Animals with superpowers

Animals with superpowers

https://reasonandscience.catsboard.com/t1627-animals-with-superpowers

Following, a few astonishing animals with amazing features, which are great examples of design. It's worth to take your time and see all videos. Difficult to imagine how these abilities could have evolved. I am indeed incredule towards evolution.... and I think for good reasons.  How could each of these animals have evolved their capabilities, if the way they hunt, or have sex, or hide, or mimic, are only functioning if fully deveolped?  

The velvet worms slime cannon mechanism is irreducibly complex :

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0051220

it needs at least three different systems

1) weapon: slime pistol/gland which stores an adhesive which is what this slime is
2) ammunition: paralysing slime which only dries and hardens when ejected
3) targeting mechanism/ability

Each of these traits would not provide any survival advantage by their own , and have to appear fully functional, otherwise, the mechanism does not work.

evolution is blind and would have to randomly generate each part, which in turn would need to provide a selection advantage to be passed to the next generation. I agree that it is possible, however it is very unlikely and there currently is no evidence that this happened. We can accept it on faith. Question for you, how would you falsify this.?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrL2A7my1fc


Bird Mimics Chainsaw, Car Alarm and More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjAcyTXRunY





Swallowed Newt Escapes Death
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvBi5Wv8-qg





Raising Kids in a Corpse?
How could  the secrete natural preservatives have evolved ??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iZvsClC10


Eating Myself: Giant Centipede
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcuFGsvms2A


Killer Cuckoo Catfish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnvbVIcZZHc


Killer Cone Snails
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjHMGSI_h0Q



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYh2zeAsRXY

Pistol Shrimp sonic weapon - Weird Nature - BBC wildlife


http://creation.com/pistol-packing-shrimp



The pistol shrimp’s claw is an extremely specialized construct that needs precision design in order to function. Of the millions of random mutations that might occur that would change the shape of a claw (a bump, indentation or protrusion of some sort?) there would be precious few that would have been ‘on the way’ to becoming a ‘sonic gun’ variant. Granting that evolutionists admit that beneficial mutations are rare, the point is; “What survival benefit would those small shape changes have conferred to the shrimp on the way to becoming a sonic claw?”

http://feedmysheepuk.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/amazing-creations-the-pistol-shrimp/

The shrimp also takes part in an interesting symbiotic relationship with certain species of goby fish. The pistol shrimp has terrible eyesight and cannot see predators approaching. Despite its formidable weaponry, the pistol shrimp is left vulnerable to attacks by fast predators that can take advantage of its poor eyesight. To overcome this difficulty, the pistol shrimp stays close by its symbiont, the goby fish. The shrimp rests its antennae on the goby’s body. When the goby sees a predator approaching, it warns the pistol shrimp by means of certain bodily movements which act as signals. When the shrimp feels these signals, it retreats, along with the goby, back into their mutually-shared burrow. This allows the shrimp to lay in wait to ambush the unwitting fish with its pressure-weapon without fear.



There is no way that this tiny marvel of engineering did not have a designer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC6I8iPiHT8

Carnivorous Caterpillars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5qijI--v9E





Amazing Speed-Gulp Killing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ3FC3ISQvk



Glow Worm Lure
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/wild/worlds-weirdest/videos/glow-worm-lure/

Weird Killer of the Deep
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-angler-fish

Amazing Sting Defense
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-nudibranch

Portuguese Man-of-War
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-clam-vs-world?source=relatedvideo

Clams vs. the World
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-clam-vs-world?source=relatedvideo

Zombie Snails
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/worlds-deadliest-ngs/deadliest-zombie-snails?source=relatedvideo

Comb jellies look anything but dangerous. But those pretty, flashing lights can mean death for unwary prey.
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-neon-killers?source=relatedvideo

Sea Cucumber Fights With Guts (Literally)
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-sea-cucumber?source=relatedvideo

Underwater Love Chain
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-sea-hare?source=relatedvideo

Stunning Jellyfish
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/jellyfish?source=relatedvideo

Plumed Worm

Plumed birds, yeah. Plumed serpents, sure. But who ever heard of this sea creature—the plumed worm?
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/clam_giant?source=relatedvideo

Sea Salps
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/sea_salps?source=relatedvideo

Nudibranch

Sea Angels
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/sea_angels?source=relatedvideo

World's Weirdest: Camouflaged Killer
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-sargassum-fish

Best Disguised Predator Fish?
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/stonefish-predation?source=relatedvideo

Weaver Home Security
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-weaver-bird?source=relatedvideo

Baby Toads Born from Mom's Back
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-surinam-toad-birth

Smelly Fruit Fly Cologne
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-fruit-fly

Bat Hunts in "Stealth Mode"
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-long-eared-bat

