Tag: God’s stuff

Mammals that Lay Eggs

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi, Mr. Nature here again!

This cute little animal trundling along is a spiny anteater, or echidna–and along with the more famous duck-billed platypus, it’s one of only a very few mammals that… well, lay eggs!

It’s warm-blooded, but not as warm-blooded as regular mammals. It feeds its babies (when they hatch) on breast milk; but it doesn’t have proper nipples. We begin to wonder if these really are mammals, after all.

Ignore the Darwinian fairy tale that comes packaged with this video. If it weren’t for the intense politics involved, Darwinism would’ve bitten the dust quite a while ago. We can’t help wanting to gain a better understanding of the world and how it works, so scientific theories come and go–except for the ones that get a political constituency.

But the echidnas and the platypuses know nothing of politics or scientific theories. They are as God created them, and so are we–complete with our God-given urge to always try to find out more.

Gigantic Prehistoric Armadillos

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Image result for glyptodons

Hi, Mr. Nature here. We’ve been sort of on an armadillo kick around here lately, so let me introduce you to a prehistoric armadillo that was roughly the size and shape of a classic Volkswagen Bug.

They were called glyptodons and there were a number of different species. They aren’t actually armadillos, but the DNA in their fossils suggests they were closely related to modern armadillos. They lived in South America, with a few eventually moving north and winding up in Florida–sort of like humans, when we move south.

Glyptodons are now extinct, which is only to say there don’t seem to  be any of them left on earth. But God created them and pronounced them good, and has the entire universe at His disposal. It may be that someday we’ll see glyptodons again–and I’d like that very much.

Bonus Video: Funny Armadillos

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

As promised yesterday, here’s some armadillo video, this from the Oatland Wildlife Center in Savannah, Georgia.

Observe: what are these armadillos doing? Well, gathering straw–maybe to make a bed. There’s plenty of straw: so why does one try to take the other’s bundle of straw? What’s going on here? Would we understand it if we were armadillos, too?

God must have had some fun, creating these.

Sanity Break: Cuddly Owls

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Until youtube came along, who ever guessed that owls are… cuddly? I mean, who knew anybody who had a pet owl?

How did God ever think of creating these birds? The more closely you look at them, the more–well, unusual–they seem to be. Nevertheless, they can be cuddly.

Memory Lane: Miller Dinosaurs

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

See the source image

Remember these? They’re some of the glorious wax dinosaurs produced in the 1950s by the Miller Company.

These have always been among my all-time favorite toys. Dinosaurs and long-lost giant mammals have always fascinated me, and I think these Miller toys from my childhood had a lot to do with that.

Amazingly, I still have a couple of them–a large Stegosaurs (left, in the picture) and a small one. It’s amazing because these toys were incredibly fragile. The sabertooth tiger’s tail, the Triceratops’ horns, the mammoth’s tusks–these would break off if you just looked at them too hard. The Brontosaur’s head had a penchant for snapping off, but you could always tape it back on with black electrical tape–and in any position you wanted, too.

Miller also produced wonderful Space Aliens, which I’ll visit some other time: I liked those, too.

Dinosaurs and mammoths and the like are not here anymore. All I know is that the God who created them pronounced them good and has the whole universe at His disposal.

Maybe someday He’ll show us where He’s put them. These are among the most radically cool examples of all God’s stuff, and I’d just love to see them.

Nature Break: Armadillo

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi, Mr. Nature here–and I stumbled over this interesting armadillo video while looking for something else. So now I know why these critters appear to walk on tiptoe. It’s because they are walking on tiptoe. They have long claws for digging up termites, which they eat.

More of God’s cool stuff!

Beautiful Tiger Swallowtail

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi, Mr. Nature here–and I just can’t let the summer pass without saluting one of my favorite critters, the tiger swallowtail butterfly. Happily, they’re not uncommon around here. I saw a nice one this morning.

The one in this video is a male. The females have a border of metallic blue spots along the bottom of their wings; and some females have black wings. I always thought that was another species, but I was wrong.

As man’s stuff continues to deteriorate, God’s stuff is still going strong-and this is one of the most beautiful examples of it.

It would be a sorry world that had to do without butterflies!

Nature Treat: The Luna Moth

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi, Mr. Nature here–and would you believe it? I’ve never in my life seen one of these beautiful creatures in the flesh: the luna moth. The map says they live where I live, but I’ve never, ever, seen one.

Note how trustingly the moth perches on the man’s finger. I guess you have to, if your wings got rained on and they’re too wet to fly.

This moth is one of God’s loveliest creations.

I do hope I see one someday.

The Katydids’ Song

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Mr. Nature here–and good grief, where did the summer go?

I couldn’t let it pass without posting one of my favorite sounds of summer–the night-time chorus of the katydids.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy God’s stuff.

My Friend, the Enormous Stingray

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi! Mr. Nature here, with some more of the strange and fascinating stuff that God has included in His creation.

Here we see a boy playing with a humongous stingray–not an activity I would personally recommend. After all, a stingray that size could kill you dead with one thrust of his stinger. But this child pets it, talks to it, and even feeds it, and comes to no harm.

My question is, what’s going through the stingray’s mind? We have no idea what kind of mind it has. Is it enjoying this little play session? And if you were a stingray, how would you process this experience? I mean, this is so far off the beaten path, I hardly know what to start wondering about.

Just a reminder of how little we truly know, and how much remains to be learned and understood…