The Mysterious Mudskipper

Many times scientist discover a form of life in an environment that seems to be so harsh as to make the survival of life impossible. How the life can be there when it seems almost impossible for anything to survive can be explained in two basic ways or perhaps a combination of the two. Either God designed the life so it could survive in the harsh environment in which we see it, or it has gradually evolved with the changing environment to adapt to a set of conditions that other forms of life cannot survive in. The latter process would require the environment to gradually change_not an immediate condition that would not allow any life form to adjust to the conditions.

In mudflats of Africa, Asia, and Australia there is a small fish called the "mudskipper". The mudskipper lives in burrows during high tide, sealed off from the ocean. During low tide they come out of their burrows and eat small life forms on the mudflats. The problem is that these mudflats and the burrows in which the mudskippers live, contain no oxygen. The mud in these flats washed out of organically rich areas where decaying matter consumes all of the oxygen. Not only does this environment offer no oxygen for the mudskipper, but it also offers no way for the eggs of the mudskipper left in the burrow to survive.

Atsushi Ishimatsu, a biologist studying the mudskipper, has made an amazing discovery. Ishimatsu has found that the mudskipper gulps air before entering the burrow. They will then go into the burrow and disgorge the air into the burrow and go back out and gulp more air. They do this over and over until the burrow is totally aerated providing for both the mudskipper and its eggs. These mudflats did not develop until there was a source for their sediment. It is difficult to comprehend how all the equipment needed to stand on its pectoral fins and gulp air could come about quickly, much less the behavior that brings the air in contact with the eggs in the burrow.

The Bible claims that we can see the design and wisdom of God through the things He has made ( Romans 1:19-22), and certainly this strange fish is a demonstration of that claim's truth.

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