Flounder is Master of Disguise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIMRSt40OMk


The harp sponge: an extraordinary new species of carnivorous sponge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3tAtXdaik

http://www.squidoo.com/10-most-extraordinary-animals

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/11/04/9-of-the-most-bizarre-animal-defense-mechanisms/

http://hubpages.com/hub/25-Most-Amazing-and-Unique-Animals-On-Earth

http://listverse.com/2012/12/03/10-amazing-animal-abilities/

http://distractify.com/fun/animals-fun/30-animals-that-are-secretly-amazing/

http://crev.info/2014/01/amazing-animals/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death

https://www.facebook.com/UAFacts?sk=app_2231777543&filter=3

Some examples of inteligente design in nature :

Mussels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w04wvaXtTdI (deception to lure host fish in close)

Sargassum fish http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/fish-animals/other-fish/weirdest-sargassum-fish/ (camouflage)


Mimic Octopus

Mantis shrimp

Pistol shrimp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-LTWFnGmeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ahuZEvWH8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ7Ztmcf0Cc

(mimicry)

(hunting)

(hunting)


Beaver http://www.history.com/videos/modern-marvels-beavers#modern-marvels-beavers (shelter)

Bats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p08Y0oRAX3g (echolocation)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p0057496


Archer Fish

Spiders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhBZ40jIo4Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gglxehpl28Q

(hunting)

(hunting)



Lyrebird

Stick insects

http://www.squidoo.com/tenbirdvideos#module3828122

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p003x6zx

(mimicry)

(mimicry)


Bolas spider http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p00w79hh (hunting)

Grey Hornbill http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p003klzx (hunting)


Squid

Oopister Beetle

Bioluminescence

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p00f26sr (camouflage)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p0053k64 (mimicry and defense)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Bioluminescence#p006v47r


http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Bioluminescence#p006v478

Symbiosis http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Symbiosis#p006ry04

Metamorphosis Flat fish http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Metamorphosis#p00f26xr

Butterfly http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Metamorphosis#p00cnscj

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Metamorphosis#p00cnsg0

Flight http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p00f29b7 (fairy tale explanation!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p00m8ncc (hollow bones; feathers)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p00mrckh (aerodynamics)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p0053k4y (damselfly)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p00715hq (design)

Gliders http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Gliding_%28flight%29#p00b1hww (ridiculous statements)

Hibernation http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Flight#p00cn9h7 (hummingbird!!)

Poison Sea Snake http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Aposematism#p00bktxg


Dart Frogs

Cobra

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Aposematism#p0095r70

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/animals/reptiles-animals/snakes/deadliest-

king-cobra/


Hunting Sloats http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Stoat#p0074tkf


Whales

Shearwaters

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Pack_hunter#p00jtfwv

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Pack_hunter#p00dhjy3


Plants


Plant pretenders

Dead horse arum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p00lxt3h

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Mimicry#p00lx782


Venus Fly Trap http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Carnivore#p004p9np


Pitcher Plant

Flesh eating

Sticky End

Meat Eater

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Carnivore#p00lxsvx

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Carnivore#p00lx3pb

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Carnivore#p00lx1rr

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Carnivore#p005fq51

http://www.wired.com/tag/absurd-creature-of-the-week/

http://www.wired.com/tag/absurd-creature-of-the-week/page/2/

http://www.wired.com/tag/absurd-creature-of-the-week/page/3/

Absurd Creature of the Week: This Marsupial Has Marathon Sex Until It Goes Blind and Drops Dead

http://www.wired.com/2014/05/absurd-creature-of-the-week-this-marsupial-has-marathon-sex-until-it-goes-blind-and-drops-dead/



Absurd Creature of the Week: The Real-Life Pokémon That Can Regenerate Missing Limbs

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/absurd-creature-of-the-week-the-adorable-salamander-that-can-regrow-amputated-limbs/


   
Absurd Creature of the Week: Cross-Dressing Cuttlefish Puts on World’s Most Spectacular Light Show

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/absurd-creature-of-the-week-cuttlefish/



Absurd Creature of the Week: This Eel Fires Extra Alien Jaws Out of Its Throat

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/absurd-creature-of-the-week-this-eel-fires-extra-alien-jaws-out-of-its-throat/

This Toad Grows a Spiky Mustache and Stabs Rivals for the Ladies

http://www.wired.com/2014/02/absurd-creature-week-toad-grows-spiky-mustache-stabs-rivals-ladies/#slide-id-562927

Amateurs, says the Emei mustache toad. This dapper little amphibian doesn’t just walk into the breeding season unarmed. For one chaotic month a year in China, males grow extremely sharp facial spikes, which they use to shank rivals for the choicest nesting sites.

