Sea Anemones: Complex Simple Creatures

Further study continually brings to light new facts that call into question evolutionary assumptions about the relative complexity of “lower” and “advanced” animals. In this case, sea anemones.

The sea anemone’s complex DNA has evolutionists second guessing their assumptions about “lower” animals.

Sea anemones are considered very old forms of life because their behavior and anatomy are simple. Therefore, according to evolutionary thinking, they must have evolved much earlier than more complex life forms, such as fish or human beings.

It was a big surprise to discover that this creature has the largest mitochondrial DNA genome yet discovered—five times as large as the human counterpart.

Unlike the DNA in the nucleus of your cells, mitochondrial DNA is a short string of DNA stored in the cell’s energy factories. In most creatures that scientists have studied, the string is circular and relatively short. But the sea anemone’s is large and broken up into several linear fragments, instead of the circular shape.

“So far there’s no rhyme or reason to the anemones’ having this unusual mitochondrial genome,” said one researcher. Now evolutionary researchers have to figure out a way to explain such complexity. This design may not, in fact, be unique, since scientists have not studied the mitochondrial DNA of many sea creatures. The continual surprises are often more of a testament to our ignorance of basic biology than evidence for or against evolution.

From the perspective of biblical creation, surprises aren’t surprising. We would expect an all-wise Creator to tailor-make many extraordinary designs which expose our limited knowledge about biology and the range of God’s creative designs. But we never doubt that the separate kinds were created about 6,000 years ago.

Article was taken from Answers magazine, September–October, 2019, 20.