A Lifesaving Mucous Cocoon
Many of us have seen fish out of water that flop all around trying to get back into the water so that they can breathe. Most fish must be in water to breathe,because they have gills that take oxygen from water. They do not have lungs like you and I have, which we use to breathe air.
But did you know that there is a group of fish called lungfish that do have lungs and can breathe air? These lungfish live mostly in Africa, South America, and Australia. Lungfish have bodies that are long and slender like an eel, and some of them can grow up to 6 feet long.
Another amazing feature about certain lungfish is the fact that they can live even when their water hole or pond dries up. When the African lungfish begins to lose its watery home, it burrows down into the mud and creates a cocoon out of mucous. In this cocoon, lungfish leave tiny holes so that they can breathe. The holes are so small that they do not let too much air into the cocoon, which would dry out the fish and kill it.
In this cocoon, the lungfish slows down its body functions and goes into a “sleepy-like” state called estivation (ES-tuh-vay-shun). The lungfish can stay in its cocoon for several months, and some have even been recorded to stay in their mucous co-coon for up to three years. It is reported that the African people dig up the fish—cocoon and all—and save it for anytime they would like to eat fresh fish.
Many evolutionists claim that the lungfish evolved, but that does not make sense. Can you imagine the first lungfish that tried to evolve a mucous cocoon? What if the hole it left in the cocoon was too big? Or what if it did not leave a hole at all? And, how did the lungfish evolve lungs? The truth is, if any tiny item of the lungfish’s system went wrong, the fish would die immediately. It is impossible that the lungfish evolved.
Instead of evolution being responsible for the lungfish, it was God Who created this marvel of nature. God designed the fish so that it would know just how to burrow in the mud, make a mucous cocoon, leave the perfect-size hole for air, and go into its “sleepy” state. Only the intelligent Creator of the Universe could design a fish this amazing. The next time you see a lungfish, or read about one in a book or on the Internet, you should remember that this fish did not evolve. It was created by God.
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