Fish Recognize Human Faces

Genesis 42:8
“And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.”

On a previous broadcast, we told you about the archerfish and its ability to shoot well-aimed squirts of water through the air at bugs. That’s not all these amazing fish can do. Scientists have recently learned that they can distinguish one human face from another. Even more surprising is that the team of researchers from the University of Oxford admitted that “fish are unlikely to have evolved the ability to distinguish between human faces.”

The article goes on to note that “human facial recognition has previously been demonstrated in birds. However, unlike fish, they are now known to possess neocortex-like structures.” Now, why is this important? As researcher Dr. Cait Newport points out, “Fish have a simpler brain than humans and entirely lack the section of the brain that humans use for recognizing faces.”

Dr. Newport added, facial recognition was once thought to be so difficult, it could only be accomplished by primates with large and complex brains. To see if a fish was up to the task, they tested archerfish because of their smaller and simpler brain and because these fish – and I quote – had “no evolutionary need to recognize human faces.”

Yes, indeed, evolution had absolutely nothing to do with a species of tropical fish being able to tell one human from another. And, we might add, molecules-to-man evolution had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with anything we see in God’s creation.

Prayer: Oh Lord, like the number of stars in space and the grains of sand on all the world’s beaches, Your creation is filled with far too many wonders to count. I praise You for them all! Amen.

Author: Steven J. Schwartz
Ref: “Fish can recognize human faces, new study shows,” Phys.Org, 6/7/16. Illustration: Archerfish shooting water at a bug on a tree branch. (PD)

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