Bat echolocation
Bats are extraordinary creatures, and their echolocation abilities are unmatched by anything designed by humans.12 They are the only mammals capable of active flight similar to birds, while also being more agile in the air than most birds. They appear suddenly in the fossil record in Eocene layers, without evolutionary precursors, and their fossils resemble modern bats.
To locate prey in the dark, bats use an incredibly complex form of echolocation. While flying, they continuously emit and detect sound waves, which allow them to determine the position of moving prey with precision. They catch and eat their prey while still in flight. The sounds they produce range from 30,000 to over 100,000 hertz (Hz). In comparison, humans can hear frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz. This means that bat signals usually lie outside the range of human hearing and fall within the ultrasound spectrum.
Bats also possess another striking feature of natural engineering. They have a specialised inner ear muscle that protects them from being deafened by their own signals. Each time a signal is emitted, this muscle contracts rapidly and precisely to immobilise the bone responsible for hearing. It then relaxes at the right moment to allow the ear to receive the returning echoes.
This echolocation system is so refined that bats can process ultrasonic signals through instinctive neurological functions, enabling them to interpret their surroundings using sound. Some are even capable of detecting and catching insects as small as mosquitoes.
The honeybee dance
Honeybees display remarkable eusocial behaviour, particularly in locating food and other resources and then communicating this information with great accuracy upon returning to the hive.3 When a scout bee finds a new source of water or food, it returns to the hive and relays the exact position of the resource through a movement known as the waggle dance or figure eight dance. The angle of the dance in relation to the sun indicates the direction, while the number of waggles conveys the distance and overall value of the resource.
Bees that observe the dancer behave in a consistent manner, maintaining a specific distance and angle in relation to the dancing bee. As part of the information exchange, they also touch the dancer with their antennae. These antennae contain highly specialised mechanosensors with extremely high sensitivity, allowing them to detect the vibrations produced by the dancer. These vibrations carry information within a frequency range of 265 to 350 hertz. During the waggle dance, the dancer also releases several distinct chemical signals.
Navigation of the monarch butterfly
During their autumn migration, which begins in Canada and the northern United States and ends in specific forests in Mexico, these insects cover a precise distance of 2,400 kilometres.4 Throughout the journey, the butterflies continuously gather navigational information by observing the sun’s horizontal position during daylight hours. Their antennae contain a time-compensated mechanism, also referred to as a circadian clock, which enables them to interpret the sun’s position according to the time of day.
If humans were to develop a comparable system of navigation and flight, it would require advanced sensors, sophisticated computer algorithms, and specialised equipment to decode and integrate the necessary data.
Conclusion
Bats, bees, and butterflies have inborn abilities that human engineering cannot replicate. If these abilities had developed gradually over millions of years, the animals would have died from starvation before the functions became fully formed. These technologies must have been present in their bodies from the very beginning.
By the way, we recommend reading the articles:
- Birds Don’t Mess with Venom
- Bird Intelligence: Chance or Design?
- Natural Selection – Truth or Fiction?
- Plants and Mathematics – What Do They Have in Common?
- A Bird That Walks Underwater
Footnotes
- Sherwin, F., 2003. Bat-tastic Bats. Acts & Facts, 32(10).
- Sherwin, F., 2015. The Ultrasonic War Between Bats and Moths. Acts & Facts, 44(10), p. 15.
- Collison, C., 2018. A Closer Look – Waggle Dances. Bee Culture, 23 April. Available at: https://beeculture.com
- Guliuzza, R.J., 2018. Engineered Adaptability: Creatures’ Adaptability Begins with Their Sensors. Acts & Facts, 47(3), pp. 17–19.
Based on: J. P. Tomkins, Complex creature engineering requires a creator, Acts & Facts, Institute for Creation Research, August 2019, p. 14.
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