The Mystery of Mouse Pyramids

Psalm 118:22
“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.”

Mice of the Sahara Desert pile up round stones in front of their burrows, making small pyramids through which the air can flow. As the morning air heats up, the rocks heat up much more slowly. As the dew point of the rapidly warming air rises, water in the air begins to condense on the cooler stones. It turns out that having round stones leaves exactly the right shaped spaces for this to take place. This is how the mice get their water.

Mice in the dry climates of Australia also build pyramids to catch the morning dew. They construct their pyramids of small, uniformly sized round stones over their burrows. Their pyramids may be up to a yard across. Again, as the morning air passes through the loose pile of stones, the dew collects on the cooler stones, providing a source of water for the mice. While a second species of Australian mice don’t build such pyramids, they will use those built by the first species as a source of water. All of this leaves those who believe in evolution with some difficult questions. How did mice learn to build these pyramids to catch the dew? And how did two different species, half a world apart, arrive at the same solution to survival?

These questions are easily answered if we assume that the intelligent Creator of mice built such knowledge into them when He first made them. This is the same Creator Who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the cornerstone of the eternal structure made up of all believers.

Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for being the cornerstone of my life. Amen.

Notes:
Science Frontiers, p. 17, “Ancient Greek Pyramids?” p. 137, “More Mouse Engineering.” Photo: The western mouse (Pseudomys occidentalis) is a species found only in Australia. (PD)