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

is also clear discontinuity between humans and all other mammals, including primates (Fig.1). These types of gaps are not predicted if all life shares common ancestry. It is consistent with the view held by many creationists that discontinuity should be evident, especially between separately created kinds. It is fully consistent with the belief that humans were separately created in the image of God, and should not be too surprising given that a significant number of genes are either unique to humans or distinct in humans (Genesis 1:26-28; 2:7; Stahl and Wainszelbaum 2009; Tomkins 2016). It is worth noting that the eminent entomologist Erich Wasmann (1859-1931), who rejected universal common ancestry, used detailed morphological comparisons to conclude that Termitoxeniidae (now placed in Phoridae), Muscidae and Phoridae are from the same “branch of Diptera stock.” (Wasmann 1910, p. 383). This is consistent with the Brachyceran cluster found in our study that includes species from Muscidae and Phoridae, families that are currently placed in two different sections in Brachycera: “Aschiza” and Schizophora (though sources vary since insect taxonomy is in flux). Superficially, large baramins encompassing suborders or even orders of insects may seem in conflict with accumulating data on taxonomically restricted genes, or orphan genes, which creationists have suggested may help delineate created kinds (Tomkins 2013). This is especially relevant given that many taxonomically restricted genes were found in ants, members of the insect order Hymenoptera (Simola et al. 2013). All hymenopteran species included in our study, which included ants, bees, and wasps, grouped in a single cluster. As it turns out, one needs to use taxonomically restricted essential genes to determine if two species can be part of the same family tree (Tan 2015). This works well when the assumption is that the Lightner and Anderson ◀ The CRS eKINDS research initiative ▶ 2018 ICC 187 Figure 1. A heat map, or diagram indicating similarity of expressed “orthologous” proteins in various vertebrates, with an invertebrate nematode (worm) as an outgroup. The term orthologous is used for convenience to indicate proteins of similar sequence; the assumption they are derived from a common ancestor is not retained in interpreting the results.  Each species listed on the right is also listed at the bottom. The nearly white individual boxes running on a diagonal from the lower left to upper right are where each species is compared to itself. They are very light colored because they share all their “orthologous” proteins with themselves. When comparing any individuals, the lighter the color, the greater the similarity; the darker the color, the greater the dissimilarity. Note that the birds in this study form a cluster (with a possible subtle division within them). Humans strongly cluster together. The great apes, which evolutionists claim are our closest ancestors, do not cluster with human, but instead are found in a large cluster between Old World and New World monkeys. In the row containing the three humans ( Homo sapiens , Denisova, and Neanderthal), the dark regions indicate we are most dissimilar to invertebrates, as compared to birds. The data indicates that we share a fair amount of similarity to other mammals, but clearly are distinct from them.