Some 90 percent of all males end up injured. Victors win the right to mate. Losers shuffle away and seriously consider never growing a mustache again, because maybe it wasn’t a good idea in the first place and they were just curious how it would look, like that one time when I was in high school.

Their weapons are called, no joke, nuptial spines, and they’re made of keratin — the same stuff as your fingernails. The spines grow straight through the toad’s skin, and although they will at times pop off in combat, they’ll simply sprout once again, only to fall off at the end of the breeding season.

http://www.wired.com/2013/04/animal-superpowers/#slideid-590035

Superpower: Loud Lovesongs

Water Boatman, aka Singing Penis Bug (Micronecta scholtzi)

The loudest animal on Earth, relative to its body size, is the water boatman. Singing songs of love from its perch on a river bottom, a male boatman can be as loud as an orchestra.

Turns out, the sweet serenade comes from the bug’s penis.

Water boatmen “sing” by rubbing their penises along abdominal grooves, a process called stridulation. Their resulting melodies can reach 100 decibels and can be heard through the water by people walking along the riverbank.

Not bad for a bug the size of a grain of rice, eh?

http://www.delamar.de/fun/ruderwanzen-haben-den-lautesten-10717/

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/06/17/tiny-water-insect-makes-record-breaking-song-with-his-penis/#.U4PeQyiO7WM

If you walk by a European river on a summer’s day, you might get to hear the animal kingdom’s champion vocalist. His song sounds like a train of chirps, and from a metre away, it’s as loud as whirring power tools. The din is all the more incredible because it is produced by an insect just two millimetres in length – the lesser water boatman, Micronecta scholtzi

Micronecta means “small swimmer” and it is aptly named. It’s among the smallest of the several hundred species of water boatmen that row across the bottom of ponds and streams with paddle-shaped legs. The males are the ones that sing, and they often do so in large choruses to attract the silent females. These songs are famously loud. Even though the insect lives underwater, you can hear its call from the riverbank, several metres away.

Now, Jérôme Sueur from the Natural History Museum in Paris has measured Micronecta’s song using underwater microphones. He found that it the small swimmer is a record-breaker. On average, it reaches 79 decibels, about the level of a ringing phone or a cocktail party. But at its peak, it reaches 105 decibels – more like a car horn, a power tool or a passing subway train.

There are animals that make far louder calls. The record goes to the sperm whale, which can create clicks of around 236 decibels underwater (equivalent to 170 decibels on land). Other animals, including elephants, hippos and dolphins can produce louder calls than Micronecta.

But pound for pound, there is no competition. All of these animals are very big, and it stands to reason that large objects can produce louder sounds – think about the difference between a concert amp and a set of headphones. The sperm whale, for example, grows up to 16 metres in length and weighs up to 14 tonnes. Micronecta, on the other hand, produces its phenomenal song with a body that’s no bigger than one of these letters. Sueur compared the ratio of call intensity to body size for 227 different animals, from whales to insects, and found that the water boatmen out-sang them all.

How does such a tiny insect make such a loud noise? It’s not clear. It seems to do so by rubbing its ribbed penis against ridges on its belly, playing its genitals like a miniature fiddler. But the “bow” here is just 50 micrometres long, and there are no obvious body parts to amplify the noise.

But maybe the amplifier isn’t a body part at all. Like other water boatmen, Micronecta traps a layer of air around its body using microscopic hairs. This layer helps it to breathe, but Sueur speculates that it could also act as an echo-chamber, reflecting the sound of the penis-fiddling again and again. The details, however, are a mystery. As Sueur writes, “To observe the micro-mechanics of such a small system remains a significant challenge.”

Sueur also has an idea about why the water boatman’s song is so loud. He compares the song to the complex melodies of birds or the long antlers of deer – it’s a sexual signal that indicates a strong, powerful mate. If females prefer loud males over quiet ones, the male’s song would become exaggerated over time.

There are some obvious ways of testing this. If Sueur is right, females should prefer louder males, which should be easy to test with speakers and some recordings. Sueur also thinks that M.scholtzi probably has no predators that hunt by sound – otherwise, such hunters would limit the evolution of an extreme song by snatching up the loudest males. We know nothing about what eats M.scholtzi and Sueur plans on finding out.

