The 5th Day
By Chloe Raines
On the 5th day of Creation, God created dolphins. There are
probably about 32 species of marine dolphins and several species of
river dolphins. Some dolphin relatives include belugas, also called
white whales, and narwhales.
Dolphins are very smart and also very curious. There is no known way
to measure their intelligence, but they are thought to be extremely
smart especially in their communication and hunting skills. Dolphins
of a all ages love to play and young dolphins especially are very
energetic and playful. They have been observed playing tug-of-war and
chase.
Dolphins are sometimes called the acrobats of the sea because of the
way they leap and spin. Dusky dolphins can leap from the water and do
backflips, but spinner dolphins are named for their habit of jumping
into the air and spinning as many as seven times before diving back
into the water with a splash. By using their powerful tail muscles,
they can leap as high as 15 feet above water.
When most people think of dolphins, they picture playful bottlenose
dolphins with their long snouts, but there are also several kinds of
dolphins with the word whale in their names, such as the killer whale
and the pilot whale. Killer whales, also called orcas, are the largest
and fastest dolphins, being up to 30 feet long, and reaching speeds up
to 40 mph, while most dolphins swim at about 20 mph. An orca’s dorsal
fin can be up to 6 feet tall. The smallest dolphin, called the tuxuci,
is only 5 feet long.
God created dolphins to be perfectly suited to their life underwater.
A dolphin’s smooth, torpedo-shaped body lets the dolphin slide swiftly
through the water. They use their powerful front flippers to steer and
their dorsal fin helps them to stay upright in the water.
Dolphins have light colored underparts and darker colored backs to
camouflage them in the water. When seen from beneath, with the sun
shining above them through the water, their light bellies make them
hard to see and it’s the same when viewed from above, with their dark
back against the depth of the ocean.
Dolphins, like whales, have a layer of fat, called blubber which helps
to keep them warm. Unlike whales, however, a dolphin’s blubber is only
about an inch thick, whereas whales have about 8 inches to one foot,
depending on the species.
A dolphin’s lungs are designed to be flexible and can actually fold
inward and collapse when the water pressure is too great. This enables
them to dive more than half a mile beneath the surface to hunt. Humans
cannot dive more 150 to 200 feet deep, because the water pressure will
actually crack our lungs.
Dolphins have several amazing God-given senses. One is called
biomagnetism which is like a built-in compass. They are able to detect
changes in the earth’s magnetic field so they do not get lost in the
vast oceans. Another sense that dolphins have is echolocation. They
are literally able to use echoes to locate objects. Dolphins make a
series of clicks called a click train, and listen to echoes bouncing
back off of objects. By using echolocation they can determine the
shape, size, and even the texture of the object and also how far away
it is.
Dolphins have attracted people’s attention for hundreds of years.
These beautiful animals were definitely created by our God, the
creator of all things.
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