Cheetahs Prospered in North America

If evolutionists can say cheetahs migrated over continents, why can’t Biblical creationists say the same?

Here’s a cat’s tale: cheetahs evolved in North America. Some of them crossed over the Bering Strait into east Asia. They gradually made their way all the way across Asia to the Middle East and down into Africa, where they remain exclusively today. This all happened in the last 100,000 years. Any takers?

Cat Gene

That’s the story being seriously told by Science Daily and PhysOrg. Evidence? Genome studies. Russian geneticists claim there were two genetic bottlenecks, leaving today’s cheetahs severely inbred, despite their world-champion status as runners and hunters. But how much can be inferred from the genes of a living cat, especially one from Namibia named Chewbacca? The scientists discern the face of Darwin in the genetic crystal ball. Look at the story they built out of it: “This gave further insight into the species evolutionary history and the breadth of genome impoverishment, which elevates juvenile mortality, causes extreme abnormalities in sperm development and increases vulnerability to infectious disease outbreaks.”

American cheetahs may have been more like pumas before they started their global evolutionary trek. So the story goes; the article treats this as scientific fact, without mentioning that the puma-parent hypothesis is doubted by some evolutionists.  Wikipedia mentions a possible reverse hypothesis with cheetahs evolving in the Old World first. Or, maybe it was some kind of “convergent evolution.” Can that account for the specialized traits that allow cheetahs to be the fastest runners in the world? Some have been clocked at 75 mph.

Dog Tooth

When there’s controversy, it behooves reporters to mention other possibilities rather than to present one hypothesis as gospel truth. Another article on North American mammals at PhysOrg talks about hyena-toothed evolutionary ecology, based on some limb bones found in Wyoming. That article shows an inkling of humility, quoting a paleontologist saying the fossil provides “an indication that there is still a lot to learn about hyaenodontid evolution.” Could it be possible to learn that they didn’t evolve? Extinction, remember, is not evolution. Evidence from the teeth suggests they were successful in several different habitats.

Evolutionists mock creation explanations for their theories of animal migration after the Flood. They forget that their own theories face similar challenges. Evolutionists have even proposed that blind “worm lizards” that live underground, found on every continent, rode rafts of vegetation across the oceans, as did some mammals (4/27/15). So no more mocking. Creationists believe cheetahs spread across continents, too, but they don’t think it took 100,000 years for the cats to do it. They are fast runners, aren’t they? The challenge for evolutionists should be, why did it take so long?