DEVILS DRINK FROM WET SAND, according to reports in New
Scientist 2 November, ABC News 3 November 2016, and Journal of Experimental
Biology 2016 219: 3309 doi: 10.1242/jeb.151407. The thorny devil
(Moloch horridus) is a small lizard that lives in Central Australia and is
so named because its skin is covered with spike shaped scales. Previous research
has shown that between the scales is a network of fine channels that convey
water to the animal’s mouth where they suck it in with gulping movements.
According to the ABC “Thorny devils cannot lick water from puddles because their
mouth has evolved to specifically feed on ants”. The article goes on to state:
“So this lizard has evolved a bizarre alternative to drinking with its mouth:
the capillary channels on its skin squeeze every last drop of moisture out of
the arid landscape and push it towards the animal's mouth”. Philipp Comanns from
RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and colleagues have studied the ways thorny
devils can extract water from the environment and found the devils can
efficiently take up water from puddles by simply standing in them. Within 10
seconds of being placed in a puddle of water, the animals started making the
gulping movements, and researchers confirmed that the channels were fully filled
with water. However, free standing water puddles do not last long in the arid
sandy regions where the devils live, yet the sand can stay moist. Those animals
placed on wet sand were unable to get enough water to fill the channels just
from standing on it. Previous observations had shown they had a habit of
throwing wet sand over their bodies after it had rained, so the research team
tried placing wet sand on a replica of the animal’s skin. They found this
enabled the channels to be filled with water from the sand. They concluded: “Our
results suggest that rain and moist sand seem to be ecologically likely water
sources for M. horridus on a regular basis”.
Links: ABC, JEB, New Scientist
ED. COM. Do you see a problem with the evolutionary story? Thorny
devils evolved mouths to eat ants and therefore could not drink water with their
tongues, so they evolved an elaborate and precisely structured set of capillary
channels that collect water via their skin and so channel it to their mouths.
So, how many half evolved thorny devils died of dehydration waiting to get the
system right? Now let’s look from a Biblical perspective. These animals were
created as fully functioning creatures complete with water collecting skin. In
the beginning the earth was watered by a rising mist, so there would have always
been shallow puddles of water and damp sand for them to use as sources of water.
All animals were vegetarian, so these lizards could have sucked up small seeds,
pollen grains and other small pieces of plant matter. After the environment was
devastated following Noah’s flood and the earth dried out, thorny devils were
able to survive in the sandy arid regions of Australia, where other creatures
couldn’t, because they already had water collecting skin and could eat ants if
there was nothing else to eat. This is natural selection and survival at work,
but it is not evolution. However, it is evidence that the real history of the
world is created design followed by judgement and degeneration, as described in
Genesis. (Ref. reptiles, diet)
For more on living
things that seem to be designed for harsh conditions see the lecture Created
for the Good World, Surviving in the Cursed One by Diane Eager, recorded at
the 2016 Good News creation conference in Brisbane. Watch online here.
Creation
Research. |
|
.jpeg)