Mules are remarkable animals. The hybrid combination of a female horse and a male donkey, the mule, has been in service to mankind since ancient times. They were first mentioned in Mesopotamian writings from 3,000 BC and are mentioned several times in the Bible. It could be said that, in large part, mules built modern society by bearing the burden of construction, agriculture, transportation, and war, where literally millions of mules lost their lives on the World War I battlefields of Europe. Even today, the world population of mules exceeds 10 million, with the overwhelming majority still providing the power and bearing the burdens required in agriculture in parts of the developing world. Mexico’s current mule population, for instance, is 3.3 million.
Mules, however, are remarkable in another way as well. They possess an odd number of chromosomes. Their parent horses have 64 chromosomes in 32 pairs, while their parent donkeys have 62 chromosomes in 31 pairs, resulting in mules having an odd number of chromosomes, with one chromosome unpaired. As a result, mules are sterile and cannot reproduce: not with each other, nor with other horses or donkeys. They are F1 sterile hybrids. That being the case, there is nowhere for the species to go. I say all of that, of course, for a particular reason. It turns out that chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes in 24 pairs, while humans have 46 chromosomes in 23 pairs. Evolutionary scientists argue that at some point millions of years ago, there had to have been the first hybridchimp-manspecies.Although there is no compelling evidence in the fossil record for the missing link between chimpanzees and humans ever having existed, evolutionists are quite certain in their speculative interpretation that it did. However, a hybrid chimp-man, just as in the case of the mule, would possess 47 chromosomes in 23 pairs with one unpairedchromosomeleftover.Now, observation tells us that even if there were chimp-man hybrids millions of years ago, they would not have been abletoreproducewiththeirownkind (or any kind for that matter), nor could they reproduce with chimps from whence they came. They, too, would have been F1 sterile hybrids that could never reproduce, thereby preventing them from populating the world.
Nevertheless, to overcome this roadblock on evolution’s journey from chimpanzee to human, Darwinists offer a grand solution. The question, however, is this: Is their theory true? It is suggested that rather than the first human being a sterile hybrid with one extra chromosome, a head-to-head fusion of two chimpanzeechromosomesmusthave occurred, thereby forming a single chromosome from the two. The remnants of this theorized fusion, it is claimed, can be observed in human chromosome 2. However, several reasons suggest that such a fusion of chromosomes never occurred. First, since all chromosomes begin and end with telomeres, which are functionless, one would expect the alleged fusion site to show a longer telomere fusion, but it does not. The alleged fusion site is located directly in the middle of a functional gene responsible for a host of activities, rather than the remnant of a fusion event. Second, while chromosomes have telomeric regions at the ends, the central portions are called centromeres. When two chromosomes fuse, the resulting sequence contains two centromeres instead of one. As a result of the fusion event, one of the two centromeres appears scrambled and becomes nonfunctional. However, the section of the chromosome where the now scrambled centromere is supposed to be located is found in the middle of a functional gene. Third, the alleged fusion, in general, lacks the characteristics of a fusion event. For one, all known fusion sites involve satellite DNA and breaks near the centromeres. However, there is no sign of satellite DNA,whichisalwayspresentatconfirmed fusion sites. Sure enough, the allegedfusionsiteonhumanchromosome 2 does not show any of these characteristics. Perhaps even more unlikely is the requirement that a fusion event occur simultaneously in two individuals of opposite sexes, and that they then reproduce their new kind. And on and on the list of reasons why the theorized fusion of two chimp chromosomes is highly improbable.
Finally, fusions are exceedingly rare events, thanks in large part to a highly specialized protein that actively blocks them. While the function of this protein is to prevent linear chromosomes from fusing end-to-end in a circle, it also prevents the precise fusion events that evolutionists theorize occurred at human chromosome 2. All told it seems to me that the hypothesis that two chimpanzee chromosomes fused to form human chromosome 2 is not the best explanation of the observed data. In fact, the evidence suggests that the fusion most likely never occurred. So, we have come full circle. If no fusion occurred, then the best explanation is that humans did not descend from chimpanzees but rather were created uniquely separate from the animal kingdom and in the image of the One who created all men. Until next time, the question remains: Is God dead?
Gloria in excelsis Deo! Ty B. Kerley, DMin., is an ordained minister who teaches Christian apologetics, and relief preaches in Southern Oklahoma. Dr. Kerley and his wife Vicki are members of the Waurika church of Christ, and live in Ardmore. You can contact him at: dr.kerley@isGoddead.com.