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BLASTS EVOLUTION
pulsion of the benzoquinones. Be–
cause of the intense chemical reac–
tion, the bombardier spray is very hot
and has been measured ata tempera·
ture of nearly 100°C, or the temper–
ature of boiling water.
Finally, the protective spray of the
bombardier beetle is not continuous;
instcad, it is pulsed, justas a rapidly
firing machine gun. The discharge
can be heard as a distinctly audible
"pop."
But how could the bombardicr
beetle have
slowly
evolved as evolu–
tionary theory suggests? The crea–
ture contains a complex and elab–
orate systcm for producing, aiming,
and firing an explosive, poisonous
mixture of unstable chemicals. Thc
inner compartments containing thc
two potcntially cxplosive chemicals
must havc always been securely iso–
lated from the outer reaction cham–
ber containing the special enzymes
that initiate the explosion. Unless
everything worked perfectly from the
very beginning, the bombardier bec–
tle could literally have blown himself
January
1980
into extinction-or al least boiled
himself alive!
Nor would the ability to produce
such mini-explosions of noxious
spray have been of mueh survival val–
ue unless the beetle also had the abil–
ity to properly aim the resulting
spray at a potential predator.
Any slow changes in the anatomy
of prebombardier beetles in prepara–
tion for the final configuration of a
yet future bombardier would have
little or no survival value and would
be fraught with danger if the various
chemicals mixed at the wrong time or
in the wrong chamber. Surely a "pro–
to-bombardier" would not have
known that various precursor reac–
tants, enzymes, storage compart–
ments, reaction chambers, mixing
muscles, diaphrams, and cxpulsion
nozzles would "somcday" be useful if
they could somehow be properly
combined in an integrated, function–
ing defense system!
Thus the bombardier bectle is liv–
ing proof of intelligcnt design. The
slow changes of evolutionary theory
A SKUNK OF A BEETLE,
threalened
bombard1er d"ects a nox1ous spray (upper
rtgh/) al /he /hrealenmg forceps that are
pmchmg the bee/le s middle leg. When
tront teg 1s "attacked. ·· beetle accurately
ad¡usts 1fs a1m lo ward off /he intruder Al
lower teft. bombardier 1s shown connecled
lo apparatus des1gned by T. Eisner andO
Aneshansley ot Corne/1 University that
measures fhe temperature of the beeue·s
d1scharge Through use ot fhis deVJce. il
was discovered /ha/ temperature of the
bombardJer ·s spray reached nearly 100°
C SpeC1al glands produce !he explosive
chem,cals used m the beetle ·s spray The
umque structure and complexJ/y ot /he
bombardJer·s defense mechamsm defy
evofullonary explanaflons.
simply cannot account for the abso–
lutely stunning capabilities of thc
bombardier. The beelle's intricate
survival mechanism must have been
fully functional from the day it
was:
created. With every "pop" of its de–
fensive (or is it offensive?) spray,
the bombardier beetle dispenses an–
other blast to the theory
of
evolu–
tion.
o
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