All of the animals presented in the above collage have the build of a predator. Had they not been observed to be vegetarians, it is likely (as was the case for the kinkajou) they would be assumed to be predatory. Finding their fossils without seeing their modern counterparts would yield the same result, but without ways to prove otherwise.
Since I’ve already mentioned the kinkajou, let’s start with that. In order to study kinkajous, a scientist named Roland Kays attempted to trap some. (1) Because of the skull structure and teeth of the kinkajou, it had been assumed that they could be caught with chicken as bait. The kinkajous, however, never took the bait. What eventually did lure in the kinkajous was bananas. Following this study, it is now known that the assumption that kinkajous are carnivores was completely wrong. They’re vegetarians, eating fruit, leaves, flowers and nectar.
The bird in the image is the palm nut vulture. Palm nut vultures have the same beak structure of any other bird of prey. If it was not observed today, but was discovered fossilised, it would have been automatically assumed that it was carnivorous, like other vultures. But this bird feeds on the fruit of the oil palm or raphia palm.
Below that is a fruit bat. I don’t think I need to explain what that eats, but its teeth would suggest it’s actually a carnivore. It’s not.
Finally we come to the panda, another carnivore-like creature that feeds almost exclusively on bamboo. While pandas have occasionally been observed eating smaller animals, they tend to live quite happily on an exclusively vegetarian diet.
What does this tell you? It tells you that just because an animal seems to be designed for a carnivorous lifestyle doesn’t necessarily mean it is. In Genesis 1:30, we’re told: “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.” In the original “very good” world, all animals were vegetarian, even the most efficient predators of our time. Modern skeptics may assert that this is impossible, but we’ve just seen that even today, Eden echoes through. Carnivorous looking herbivores are a testament to the original creation before Adam sinned, and should prompt us to look to the future that was bought for us by the blood of Jesus.
References
1. Menino, H. - Kinkajous, National Geographic, 2003