Creatures of the Earth
Breathing in water through gills.
Long before I ever knew the God of our Lord Jesus, I remember studying William Blake's "Tyger". Here is the first verse (which also happens to be the last verse): "Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" Blake goes on to ask if God who made the lamb, also made the tyger. Now I can see the poem through eyes of faith and appreciate the beauty of the tiger. Interestingly, no two tigers, just like zebras, share the same stripes. Animals are all designed with the exact features they need to survive, and all live with set roles in a balanced eco-system. Animals are beautiful, strange, frightening, comforting, useful, loving, wild, playful and have a staggering endless amount of diversity. To imagine a scenario where goop evolved out of the water into something complex defies logic. To this date, nothing has been found in our fossil record to prove any such "evolution" between the classes. Like the bat, who is equipped to fly using a complex Doppler/radar system, animals are created by an intelligent designer, each according to their "kind'.
Interesting Facts:
Amphibians
- Amphibians begin their lives in water. Hatching from eggs they have gills and fins like fish. Later their bodies grow lungs and they live the rest of their lives on land. They also have thin moist skin that also helps them breath.
- There are over 8000 species of amphibians. They are vertebrates with no scales.
- The largest amphibian is the Chinese Giant Salamander. It can grow six feet long and weigh 140 lb.
- All frogs swallow their prey whole. A group of frogs is called an army.
- Wood frogs that live in the arctic circle can remain in a frozen state for up to eight months, then thaw back to life as the weather warms up.
- Some poisonous frogs secrete enough poison to kill ten humans.
- There are over 10,000 species of reptiles.
- Most reptiles can see colors better than mammals.
- All reptiles have scales.
- The tiniest reptile is a gecko at under an inch. The largest is the saltwater crocodile which can reach 20 feet long.
- A crocodile can go up to half a year without eating.
- Turtles' lungs are attached to the inside top of their shells.
- Tortoises can live past a 150 years.
- Lizards are affected by temperatures and become sluggish with colder weather.
- There are approximately 6,500 species of mammals.
- Mammals are warm blooded animals that all have hair (even whales and dolphins).
- The largest land mammal is the African elephant that can weigh up to 13,000 pounds.
- It is true that an elephant never forgets.
- An elephant never forgets a face or experience and even hold grudges, starting from childhood.
- Elephants use their trunks as snorkels, and can hold over two gallons of water.
- Elephants can hear through their feet and use their trunks like fingers.
- A lion's roar can be heard as far as five miles away.
- You can tell the age of a male lion by the darkness of his mane.
- Bats are the only flying mammals that can sustain true flight (as opposed to gliding mammals).
- They are born knowing the speed of sound through echolocation.
- Bats do this by broadcasting sounds that bounce off solid objects and tracking the speed the sound travels.
- Reindeers' eyes change from gold to blue every winter in order to adapt to extreme changes in light conditions.
Revelation 5:5 Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.
Genesis 1:25: God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good."
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