The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

Lightner, J.K., and K. Anderson. 2018. The CRS eKINDS research initiative: Where we have been and where we are headed from here. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 185–190. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. THE CRS eKINDS RESEARCH INIATIVE: WHERE WE HAVE BEEN AND WHERE WE ARE HEADED FROM HERE Jean K. Lightner , 11 Meadowlawn Dr., Mentor, OH 44060, jklightner@gmail.com Kevin Anderson , Van Andel Creation Research Center, 6801 N. Hwy 89, Chino Valley, AZ 86323, anderson@crsvarc.com ABSTRACT The eKINDS research initiative began in 2016 in an effort to accelerate research on numerous outstanding questions related the diversification and speciation of plants and animals. The research encompasses three broad topics: a) identification of created kinds, b) identification of mechanisms that drive diversification and speciation within created kinds, and c) detailed analysis of individual created kinds in an attempt to propose a robust natural history that delineates key events as organisms reproduced and filled the earth following the time of the Flood. As part of the eKINDS project, a new statistical tool is being developed to take advantage of the steadily increasing pools of molecular data. It compares expressed proteins, which typically cluster organisms into discreet groups, suggesting that members of a group may belong to a single kind. This method has been applied to insects and fungi. Additionally, analysis has begun on primates and other vertebrates. There are plans to use it on more taxa as proteomic data accumulates. The eKINDS project is also investigating the possibility that designed mechanisms exist for the generation of adaptive alleles. Some work has been done to explore the significance of founding events in post-Flood diversification and speciation. Other mechanisms are slated to be explored as well. Several avian kinds are being investigated in an attempt to piece together key aspects of their natural history. Our hope is that, by God’s grace, more researchers will be mobilized to address these critical questions so we, as believers, can make substantial contributions to science and demonstrate the robustness of the biblical creation model. KEY WORDS Speciation, diversification, adaptation, evolution, post-Flood, baraminology, mutation, eKINDS Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 185 INTRODUCTION The acronym eKINDS stands for examination of kinds in natural diversification and speciation . This Creation Research Society (CRS) research initiative was developed to help resolve numerous outstanding questions surrounding the post-Flood repopulation of the earth by plants and animals. These questions can be broadly grouped as follows: 1) Which organisms today are descended from the same created kind?, 2) What mechanisms are involved in creating the diversity that we see within created kinds?, and 3) Can we trace the natural history of various animal kinds as they moved from the Ark and repopulated the earth? While considerable work has been done in the last decade to estimate the kinds of animals that were present on the Ark, it has highlighted the reality that there is still considerably more work yet to do (Wood 2008; Lightner 2012; Lightner 2013; Hennigan 2013a, b; Hennigan 2014 a, b; Ross 2014; Hennigan 2015). Hybridization between two species is generally considered to be the most reliable way to determine that both descended from the same kind. This is because reproduction is an enormously complex process that requires compatibility on multiple levels, suggesting that reproduction could not occur between two organisms unless they were specifically designed for this possibility. Thus, hybridization indicates holistic similarity (continuity) suggesting both species belong to the same kind (Wood et al. 2003; Lightner et al. 2011). Hybrid data has shown continuity between different genera in a family, and in some cases between multiple families to the point of showing continuity in an entire order (Lightner 2012; Lightner 2013). For a variety of reasons, hybrid data may be unavailable for specific organisms. The absence of hybrid data, itself, does nothing to indicate if a species belongs to a particular kind. Sometimes there is a lack of mating opportunity, or hybridization may occur but we have not observed it. However, it is also recognized that the ability to hybridize can be lost over time. This can be due to regulatory shifts, as seen in the house mouse (Larson et al. 2016), and may affect life history traits including food preferences, as seen in mosquitoes (Byrne and Nichols 1999). To help ascertain the baramin status of species when hybridization data is not available, statistical tests, i.e., Baraminic Distance Correlation (BDC) and Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), have been developed. There is clearly value to these tests. However, as with any statistical method, they have their limitations (Lightner et al. 2011). Most notably, they rely on the availability of suitable datasets for analysis. Many of the recent works attempting to estimate the number of kinds in various vertebrate taxa have defaulted to the level of the family simply because insufficient data was available to make a case for the kind to fall elsewhere along current taxonomic boundaries (Lightner 2012; Lightner 2013; Hennigan 2013a, b; Hennigan 2014 a, b; Ross 2014; Hennigan 2015). Since molecular data is rapidly accumulating for many species, the eKINDS project is sponsoring research to develop a statistical tool that can use this data to make initial estimates of created kinds. This approach