How Did Worm Lizards Get Dispersed?
No, it's not a snake. No, it's not a worm, even though it burrows. It's called a worm lizard, or an amphisbaenian. It has the equipment of a lizard (teeth, eyes, certain scales, backbones and so on), so that's how it's classified. Even so, the specific order is being reconsidered, since they used to be setting up camp with Squamata (scaled lizards), but they may belong in a different classification. Not that they care, they'll go on about their business no matter what humans call them.
Aside from being a passel of classification hassle, these critters baffle evolutionists because of their wide dispersal (biogeography). Evolutionists thought that they were spread apart when the ancient supercontinent Pangaea broke up, but that idea has changed because observed evidence contradicts it. Although their circular reasoning and old earth dating assumptions are errant, they're catching on to ideas that biblical creationists have been putting forth for quite some time — land bridges, and floating on rafts of vegetation.
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| Two Iberian worm lizards / Image resized from original / Wikimedia Commons / Richard Avery |
Worm lizards, burrowing reptiles native to continents and islands around the globe, appear at about the same place in the fossil record all over the world, just above the K-T (Cretaceous-Paleogene, aka Cretaceous-Tertiary) boundary. These creatures are not particularly mobile, so how did they get there? The solution to this biogeographical mystery is startling to evolutionists but supports an idea long held by many Bible-believing scientists.To read the rest, click on "Oceanic Dispersal Rafted Worm Lizards Around the World".
This map [shown in article linked below] presents the evolutionary view of how many millions of years ago worm lizards, after supposedly evolving in North America, arrived in distant parts of the world on floating mats of vegetation. This replaces the earlier notion that worm lizards were distributed throughout the world over millions of years when the supercontinent Pangaea presumably broke apart. However, models consistent with biblical history explain the presence of worm lizards in their many locations past and present without invoking millions of years or any evolutionary claims.