How about that… a creature that is transmutating right in front of you? The Flightless Cormorant is a true icon of Evolution… I’m not sure that Darwin even took much notice of this animal during his Galapagos travels. It’s possible that by the time the bird’s biological realities were analyzed, Natural Selection was already set in stone in the minds of scientists. In any case, scientifically speaking, we could say that the Flightless Cormorant is evidence that animals can evolve… and/or are evolving!
Creationists interject a thought, however… they say that this is not really proof of evolution, but of “de-volution”. Creationists believe in “devolution”… but not E-volution. They probably wouldn’t believe in “devolution” if it weren’t for the Flightless Cormorant. It’s the only bird in its family, a family of fast-flying birds, that does not fly, and it only lives in a few chosen spots on the Galapagos Islands. It’s amazing that die-hard Creationists could even entertain the idea that creatures “devolve”, just because of this island bird with scarcely a respectable population… luckily, for their peace of mind, though, the Flightless Cormorant still fits into their new and revised model of Life on Earth, which conveniently includes this possibility of devolution. I’m not worried. Just as long as they can dodge that old Evil-ution, they’ll be OK…
So why is the Flightless Cormorant supposedly “devolving”? Well, because it had no predators on the islands until Man introduced domesticated animals. Centuries passed and what today are Flightless Cormorants —but were then regular ol’ Cormorants— did not need to fly away from anything, and could just as well concentrate their energy (and gene pools) to seeking food from the sea. Time passed and the animal physically started changing. Offspring began not only losing the “ability” to fly (baby Cormorants were no longer being taught how to do it), they were also physically losing their wings. We can see today how these scarcely-feathered stubs could serve no purpose even if Cormorants wanted to use them. And then, if we look at penguins… well, it just seems like one is the answer to the other, right?
So even if evolution is still in the mind of the beholder, and not a proven objective truth, “devolution” is not… No one, not even Creationists, can deny that animals can change their physical form through time and adaptation and become something God didn’t create. And that’s all thanks to the Galapagos’ Flightless Cormorant…. Hurray for that! At least one of the many “volutions” is no longer just some cockamamie opinion.
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The following is the excerpt from creation.com in which the mere existence of the Flightless Cormorant brings a new theory into the light: The Theory of Devolution…
“We agree with Darwin and Dawkins that flightless birds (at least most of them) descended from flying birds, losing their ability to fly. Once again, this is post-Fall devolution, not evolution. If Dawkins could show creatures acquiring the power of flight (or sight), then this might count as evidence for evolution; but loss of flight (or sight) does not. The argument might impress Dawkins’ gullible choir in the Church of Saint Darwin, but it should not convince anyone who does not already have a religious commitment to naturalism (materialism) and who cares to think about it.
I like birds