Response
God did not create animals in their present locations. Animals dispersed after the Flood when the Ark landed, and some migrated to the Americas, Africa, Australia, and all over the world. Partly due to the post-Flood environment and party due to chance, different animals ended up in different locations.
As a side note, although evolutionists try to point to biogeography as evidence for evolution, our position as biblical Christians actually makes much more sense. For instance, evolutionists have to say that the placental-mammals in the Americas such as the flying squirrel, anteater, and mole evolved independently of marsupials in Australia like the sugar glider, banded anteater, and mole, even though they look (and act) so strikingly similar. 3 4 A much more reasonable explanation is that God created these similar but different animals, and after the Flood when the animals dispersed, the marsupials ended up in Australia, while the other similar animals ended up in the Americas, perhaps by a mixture of chance and the environment distribution at that time.
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Sources
Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why Evolution Is True. New York: Viking.
Notes
- Coyne, 2009, p. 91: “Why would a creator put plants that are fundamentally different, but look so similar, in diverse areas of the world that seem ecologically identical? Wouldn’t it make more sense to put the same species of plants in areas with the same type of soil and climate?” ↩
- Coyne, 2009, p. 92: “No creationist, whether of the Noah’s Ark variety or otherwise, has offered a credible explanation for why different types of animals have similar forms in different places. All they can do is invoke the inscrutable whims of the creator.” ↩
- Coyne, 2009, p. 93 ↩
- Coyne, 2009, p. 92: “The most famous example of different species filling similar roles involves the marsupial mammals, now found mainly in Australia (the Virginia opossum is a familiar exception), and placental mammals, which predominate elsewhere in the world. The two groups show important anatomical differences, most notably in their reproductive systems (almost all marsupials have pouches and give birth to very undeveloped young, while placentals have placentas that enable young to be born at a more advanced stage). Nevertheless, in other ways some marsupials and placentals are astonishingly similar. There are burrowing marsupial moles that look and act just like placental moles, marsupial mice that resemble placental mice, the marsupial suger glider, which glides from tree to tree just like a flying squirrel, and marsupial anteaters, which do exactly what South American anteaters do.” ↩