Articles

The Butterfly That "Invented" Velcro

Robert E. Kofahl & Kelly L. Segraves

The Monarch butterfly is a bundle of miracles in its sequence of metamorphoses during development from egg to butterflyanatomy, behavioral instincts, transcontinental migrations, and precision navigation. 11 One anatomical structure which is essential to the survival of the species is the cremaster possessed by the chrysalis. The four stages of development are egg, caterpillar, chrysalis (or pupa), and butterfly. In three days the egg, 1/20th inch long, hatches a baby caterpillar, 1/10th inch long. Stuffing itself with milkweed leaves for three weeks, the caterpillar sheds its skin three times and grows to a length of 1.2 inches. One day the handsome black, white and yellow caterpillar spins a little button of silk on the undersurface of a twig. Then it marches along under the twig and attaches its two hind pseudo feet to the silk button. After a while it lets go of the twig and hangs head down from the silk button. Soon the caterpillar begins convulsing, and its skin splits at the head and starts to roll up so the light green shell of the chysalis can be seen. In only about 45 seconds the skin has entirely rolled up, exposing the entire chrysalis. Now the hind feet of the caterpillar, connected to the chrysalis only by the inside lining of the hind gut, provide the only connection of the chrysalis to the twig. If the skin should separate now, the chrysalis would drop to the ground. In this case, when the butterfly emerged eight days later, the wings would probably be damaged and the insect would perish. But in the flick of an eyelash, a black rod-like cremaster is thrust from the hind end of the blind chrysalis and into the silk. On its end is a bulb covered with several hundred microscopic hooks. This is the perfect device to hook into the button of silk on the first pass. Immediately the chrysalis twists the cremaster several times to screw it tightly into the silk. Now the chrysalis is securely attached to the twig, and the discarded skin falls to the ground. The whole dramatic transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis took only 60 seconds!

So who invented Velcro? The Monarch butterfly invented it! Or did accidental, purposeless, unplanned evolution invent it? The author challenges the entire evolutionary science establishment to explain how evolution created this device and the coordinated instinctive behavior. Remember that this highly integrated system of structural design and the sequence of instinctive behaviors must work without fail if the species is to survive. All the other marvelous mysteries of the creature become useless and impossible if the cremaster and the button of silk do not exist, and if the chrysalis does not have the instinctive behavior to use them correctly. What kind of system existed before this system was "invented" by evolution? What sequence of trial and error mutations and natural selection had to take place to perfect this system? How could the species survive while this was happening? There are no satisfactory scientific answers to these questions, no testable scientific theories. It is not the least bit "unscientific" for us to conclude that God created the Monarch and that God designed Velcro.

I am reminded of a a conversation between two robots in the newspaper cartoon, "Frank and Ernest." One robot is holding in his mechanical hand a copy of Darwin's Origin of Species. He says to his associate, "Nuttiest research and development program I ever heard of!"

http://www.parentcompany.com/creation_explanation/cx1b.htm