The Naked Mole Rat
Genesis 7:8-9
“Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.”
The naked mole rat is not a mole. Nor is it a rat. Among rodents, it would appear that the biblical created kind, or baramin, is at the family level of Bathyergidae – the mole-rats. There are sixteen species within this baramin, of which the strangest is the naked mole-rat.
As its name suggests, this animal is hairless. It lives exclusively underground.
One of the most interesting facts about the naked mole-rat is its deafness. The hair cells of this mole-rat’s outer ears appear to do no work. Scientists measured the animal’s responses to noise and found that it has a very narrow range of audible frequencies – between 0.5 and 4 kHz. This compares with human hearing of 0.02 through 20 kHz. Analysis of the animal’s cochlea showed that there is no amplification at all in their inner ears.
A New Scientist article reported that a research team was “aiming to determine what causes this poor hearing and how this trait may have evolved”. This is an inconsistent use of the word “evolved”. It is a lack or destruction of genetic information that has switched off the animal’s hearing, compared to other mole-rats. Darwinian evolution, if it were possible, would require new genetic information to appear. A biblical position would suggest that some mole-rats, after the Flood, degenerated in their hearing due to their environment. This is in accord with the way that God made all creatures according to their kind.
Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You care for all kinds of animals, as it says in Your word. Therefore, how much more do You care about us! Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Murugesu, J.A. (2020), Naked mole rats are nearly deaf because their ears can’t amplify sound, < https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253661-naked-mole-rats-are-nearly-deaf-because-their-ears-cant-amplify-sound/ >, accessed 9/2/2020.
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