How did animals and insects get to remote islands?

It's an honest question that came to mind while watching the 'Mutiny' TV re-enactment of Bligh's voyage in a small boat the other night.
One of the guys in the show was bitten by a big centipede while camping on a Pacific island, and there were spiders everywhere too.
How did the creatures get onto islands in the Pacific, especially the remote islands thousands of miles from anywhere? Even some birds couldn't manage that distance.

 

The earth's plates move. Google "Pangaea" if you want to see how the globe used to look before things drifted apart, ran into each other creating huge mountains, etc. It is why marine fossils can be found nowhere near the oceans of today.

 

Interesting question. Fortunately, many dedicated scientists have done the hard work to test and analyze it. In short, the current explanations involve many factors, some overlapping, all of which comport with modern evolutionary theory and all of which are quite mundane. I suggest your read Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. It's an approachable lay read from an expert who writes quite well.

 

Like most modern Christians I already know evolution is true, BUT, it seems as if there's a guiding hand behind it, and some scientists say the same thing, for example-
"A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature."-Fred Hoyle (British astrophysicist): The Universe: Past and Present Reflections. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics: 20:16.

"As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency - or, rather, Agency - must be involved..."- George Greenstein (astronomer),1988. The Symbiotic Universe. New York: William Morrow, p.27

"It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe....The impression of design is overwhelming"- Paul Davies (British astrophysicist), The Cosmic Blueprint: New Discoveries in Nature's Creative Ability To Order the Universe. New York: Simon and Schuster, p.203.

Returning to my "remote islands" question, I once read an "explanation" by somebody who said the creatures "probably floated over from the mainland on driftwood".
I can buy that regarding micro-organisms, but I can't accept that's how bigger creatures like insects etc got across thousands of miles with nothing to eat and drink under a blazing sun and storms etc.

 

Of course, before you reached your conclusion, "I can't accept that's how bigger creatures like insects etc got across thousands of miles with nothing to eat and drink under a blazing sun and storms etc." your deep intellectual honesty and curiosity compelled you to do the following:

1) You identified which islands were originally part of a larger continent and which were never connected to a larger land mass but instead were formed in the ocean from volcanic activity ("Oceanic Islands").
2) You identified which insects actually live on the Oceanic Islands.
3) You researched the life cycles of those insects, including egg laying, germination time periods, diet, etc.
4) You researched the ways in which and the composition of things that can float and which can originate from nearby land masses.
5) You compared these floating items with the diet and life cycles of the insects in question, e.g., whether a mass of floating vegetation could provide needed sustenance for an adult insect.
6) You studied ocean currents to predict where such floating masses might originate and the time range such masses would likely take to get to a particular Oceanic Island.
7) You compared the genetics of the insects in question as well as the genetics of similar insects from the mainland.

Many actual scientists have actually done the hard work to answer the questions which arise around the above listed research. Not surprisingly, they reach a different conclusion that you do.

BTW, your quote mines are not relevant.

 

Hitched a ride with birds. It's how some man made ponds have fish in them after a few years. The eggs attach to long legged wading birds and are transferred.

 

That answer is going to depend on what organisms we're talking about and which islands. Centipedes lay their eggs in soil or rotten wood, and they can take anywhere from one to three months to hatch. It isn't hard to imagine a centipede laying eggs in a decaying crate or barrel that eventually washed up on an island. Spider life cycles are much more varied, so it would be harder to speculate without knowing more about the species in question.

 

Let's see...

Storms, shipping, flotsam, human immigration off the top of my head.

 

In my 13 years here you are as far as I can recall the first Christian to admit that evolution is true.

I would agree as I see the cosmos as deterministic, but as for what is the force behind determinism, that is open to interpretation.

The world of today is not the same as the world millions of years ago thus I assume that the same mechanism that spawned life in what we now know as North America is the same mechanism that spawned life in all corners of the globe. But as I am only assuming, I yield to what scientists argue.

 

Once you introduce an all-powerful being not bound by the laws of physics into the equation ... why would you bother to ask, "how" or "why" about anything?

 

At one time virtually all land was connected. Over many millions of years the plates drifted apart - and still are, which can be measured each year. That is why different continents have similar but unique species from others due to how long they have been separates as each species evolves suitable to their particular environment.

 

The Book of Genesis Chapter 1 is a story of evolution, though defined in days.

 

Thanks for the replies so far guys, I accept some creatures got to the islands in various natural ways, I think what I need to do is randomly pick a small remote island in the middle of the south pacific then google away to find out exactly what creatures are on it, then go through them with a fine tooth comb one by one to try to pin down what feasible method they used to get there, to ensure there was no alien "seeding" program involved..
PS- to slightly digress on the same theme, does anybody know how fish got into remote small lakes surrounded by miles of land?

 

I understand that the story of Adam and Eve is not in chapter one but none the less it makes a fantastical claim on the genesis of humanity that is not supported outside theology.

 

Oh, that is relatively easy to answer. You ever hear that old saw...yeah, when pigs fly"? Well there ya go. Not only pigs but other mammals flew, and the insects caught a free ride. What else would explain it?

 

There are many other observed occurrences which add to a multi-faceted explanation. Study hard. Speculate less.

 

That would be a good start. Do you think you should do that before concluding (as you already have), "I can't accept that's how bigger creatures like insects etc got across thousands of miles with nothing to eat and drink under a blazing sun and storms etc."?

 

The most honest answer I can give you is birds...Birds carry mites, ticks, fleas and all other sorts of insects...Dig a pond and fill with water, in a season or two there will be fish. Fish eggs are sticky and cling to water birds feet. Spiders of a certain type have been known to use their webs to float the currents...Other than that I would have to agree with the Pangaea answer from earlier.

 

If something sounds ridiculous, then of course it's our duty to reject it, yet at the same time keep an open mind to new facts etc that might change our minds. So until I come across a good solid explanation of how creatures got onto remote ocean islands, I just ain't buying the notion that they somehow "hitchhiked" across thousands of miles of ocean from the mainland..

 

I provided you with a research process which, if undertaken, will provide you with the information and answers you claim to seek. Whether you invest the time to learn is up to you. Willful ignorance is easy. Acquiring knowledge is hard work.

 

My way is as good as any mate, like I said I shall randomly pick a remote ocean island then google away to find out exactly which species inhabit it, then research exactly how they got there, including emailing various university and science institutions for their input..

 

Why should I not be allowed to speculate? The theory on how life arose, by chance, is one helluva speculation, which one finds in what they call science. That it cannot be replicated is a thorn in the side of speculation. And you can study this all you want, which hasn't seemed to help, with the speculation. I think my speculation is no sillier than your speculation. Both my speculation on the OP, and the speculation of change, randomness, happy accidents are no different from magic. Flying pigs...magical... a self replicating organism arising by chance...magical. What you got against magic. You probably believe in it.

 

The majority of life on remote islands likely got there in much the same way the bitten guy did...they floated there. Animals as well in storm debris and evolved into the unique species seen today. Larger Islands such as Australia were probably part of a continent and became isolated throu plate movement and ocean level changes.

 

Prove it..

 

I do not own a time machine, nor do I have the several million years required to prove this in a way you would accept as reality. I also used the term "Likely" which implies possibility rather than an absolute. Argument for arguments sake is not something I enjoy and judging by your post history that is what you hope for.