Creation science validates evolution, too

Just a super-quick note about an interesting paper in the newest edition of Journal of Theoretical Biology: "Using creation science to demonstrate evolution: application of a creationist method for visualizing gaps in the fossil record to a phylogenetic study of coelurosaurian dinosaurs", by Phil Senter.

At first that sounds like something got though that shouldn't have, doesn't it? Well, not to worry, the editor's career is safe. Rather than demonstrating the capability of creation science (101), it applies a method used by some creationists to fossil data, and ends up demonstrating that non-avian dinosaurs and early birds and genetically related.

Abstract:

It is important to demonstrate evolutionary principles in such a way that they cannot be countered by creation science. One such way is to use creation science itself to demonstrate evolutionary principles. Some creation scientists use classic multidimensional scaling (CMDS) to quantify and visualize morphological gaps or continuity between taxa, accepting gaps as evidence of independent creation and accepting continuity as evidence of genetic relatedness. Here, I apply CMDS to a phylogenetic analysis of coelurosaurian dinosaurs and show that it reveals morphological continuity between Archaeopteryx, other early birds, and a wide range of nonavian coelurosaurs. Creation scientists who use CMDS must therefore accept that these animals are genetically related. Other uses of CMDS for evolutionary biologists include the identification of taxa with much missing evolutionary history and the tracing of the progressive filling of morphological gaps in the fossil record through successive years of discovery.

Somehow I imagine that "creation scientists who use CMDS" was already a very small group, and that it's bound to get even smaller now, assuming that they ever read this paper (which is a big assumption).

Reference:
SENTER, P. (2010). Using creation science to demonstrate evolution: application of a creationist method for visualizing gaps in the fossil record to a phylogenetic study of coelurosaurian dinosaurs Journal of Evolutionary Biology DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02039.x