The Walking Fish - Creation Moments

Genesis 1:22

“And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.”

When is a fish not a fish? When it’s a walking fish!

The walking fish is a popular nickname for the axolotl. The axolotl looks like a fish and has external gills like a fish, but it also has legs. In fact, it is not a fish at all. It is an amphibian which usually lives its whole life underwater. It has to rank as one of the most unusual animals on the planet. It is actually the larva of a type of salamander. However, this particular creature has a property known as neoteny, which means that it reaches a form of adult maturity while it is still a larva.

There are some other salamanders that have the property of neoteny. In most cases, however, this is a temporary or environmentally influenced aberration. In the case of the axolotl, it is the norm. Wild axolotls hardly ever metamorphose into adult salamanders. Instead, they reach sexual maturity in the larval stage and breed as tadpole-like creatures. Yet, captive axolotls can be given an injection of iodine, and this enables them to undergo full metamorphosis, turning into an adult salamander form.

This bizarre and rare behavior is very difficult to explain in evolutionary terms. Once evolutionists have found theories, however untenable, to explain why amphibians undergo metamorphosis, they then have to devise more theories to explain one that doesn’t! To the Christian, however, the animal appears well designed for its habitat.

Prayer: We love Your works, Lord, and acknowledge that You have made everything well, for Your glory. Amen.

Author: Paul Taylor

Ref: Hennigan, T. (2013), An Initial Estimate Toward Identifying and Numbering Amphibian Kinds within the Orders Caudata and Gymnophiona, Answers Research Journal 6 (2013): 17–34. Image: Axolotl – CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported.