Knot a Fish

Genesis 1:20
“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and  fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.”

Once upon a time, we divided vertebrate animals (those animals with a backbone) into five classes – mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish. This has now been extended to seven classes, as the fish class is now divided into three: bony fish, cartilaginous fish, and jawless fish. Creationists are not concerned by this rearrangement of classes, as they are only for convenience, and – contrary to evolutionary opinion – do not represent an evolutionary route from a common ancestor.

One of the most unusual jawless fish is the hagfish. Strictly speaking, it is not entirely jawless, as it has half a jaw – just an upper jaw. It also has four hearts and lots of blood. One of its remarkable properties is that it ties itself in knots. It first makes the knot in its tail, then slips this knot up towards its head, to act as a sort-of lower jaw, against which the upper jaw can push. The knot that it makes is usually a simple trefoil knot – like half a reef knot. Sometimes it will exhibit a figure-of-eight knot.

As the hagfish has no vertebrae, its only bones being its skull, evolutionists take a lot of time trying to work out if evolution has removed its vertebrae or if it represents an earlier and more primitive creature which is a precursor to bony fish. But the hagfish appears well designed to do what it is supposed to do, created by God on Day Five.

Prayer: We are amazed, Lord, at the variety of creatures that You have created, and we give You all the praise and glory. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Baras, C. (2020), Hagfish tie their bodies into complicated knots to escape tight spots, < https://www.newscientist.com/article/2229070-hagfish-tie-their-bodies-into-complicated-knots-to-escape-tight-spots/ >, accessed 1/2/2019. Image: Public Domain (NOAA).

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