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Evolving Embryo Drawings at London’s The Science Museum Website

Some Darwinists have recently tried to rewrite history, claiming that no one uses Haeckel’s embryo drawings anymore. But on December 2, 2006, Truth in Science, a British group which supports intelligent design, reported that London’s The Science Museum had colorized versions of Haeckel’s embryo drawings on their website. Before that time, the museum’s website had used drawings that looked like this:

oldhaeckelcolor.jpg

(Graphic provided courtesy of David Anderson of BCSE-Revealed.) Clearly Haeckel’s faked drawings were promoted by the museum as of December, 2006 as evidence for evolution. In fact, Truth in Science reported that the caption also read, “It seems that an efficient way of marking out the body plan arose millions of years ago, and has remained virtually unchanged throughout animal evolution.”

About ten days later, Truth in Science again reported that the museum had removed the drawings and replaced them with photographs. As of January 13, 2007, the photograph used by London’s The Science Museum used looked like this:

weirdembryophoto.jpg


Now, as of February 20, 2007, they use black and white embryo drawings which look like this:

newembryopic.jpg


(Original graphic from http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/lifecycle/24.asp.)

What’s going on here? Originally, The Science Museum had colorized versions of Haeckel’s fraudulent embryo drawings posted on their website as a line of evidence supporting evolution. Next, Truth in Science posted documentation that the embryo drawings were “one of the most famous fakes in biology.” Then the museum removed the faked drawings and replaced them with photographs. The upper caption remained the same throughout the entire episode, and the lower caption underwent only trivial changes, as it now reads “At early stages in their development cat, bat and human embryos share remarkable similarities.” Clearly London’s The Science Museum changed their Haeckel’s embryo drawings graphic in direct response to Truth in Science’s protests against using the fake drawings.

Casey Luskin

Associate Director and Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture
Casey Luskin is a geologist and an attorney with graduate degrees in science and law, giving him expertise in both the scientific and legal dimensions of the debate over evolution. He earned his PhD in Geology from the University of Johannesburg, and BS and MS degrees in Earth Sciences from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied evolution extensively at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. His law degree is from the University of San Diego, where he focused his studies on First Amendment law, education law, and environmental law.

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