Those of you who have been receiving the CEC News for a while probably remember my article on the platypus. The platypus has been designated to be a mammal yet has a bill like a duck, claws like a reptile, lays eggs like a reptile, and has a poisonous gland like a snake. With webfeet like a beaver it is a very unusual looking critter. It is a well-known member of God’s creations that we call mosaics.
There are some other animal mosaics that are just as amazing as the platypus. In this article we will take a quick look at the armadillo, the penguin, the manatee, and the mudskipper. All of these representatives from God’s creation can also be described as mosaics. Mosaics are great roadblocks for accepting the idea of the evolution of animals due to common ancestry.
The truth is that the fossils in the rock record do not show paths of transitional forms for any life form really. But, for these mosaics evolutionists have extreme difficulty conjuring up any sort of ancestral path. The better explanation is that these mosaic animals were created and engineered by God in the beginning.
ARMADILLO:
The armadillo has been described as “just odd.” It has a tail like a rat, bony scales like a crocodile, an upper shell like a turtle, ears like a mule, and eyes like a pig. Armadillos range in size from the size of a chipmunk to the size of a small pig. Depending on species adults can weigh from less than a pound to over 100 pounds. Armadillos are living fossils since the evidences from the rock record are very little different from the modern forms found today. That means there is no evidence of evolution for the armadillo, just like for many hundreds of other living fossils that have been identified.
Armadillo
Armadillos do not have good eyesight but do have a great sense of smell and good hearing that allows them to locate food and avoid predators. They have been assigned to the Dasypodidae family of mammals. There are about thirty species that have been identified, and a few species can even roll up in a ball to protect themselves from harm. These weird mammals are found in South and Central America as well as in Texas. We see variation within the armadillo kind, but no evolution from one kind to another.
MANATEE:
Manatees are also called sea cows and are slow, docile aquatic mammals that can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds. Adults are usually about ten feet long with the females larger than the males. There are three species within the scientific family Trichechidae. They are found in various tropical waters including those of Florida. They are herbivores that browse primarily on grasses and other aquatic plants, and that makes them unique among living marine mammals. They are designed with a process called polyphyodonty where as their teeth wear out they are replaced by a conveyor belt-like system. This type of set up is known to occur elsewhere in only two very different land animals: kangaroos and elephants.
Manatee
Manatees have stomachs similar to those of horses. Their digestive system causes them to produce large amounts of gas, thus their bloated appearance. Their mosaic description continues with their six cervical vertebrae instead of seven like all other mammals except for the sloths. They have two front flippers like a fish and a single rear “rudder” to move them through the water usually at a slow pace. The front two flippers are used for “walking” along the water floor, digging up plants, and then using those flippers like hands to feed themselves.
Evolutionists say Manatees had a common ancestor with the elephants and the hyraxes, but there is no evidence to support this conjecture in the fossil record. Creationists say the first manatee was created by God to look basically like the manatee of today.
MUDSKIPPER:
The definition of a fish is “any of a large group of cold blooded vertebrate animals living in water and having gills for breathing, fins, and usually scales.” To be amphibious is to be “living a double life, on land and in the water.” So, the weird looking creature in the photos below has been designated as an amphibious fish.
Mudskipper at Denver Zoo
Denver Zoo Mudskipper Descriptive Sign
Mudskippers are called amphibious because they have gills and can live in or out of water. They are up to one foot long and have been placed in the scientific family Oxudercidae. They are weird indeed but also very amazing creations. I think what is most amazing is that they can use their pectoral fins to effectively move around on mud in a series of skips. They have been reported to be able to jump up to two feet high and even climb trees using these special fins! Keep in mind that they are using their pectoral fins, not legs, and not fins evolving into legs, to achieve these feats.
These amphibious fish perform as a streamlined fish when in the water using their fish tail to propel themselves rapidly where they want to go. One might think such an odd-looking animal with its eyes bulging above its flat head might be rare. But, today they are not only surviving but are thriving on four continents. Those protruding eyes can swivel to look in many directions and allow them to see out of the water while safely submerged. They can see well in both the air and the water. Few animals have that ability.
When mudskippers are wet they can breathe through their skin and the lining of their mouth. So, they must stay moist when out of the water and live in and on mud rather than dry land. There is no evidence from the fossil record of any ancestor forms. Mudskippers were created in the beginning by God to be mudskippers. They are another mosaic evidence of the falsity of the idea of evolution.
PENGUIN:
It has been written that “any creature with wings, feathers, and a beak must be a bird.”* Penguins are always categorized as birds in scientific class Aves and family Spheniscidae. And, generally penguins are called “flightless birds.” I would say that penguins do have a beak, but do they really have wings and feathers?
Penguin
The bones of the forearm, wrists, and manus of the penguin are bladelike in order to make pectoral paddle-like arms that are attached by strong muscles to a large keeled sternum. This design is different from actual flightless birds that have reduced sternums, and it seems clear that these appendages on penguins are better described as flippers not wings. Penguin bones are heavy and solid unlike flying birds that have thin, hollow, light bones. No flying bird can dive and swim under water anything like the penguin in part because they are too lightly built.
Penguins have a thick waterproof fur covering their bodies, not really like bird feathers. So I think we can say that 2/3rds of the general requirements for being a bird (that we started this section of the article with) are not met! Penguins clearly are not reptiles or mammals, but they have so many non-bird traits that maybe they should not be called birds, just penguins.
The list of differences between penguins and birds continues: Birds cannot dive like a penguin nor stay under water for over 15 minutes like a penguin. Birds spend most of their time in the air or on land. Penguins spend no time in the air, but are either on land or in the water. Bird and penguin eyesight is different too. Penguins have great eyesight under water, while birds have great eyesight in the air. They each have poor eyesight in the opposite mediums. It seems one was engineered for the air and the other for the water.
Penguins love the water
Evolutionary scientists teach that penguins evolved from a flying bird ancestor. The problem with this is that there is no evidence in the fossil record for this. In the rocks penguins are always penguins. Is losing the ability to fly really evolution? It seems more like devolution to me!
So, the conclusion is that penguins were marvelously engineered by God with a mosaic set of traits that best allows them to live and thrive according to how we see them today. The penguin has always been a penguin.
J.D. Mitchell
*The World of Animals, Paragon Publishing, 1999, p. 161.
