Siteadmin, Check users, nsTeam1RO, nsTeam1RW, nsTeam1_talkRO, nsTeam1_talkRW, oversight, Administrators
30,650
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 11:
Line 11: − − ==Evolution== − − Molecular and morphological evidence point to [[hyrax|hyraxes]] and [[Sirenia|sirenians]] (sea cows and manatees) as the closest living relatives of elephants<ref> Hidenori Nishihara et al. A Retroposon Analysis of Afrotherian Phylogeny. ''Molecular Biology and Evolution'' '''22''': 1823-1833,</ref> these groups are hypothesized to have shared a common ancestor approximately 50 million years ago. The three extant species of elephant are sole survivors of a much more diverse Proboscidian fauna with some 170 described [[fossil]] species and including species of [[mammoth]] from [[North America]] and the massive ''Deinotherium'', the second largest land mammal that ever lived, which sported two downward facing tusks. − − ===Creationist objections === − − According to the young earth creationist view Elephants were created on the sixth day with the other beasts of the earth (Genesis 1:24-25) and survived the [[Great Flood]] on [[Noah's Ark]] (Genesis 7:7-8). Some creationists are incredulous to how species as apparently different as hyraxes and sirenians could be related to elephants. This objection fails to take into account the vast periods of independent evolution taken by each lineage since they last shared a common ancestor - some 50 million years. Additionally evolutionary theory predicts that intermediate forms between related groups are unlikely to be found contemporaneously as more advanced forms will out compete and replace such intermediates (this is an argument first put forward by Darwin himself.) <ref> Darwin, Charles (1859), ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'', London: John Murray</ref>. Some evolutionary biologists suggest elephants may have evolved from water living mammals much like modern hyraxes which developed trunks to use as snorkels (as modern elephants, do when swimming). − − In the past, there were many different types of elephants like [[mammoth|mammoths]] and [[mastodon|mastodons]], but most young earth creation scientists say that these species never made it onto the Ark and that these species{{fact}}. Scientists and scholars agree that Noah could not have trekked all the way to the arctic to collect a pair of mastodons before the earth was flooded, and they all drowned.{{fact}} [[Polar bears|Polar bear]] and [[penguins]] survived because both are excellent swimmers and could have swam to floating glaciers and ridden them through the [[Great Flood]]. This fact presumably means aquatic animals such as [[Polar bears|Polar bear]], [[penguins]] and fish were not destroyed in the great flood and as such are still evil.
remove poorly written debate
Elephants (today generally Indian, but historically African elephants also) have been used as beasts of burden and draught animals, as mounts in processions and in war (notably by [[Hannibal]]), playing [[polo]], and as [[circus]] performers.
Elephants (today generally Indian, but historically African elephants also) have been used as beasts of burden and draught animals, as mounts in processions and in war (notably by [[Hannibal]]), playing [[polo]], and as [[circus]] performers.
==Elephants in the Bible==
==Elephants in the Bible==