns more naturally with the idea of front-loaded potential or purposeful diversification.
*If life was designed with an embedded capacity to adapt and flourish in new environments, then bursts of speciation would reflect activation of latent, in-built design, not random chance.
Another example is found in the commentary of the same article on ScienceDaily, where the researchers stated:
“’Rapid radiations’ of species are thought to occur when a new ecological niche opens up: for example, when a flock of grassquit birds dispersed from Central America to the virgin territory of the Galápagos Islands approximately 2.5 million years ago to diversify into the famous Darwin’s finches; or when an evolutionary innovation like powered flight prompted the radiation of bats 50 million years ago.”
Let’s deconstruct this reasoning: While on the one hand, the authors find that short bursts of speciation fully account for the vast majority of known species, on the other hand, they appeal to evolutionary processes and timelines as somehow (miraculously) explaining the origins of massive engineering wonders such as flight in bats!
Q: Who Is the Innovator?
Inserting the word ‘innovation’ is quite telling, as it implicitly admits an attribution of evolution as an ‘innovator’!
Retention of Evolutionary Assumptions…
While Invoking Miraculous Thinking!
Although the authors acknowledge rapid speciation, they retain an evolutionary framework in their core assumptions throughout the paper. For example, the article repeatedly invokes the alleged antiquity of species—hundreds of millions of years old—in at least three separate instances.Another example is found in the commentary of the same article on ScienceDaily, where the researchers stated:
“’Rapid radiations’ of species are thought to occur when a new ecological niche opens up: for example, when a flock of grassquit birds dispersed from Central America to the virgin territory of the Galápagos Islands approximately 2.5 million years ago to diversify into the famous Darwin’s finches; or when an evolutionary innovation like powered flight prompted the radiation of bats 50 million years ago.”
Let’s deconstruct this reasoning: While on the one hand, the authors find that short bursts of speciation fully account for the vast majority of known species, on the other hand, they appeal to evolutionary processes and timelines as somehow (miraculously) explaining the origins of massive engineering wonders such as flight in bats!
Q: Who Is the Innovator?
Inserting the word ‘innovation’ is quite telling, as it implicitly admits an attribution of evolution as an ‘innovator’!
Humans require intelligent minds simply to copy these inventions into our own technologies, for the engineering of flight involves significant irreducible complexity—the interdependence of numerous systems, without which functionality would collapse.
Humans require intelligent minds to merely copy these inventions into our own technologies, as the engineering of flight ability entails significant irreducible complexity – the interdependence of numerous systems, without which, functionality would fail.
Q: Is it not a conundrum then to attribute such innovative power to the blind force of evolution, which depends on the ‘selection’ of random mutations to somehow work together to invent powered flight? The appeal to Darwinism offers no real explanatory power for these observations.
the validity of uniformitarian assumptions. The revelation that most of Earth’s species stem from a handful of explosions invites us to reconsider the oft propagated story about life’s gradual unfolding. If biodiversity arises not through slow, steady change but through explosive bursts triggered by pivotal traits or ecological upheavals, then evolutionary theory must confront its own inherent contradictions.
Q: Is it not a conundrum then to attribute such innovative power to the blind force of evolution, which depends on the ‘selection’ of random mutations to somehow work together to invent powered flight? The appeal to Darwinism offers no real explanatory power for these observations.
Philosophical Implications
Wein and Moen’s study once again reinforces findings that challenge
Q: Would this mounting evidence against gradualism—the very test Darwin sought to falsify his theory—cause it to ‘absolutely break down,’ in his own words?"
CEH/Dr. Sarah Buckland-Reynolds
