Researchers have concluded that the toads “evolved longer legs to conquer new territory to get better food supplies.”

            Reuters News Service recently reported that Cane Toads in Australia have developed longer legs to enable them to invade more territory. The toads were introduced into Australia 70 years ago in an effort to control insect pests in sugar cane fields. They have become a threat to native species, spreading across one million square kilometers in the north and east of the country. They have become “one of the continent's worst environmental disasters.”

            A report in the journal Nature characterized the current population of toads as having “longer legs than toads in older populations.” Researchers have concluded that the toads “evolved longer legs to conquer new territory to get better food supplies.”

            “Evolved” longer legs?—The only thing this study has in common with evolution is that the research is being conducted in an area about 60 km east of the northern city of Darwin, Australia.

            This short-legged to long-legged Cane Toad population shift is the latest example “microevolution”—small changes in the gene pool caused by adaptation to, in this case, an environmental stressor.

            Microevolution is often cited as evidence that Charles Darwin was right. The oft-cited classical example of Peppered Moths changing color on tree bark darkened by soot from the combustion of coal in England during the Industrial Revolution to better camouflage themselves from predatory birds is another such attempt. Other examples can be found throughout the literature. The evolution page of Berkley.edu includes House sparrows adapting to the climate of North America, mosquitoes having evolved in response to global warming, and insects developing resistance to pesticides.

            Note that in all of these examples, no new species resulted; House sparrows are still House sparrows, mosquitoes have remained mosquitoes and the insects that survived our best attempts to eradicate them are the same pests, the only difference being we can’t get rid of them by the old fashioned methods. (Why the housefly has not evolved a defense against a well-timed fly swatter still remains a mystery to scientists.)  

            In the case of the Cane Toads, they haven’t sprouted wings or grown fins. They are still amphibians and still toads. In fact, they are still Cane Toads. Nonetheless, the change is being cited by some as modern-day evidence for evolution.

            Darwin proposed that microevolution over long periods of time led to macroevolution and, ultimately, new species appeared in a process termed gradualism. But this is science fiction. There is no evidence for it in the fossil record or currently in any living organism. This dearth has led evolutionists to counter with an alternate explanation; punctuated equilibrium.

            Originally proposed by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, punctuated equilibrium was offered as a criticism of traditional Darwinism. Eldredge and Gould observed gaps in the fossil record and concluded that evolution did not take place gradually but in fits and starts.

            Strata of rock correlate to epochs in the Earth’s past. The fossil record shows layers in which there have been no changes to fossils (equilibrium) interspersed or “punctuated” by layers of rock containing fossils that show sudden changes; extinction followed with replacement by a new species. Principia Cybernetica puts it this way: “Instead of a slow, continuous progression, the evolution of life on Earth seems more like the life of a soldier: long periods of boredom interrupted by rare moments of terror.”

            Punctuated equilibrium is a convenient explanation for the lack of evidence of gradualism in the fossil record. It amounts to crossing one’s fingers in the hopes of explaining the large jumps observed in the evolutionary ladder. 

            But Cane Toads suddenly finding they have the ability to jump and run like Olympian Decathloners is evidence not of evolution but of design, programmed into the toad’s DNA. Such flexibility allows for adaptation to change. It is no more proof for evolution than our ability to fight off and develop resistance to the common cold.

            If one were to make a case for punctuated equilibrium among the Cane Toad, a group of the short-legged variant would have to spawn a generation of Rockettes, those long-legged, high-kicking chorus line dancers that appear at Radio City Music Hall in New York City during the holidays.

            No such evidence has been found near Darwin, Australia. Researchers are however continuing to look. Don’t hold your breath. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist.