Page 28 - Research 1.0

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION - Diversification and Geographic
Distribution of Species.

As one travels from one isolated landmass, to another, one

sees patterns that fit with evolutionary theory. The mammals
populating the Australasian continental landmass that
included New Guinea and Tasmania as the ancient continent
called Sahul were quite different from those elsewhere in the
world. Prior to ancient man's arrival, the mammals populating
that landmass were virtually all Marsupials; kangaroos,
wombats, koalas, quolls, thylacenes, et al; found nowhere

else in the world. So too, were the egg laying Monotremes
(Platypus and Echidnas) also found nowhere else in the world.
Indeed, prior to the coming of humans that brought the dingo,
the only placental mammals were those that could swim there
(seal) and those that could fly there (bats). It is very
obvious that mammalian evolution took a quite different turn
in that isolated landmass since placental mammals diverged
from their non-placental forebears in the Early Cretaceous or
Late Jurassic. It remained isolated from all other eutherian
(placental) mammal migrations..

The almost universal absence of both native land mammals and
amphibians on isolated islands argues against a creation

event and those islands tell of a different evolutionary
history. Alfred Russel Wallace, who had independently arrived
at the same conclusion as Charles Darwin regarding natural
selection being the engine of evolution, spent many years
collecting biological specimens in the Amazon and later on
the Indonesian archipelago and New Guinea. What he discovered
was sometimes tremendous differences in the fauna of
neighboring islands and he discovered a pattern to the
distribution of species; those on the western side of a
hypothetical dividing line were identical or similar to,

mainland Asian species. Those on the eastern side of the
divide were more similar to those of Australasia, Australia
and New Guinea. This line, now known as the Wallace Line