Page 135 - A Definitive Reply to Evolutionist Propagand‪a

HARUN YAHYA

he February 22, 2003, edition of New Scientist mag-
azine carried an article called "Squirrels evolve as
the world heats up." The story maintains that for
the first time a mammal has been shown to be
T evolving in order to adapt to climate changes. It is
described in New Scientist how some living things migrate to cold,
polar regions in order to avoid the effects of global warming. The
claim is then made that instead of migrating, squirrels have geneti-
cally adapted to climate changes. Yet, New Scientist is in error: there
is no evolution in the changes of which it speaks.
The species of squirrel used in the study is the red squirrel,
which lives in Canada. University of Alberta biologist Andrew
McAdam and his colleagues spent 10 years studying the time of the
year at which squirrels give birth and recording their findings. The
researchers observed three to four squirrel generations during the
10-year period, and stated that present-day squirrels give birth on
average 18 days earlier than their great, great-grandmothers. In this
way, squirrels react to climatic warming by giving birth an average
of six days earlier a year.
Evolutionists regard this change as "evolution" and maintain
that this can be seen not just in the squirrels' behavior, but also in
their genetic material. Yet, this claim is not a valid one, because the
researchers have not directly observed any genetic change. The
basis of this claim is an analytical method based on statistics. The
New Scientist article says:
The researchers used a statistical technique to work out how much
of the change is down to evolution and how much is due to indi-
vidual flexibility. They calculated the normal variation in birth
dates for each generation and then identified squirrels that were
giving birth much earlier than average. If the parents had the same
trait, it was likely to have been inherited. The technique, which is
commonly used in agriculture, attributes about 15 percent of the
shift towards early birth to evolution.

These statistical analyses provide no evidence of evolution. The

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