Reference: Sueur, Mackie and Windmill. 2011. So Small, So Loud: Extremely High Sound Pressure Level from a Pygmy Aquatic Insect (Corixidae, Micronectinae). PLoS ONE

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021089

The water boatman M. scholtzi produces a complex calling song comprising three distinct parts with deep amplitude modulations, but no frequency modulation. However, the most striking feature of the song is its intensity. The song can be heard by a human ear from the side of a pond or river, propagating across the water-air interface. Estimating the sound intensity at a distance of one metre reveals a value of ~79 dB SPL rms. When considering peak values, i.e. the loudest part of signal, the intensity can reach 100 dB SPL. Whilst these values are far below those estimated for large mammals such as dolphins, whales, elephants, hippos, or bison, when scaled to body size, M. scholtzi has the highest ratio dB/body size. Even if such comparison might need to be adjusted with corrections taking into account different recording methods and conditions, M. scholtzi is clearly an extreme outlier with a dB/body size ratio of 31.5 while the mean is at 6.9 and the second highest value is estimated at 19.63 for the snapping shrimp S. parneomeris. This water bug might be the exception that proves the rule that stipulates that the size and the intensity of a source are positively related.

http://www.wired.com/2013/04/animal-superpowers/#slideid-590027

Superpower: HORROR

Hairy Frog (Trichobatrachus robustus)

When threatened, the hairy frog breaks its own bones, then pushes them through its skin to make claws. Kind of like Wolverine, except not quite.



http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13991-horror-frog-breaks-own-bones-to-produce-claws.html

Gastric brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silus

http://scottthong.wordpress.com/2007/03/22/freaky-frog-reproduction/



After the eggs are fertilized by the male, the female swallows the eggs. At this time, the frog’s stomach is normal, secreting hydrochloric acid and a powerful enzyme which together would normally break down and digest anything in the stomach.

However, the jelly around the eggs contains a special chemical (prostaglandin E2) which halts production of acid and also appears to prevent the stomach from discharging its contents further down the gut. This chemical also relaxes the stomach wall, enabling it to thin out and expand to an enormous degree. During this time, the mother does not eat at all.

The young are nourished by the extra large yolk of the eggs. They are released from the mother as fully formed miniature frogs. Over a period as long as a week, the mother comes up to the water surface and relaxes her gullet, allowing the baby frog to come out of her mouth. A mother which was disturbed was also been observed ‘vomiting’ out all the young in one go.

By far the strangest reproductive adaptation. I highly suggest vivisting the first cited link for a take on just how impossible it is to evolve a set of physical, chemical and behavioural adaptations as complex as these.

Cited from
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v15/i2/frog.asp
http://faculty.uca.edu/~benw/biol4402/lecture9/sld003.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastric-brooding_Frog

——————–

Having seen these various froggy breeding adaptations, one must ask the following questions of naturalistic evolutionary theory:

1) How did such complex organs, complex behaviour and complex adaptations to the young evolve through a step-by-step process?

Especially since small adaptations towards a fully-functioning biological system (for example, a dorsal pouch with sacs, but no vascular tissue to provide oxygen) that provide no benefit on their own should quickly be lost when the evolver dies, due the useless mutation making it less fit for survival.

Just imagine a Gastric brooding frog that evolved the swallowing eggs behaviour, but not any other pieces of the puzzle. It would die out in one generation as it digests every batch of its eggs! Even if a few survived to escape the mother’s stomach, this would invalidate the rule of ‘more surviving offspring, more copies of that adaptation’.

2) How did such complex organs, complex behaviour and complex adaptations to the young evolve simultaneously through random processes?

If only one or a few of the requirements were evolved first, they would be useless and pointless. For example, the gastric-brooding frog. If any one of the processes among placing the eggs in the mouth, acid-inhibition, larger egg yolk, not swallowing the eggs further into the digestive tract, or regurgitating the baby frogs were not present… Then the entire reproductive strategy would fail totally.

If the chances are so low to even randomly evolve just one of the above traits correctly, then the chances to simultaneously evolve several genetically unrelated traits in the same generation must be mini-miniscule!

3) How and why did such a reproductive package evolve?

Each seems to be an adaptation to the absence of conventional bodies of fresh water where frogs normally lay eggs. If it was in response to rivers drying up, then the frogs would have been unable to reproduce and would all have died out long before their specialized system could evolve.

Whereas if the systems were evolved before the environmental pressure appeared, then why did the frogs even change from the standard spawn-in-water model in the first place? Their heavy investment in specialized reproduction would have put them at a disadvantage to normal frogs. There would have been no driving force, no selection pressure, no reason to evolve.

In conclusion…

There are many amazing living things which boggle evolutionists’ attempts to explain how and why they could have evolved. And it just so happens (or was it intentionally planned?) that several types of frogs have incredible reproductive strategies, each wildly different from the other, yet each accomplishing the purpose of continuing life.

So was it just incredible coincidence that all the right parts came together in the right way, at just the right time and place (ala X-men style instant evolution)? And not just once, but multiple times over the history of life on Earth… As many times, in fact, as there are different life forms.

Or is there perhaps some other explanation, one that works and fits much better than the dogmatically-spouted theory of evolution? Christian counseling degrees are not needed to draw such a conclusion. Just a clear mind.