Sunday, April 10, 2011

Eastern Lamp Mussel

famous gacka river
Image by Helti

I found out about this amazing creature by watching a dvd called "incredible creatures that defy evolution 3".
NOTE: I cannot remember the name of the mussel but this mussel is closest to the one I observed on the dvd. The one I observed on the dvd may have been a relative.

This particular mussel has a very unique way of reproducing, in fact it is highly specific. The female mussel mantle looks like a minnow fish. It pumps water through its mantle and causes it to actually look like a little fish swimming in the water, it even has what looks like a mouth at one end opening and closing!
The reason it does this is because it is trying to attract specific varieties of fish (4 in fact) to come and eat them. The mantle has little mussel larvae on it which will attach itself to the predator fish. The hard part is, is that at a split second just as the fish goes to bite the mantle (and you know how fast they bite), the mantle has to react and fling the tiny mussel larvae into the water surrounding which then allows the mussel larvae to attach to the gills of the predator fish.
The larvae live there for a month and then drop to the ocean floor. It has to be on specific types of fish or else the little larvae die!

The questions that need to be asked is:

a. How did this mussel variety ever learn to be so quick as to be able to reproduce?
b. What did they do to survive when and if there was no bass, bluegill or sunfish?
c. How did this mussel learn or develop itself so as to look like a minnow? It even has two spots that look like eyes!
d. Looking at the evidence at hand, is it more likely that they were designed like that or that they happened to develop themselves like that?

5 comments:

  1. Do you honestly and sincerely believe the mussel learnt anything? Or that anyone else thinks the mussel 'learnt' anything?

    Or is it more likely that the questions are framed in such a way as to ridicule one answer over another?

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  2. Since we're asking questions...

    How did it reproduce when the fish were vegetarians before the fall/flood?

    Have you actually tried to find the answers to the questions? I find that the majority of times people ask these sorts of questions, that if they really cared to know the answers they could have found out the answers pretty quickly, instead they prefer to just tuck them away in a pocket, unanswered to bring them out as a 'Gotcha!'

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  3. Hey BT

    Do you honestly and sincerely believe the mussel learnt anything? Or that anyone else thinks the mussel 'learnt' anything?

    What does learning mean in my context? In evolutionary terms could it mean to be developed by something else like how I "train" an orchid to grow straight?
    But yes, I used the word learn because I struggle to believe that animals develop their own complex information (like above) without will and only by the occurrence around them.

    How did it reproduce when the fish were vegetarians before the fall/flood?

    What do you mean fish were vegetarians? I don't believe they were if you thought I did.

    Have you actually tried to find the answers to the questions? I find that the majority of times people ask these sorts of questions, that if they really cared to know the answers they could have found out the answers pretty quickly, instead they prefer to just tuck them away in a pocket, unanswered to bring them out as a 'Gotcha!'

    Is your vegetarian question a "gotchya" question as mine seems to be? Some christians would have some answers to it but have you researched them?
    I am not the one claiming un-intelligible evolution (un-thought out), so I bring forth questions to those who do... is that not discussion?

    cheers,

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  4. Sorry I may have come across more douchebaggy than I intended.

    The vegetarian thing is straight from the bible. It's a regular part creation ministries like Answers in Genesis.

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  5. Yeah, I could well believe AiG would think that. However, where does it say fish were vegetarian in the Bible?

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