Creationism and Baraminology Research News

One of the notable artifacts in the fossil record are the giant bugs that can be found. "300 million years ago" (according to the evolutionists - Creationists generally think these are flood sediments) in the fossil record we find dragonflies the size of hawks! In Biblical history, we also have the curious notion that people lived to very long ages. Could, perhaps, a similar cause be behind people having shorter lives and various organisms not growing to the size they used to?

The Creationist hypothesis has been that before the flood, the earth was very different. And so was the atmosphere. There have been many speculations about exactly how it was different, and what atmospheric/geologic structures made it this way. One of them is that pre-flood, the earth had a high concentration of oxygen and a much higher air pressure. Many creationists think that the reason hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be effective is because it simulates pre-flood conditions (Baby Jessica was treated in this manner, and this can be used as a treatment for diabetic ulcers). I have heard that it was specifically the oxygen therapy that saved her foot from being amputated, but cannot find a reliable source for it. One creationist, for instance, invented a small hyperbaric biosphere chamber. You can see a summary of research results here and here, though I don't know of anyplace where these have been published. Basically, things grew bigger and lived longer.

This idea is now receiving confirmation from this recent study (lay overview here). The basics is that:

The x-ray scans revealed that as beetles become larger, tracheae take up proportionally more room in their bodies because they need to be longer and wider to deliver enough oxygen. This, in turn, inhibits growth by crowding other organs.

The tracheae in the larger beetles took up 20 percent more room than in smaller beetles.

The area where the body and legs meet is particularly limiting, because that opening can only get so big, Harrison noted.

In the smallest beetle, tracheae take up 2 percent of the region, compared with 18 percent in the largest.

Using that information, Harrison estimated that the maximum beetle size under current oxygen levels would be about six inches (15 centimeters).

That coincides roughly with the largest known living beetle, the Titanic longhorn.

So, could the change in oxygen levels, pressure, and other factors account for both the size of insects and increased life span of humans? This is definitely an area open to further Creation research.

Hat Tip to GlobeLens for alerting me to the research.