Fish's Mirror Eyes Reflect the Creator | The Institute for Creation Research

Fish's Mirror Eyes Reflect the Creator

Scientists have waited for years to study a rare and unique deep sea fish. Finally able to investigate a live specimen, they discovered that the “spookfish” has mirrors that reflect light onto its retinas. This is the only vertebrate eye known to have reflective eye lenses,1 and their construction must have required purposeful intent.

The spookfish lives at a depth of over 3,000 feet. Very little usable surface light reaches so far down, and the mirrors are oriented downward. So, the fish likely gathers light from bioluminescent potential predators located below itself. The mirror portions of the eyes protrude from either side of the fish’s body, like car mirrors. The retinal parts that are close to the midline of the body receive the reflected light, then send the signals to the brain for image processing.2

An article in press in Current Biology reports the results of the scientists’ spookfish study.3 Co-author Julian Partridge of Bristol University used computer simulation to discover “that the precise orientation of the plates within the mirror's curved surface is perfect for focusing reflected light on to the fish's retina.”4

But “perfection” in nature is a plain indicator of intentional creative work, for which the broad story of evolution cannot account.5 The spookfish eye—like over a dozen known distinct and fully functional image-forming eye designs—operates according to the physical laws of optics. Partridge told BBC News that of “thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes.”4

But since when do fish species, which cannot reason or invent, solve complex optical problems? It is more likely that something or Someone beyond the fish with the ability to reason and invent is responsible. For example, cameras are machines that exploit the laws of optics for a specific purpose. Yet they were not invented by those laws (or any other natural laws), nor by themselves. They were made according to intentional specifications provided by the minds and hands of people. The process of invention is exclusively observed occurring from outside the limitations of natural laws.

Thus, and in like manner, the spookfish eyes were made by God’s creative intent, outside of nature.

References

  1. Certain mollusks and crustaceans also have reflective lens eyes, though differently structured than those of the spookfish. See Land, M. F. and D. Nilsson. 2005. Animal Eyes. New York: Oxford University Press.
  2. Image processing could not have arisen without intelligent causation. See Stoltzmann, D. E. 2006. The Specified Complexity of Retinal Imagery. Creation Research Society Quarterly. 43 (1): 4-12.
  3. Wagner, H. et al. 2009. A Novel Vertebrate Eye Using Both Refractive and Reflective Optics. Current Biology. Article in press. Published online December 24, 2008.
  4. Morgan, J. ‘Spookfish’ has mirrors for eyes. BBC News. Posted on news.bbc.co.uk January 7, 2009, accessed January 9, 2009.
  5. In addition to the complete absence of actual examples of natural processes producing complex, specified structures, Dr. John Sanford has shown the utter ineffectiveness of the neo-Darwinian model, wherein natural selection cannot see any beneficial mutations, cannot select for them, and cannot retain them in a population. See: Sanford, J. S. 2005. Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome. Lima, NY: Ivan Press.

Image Credit: Tammy Frank, Habor Branch Oceanographic Institution

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer.

Article posted on January 15, 2009.

The Latest
ACTS & FACTS
Creation Kids: Crystals!
by Michael Stamp and Susan Windsor* You're never too young to be a creation scientist and explore our Creator's world. Kids, discover...

APOLOGETICS
Playing Chess with Little Furry Critters
God’s multifarious and marvelous designs for basic creature needs are so innovatively clever and providentially purposeful that Christ’s...

ACTS & FACTS
Credit Only Our Creator
History was my favorite subject as a young kid. But it always puzzled me when my teachers said, “We study history so that we don’t repeat...

ACTS & FACTS
Genomic Tandem Repeats: Where Repetition Is Purposely Adaptive
Tandem repeats (TRs) are short sequences of DNA repeated over and over again like the DNA letter sequence TACTACTAC, which is a repetition of TAC three...

ACTS & FACTS
Dinosaur National Monument: Fossil Graveyard of the Flood
Straddling the border of Utah and Colorado, Dinosaur National Monument (DNM) is one of the richest exposures of dinosaur fossils in the world.1...

ACTS & FACTS
The Transforming Influence of Genesis: Worker Dignity and Safety
When Pharisees questioned the Lord Jesus about marriage, He answered by quoting Genesis 1:27: “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made...

NEWS
Giant ''Meg'' Shark: Longer and Leaner?
Fossil remains of the giant shark Otodus megalodon have been found in Miocene1 and Pliocene2 rock layers, which ICR scientists...

CREATION.LIVE PODCAST
Searching for Truth Across the Globe | Creation.Live Podcast:...
How can we bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of creation to others outside our small spheres of influence?   Host...

NEWS
Marine Mammals: Designed for Deep Diving
While you’re reading this, hold your breath. What is now happening is your blood is delivering the last of oxygenated blood cells to your tissues...

CREATION PODCAST
Humanity's Demise at the Hands of Genetic Entropy | The Creation...
Welcome to the fourth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...