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

Thompson, C., and T.C. Wood. 2018. A survey of Cenozic mammal baramins. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism , ed. J.H. Whitmore, pp. 217–221. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Creation Science Fellowship. A SURVEY OF CENOZOIC MAMMAL BARAMINS C. Thompson , Core Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1076, Dayton, TN 37321, info@coresci.org Todd Charles Wood , Core Academy of Science, P.O. Box 1076, Dayton, TN 37321, info@coresci.org ABSTRACT To expand the sample of statistical baraminology studies, we identified 80 datasets sampled from 29 mammalian orders, from which we performed 82 separate analyses. We analyzed each dataset with standard statistical baraminology techniques: baraminic distance correlation (BDC) and multidimensional scaling (MDS). We evaluated the BDC and MDS results from each character set for potential continuity and discontinuity. We found evidence of holobaramins in 57 of the 82 analyses (69.5%). Of the remaining character sets, three showed evidence of monobaramins and 22 (26.8%) were inconclusive. These results are consistent with previous efforts to test the discontinuity hypothesis, which found that a majority of character sets showed evidence of holobaramins. Tentative holobaramins represent 57 taxonomic groups, many of which have not been previously analyzed by statistical baraminology. Together with previously identified holobaramins, this study increases the number of putative mammal holobaramins to 64. KEY WORDS baramin, created kind, baraminology, mammal, Cenozoic, post-Flood, baraminic distance correlation (BDC), multidimensional scaling (MDS) Copyright 2018 Creation Science Fellowship, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA www.creationicc.org 217 INTRODUCTION The concept of the created kind—a group of modern species connected by common ancestry to a population created ex nihilo by God—has a long history in creationist thought. Initially suggested before the publication of Darwin’s Origin by scholars such as Linnaeus and Herbert, creationists throughout the twentieth century have endorsed the created kind as a contrast to species fixity (Wood 2008a). More recently, creationists have produced several large-scale estimates of mammalian created kinds (e.g., Wise 2009; Wood 2011; Lightner 2012). Although there has been much written about created kinds, statistical baraminology is a comparatively underserved field of research. Few created kinds have been established unequivocally using statistical studies, and even for those taxa which have been investigated, the datasets suitable for baraminological calculations and the reliability of the methods used have rarely been confirmed (Wood 2016a). Some outstanding questions include: • Are holobaramins marked by discontinuity with all other organisms, defined as “significant, holistic difference” (Wood et al. 2003)? • Is discontinuity detectable by current statistical baraminology methods? • What sorts of character or taxon samples are most suitable for statistical baraminology methods? Previously, Wood (2009) evaluated a collection of 73 baraminology analyses to answer some of these questions. Assuming that discontinuity would distinguish baramins approximately at the taxonomic level of family, he found 62% of analyses revealed discontinuity as predicted, although the fraction was not statistically significant. This project focused on the mammals of the Cenozoic, more than doubling the number of previous statistical baraminology studies. Mammals are particularly interesting to creationists because of the numerous stratomorphic series like the famous horse series and because of their affinity to humans. The primary purpose of this work is to provide a database of statistical baraminology studies for future meta-analyses to shed light on such pressing topics as post- Flood diversification, microevolution and speciation, biological imperfection, endemism, and biogeography. We here focus on the question of whether discontinuity distinguishes mammalian families from other similar families and secondarily on the question of what combination of characters and taxa yield successful baraminology studies. These new analyses represent a large-scale first approximation of baramins from at least 79 mammal families. MATERIALS AND METHODS We collected character sets from the published literature identified using Google Scholar searches. We selected matrices that primarily focused on a single family or collection of families. We excluded redundant datasets on the same taxa and from the same author(s), and we used the most recent version available. In deference to the baraminological emphasis on holistic similarity and difference, we preferred datasets that had more taxa, characters, or both. In three cases, the kangaroos (Macropodidae), the new world monkey family Cebidae, and the South American notoungulates Interatheriidae, two separate datasets were included for each, since in each case the character and taxon selections were sufficiently different to consider them separately. We also excluded datasets of cetaceans and hominins, in anticipation of forthcoming and more detailed analyses than this simple overview. Six character sets with members from multiple families (Ornithorhynchidae, Felidae, Plesiadapidae, Picrodontidae, Lemuridae, and Omomyidae) were subdivided to include only taxa from an ingroup family and the nearest outgroup clade, and these taxonomic subsets were examined individually rather than en masse . For consistency, all selected