- Series:Animals, Transcript English
Psalm 78:45
“He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.”
Borneo is home to some strange creatures. We are familiar with the orangutan, widely considered to be the creature that gave rise to the myth of the Wild Man of Borneo. Another very strange animal from Borneo is the Bornean flat-headed frog (Barbourula kalimantanensis). It is not the flat head that makes it unusual, but rather the fact that it has no lungs. Other internal organs occupy the space where the lungs would normally have been in the 2-inch-long creature, and the result is that the frog is flatter than most other frogs. The frog is able to “breathe” by absorbing air through its skin. Most frogs do this anyway, in addition to using lungs.
Evolutionary scientists have suggested that the flat-headed frog has evolved that way in order to adapt to the cold, rapidly flowing streams in which it lives, to avoid being swept away. But there are other frogs that live in cold, rapidly growing streams. Why have these frogs not similarly evolved lunglessness if this is seen as an evolutionary advantage in Borneo?
It is much more likely that this species is suffering from a congenital disease. A mutation in a tadpole prevented the formation of lungs – a mutation that would be fatal in mammals, reptiles, or birds, but the resulting lungless adult frog has been able to get enough air through its skin. Creationists would suspect that this isolated Bornean population would probably be able to interbreed with related frogs in the Philippines.
Prayer: Your word is true, Lord, and everything works according to Your plan, not ours. We thank You and praise You. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Sodera, V. (Second Edition: 2009), One Small Speck to Man (London: Viija Sodera Productions), pp. 158-159. Image: CC BY-SA 2.5 Unported.
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