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Discovery Magazine 06/01/2007


Amazing Traveling Turtles

The race was on. The prize was one million dollars. The goal was to travel across the Mojave Desert. The vehicles in the race cost lots of money. They were loaded with all kinds of devices to help them steer, avoid dangerous obstacles, and keep them on course. These vehicles were supposed to travel 142 miles to their destination. But something happened. None of the vehicles finished the race. In fact, they all wrecked, broke, or quit working. The one that went the farthest only went 7.4 miles, and then it ran into something and caught on fire. What was the problem? There were no drivers. The vehicles were robots. Intelligent engineers were trying to build machines that could travel 142 miles without drivers. But they failed.

Did you know that God successfully designed animals that accomplish even greater things than going 142 miles across a desert? That's right. One of these animals is the sea turtle. Sea turtles are amazing because they have built-in systems that help them travel thousands of miles through the oceans and get to exactly where they want to go.

Mother sea turtles crawl onto beaches, dig holes in the sand, lay their eggs, cover them up, and crawl back into the ocean. When the baby turtles hatch, they dig out of the sand and crawl toward the water. When they reach the water, their built-in guiding system helps them swim out into the deep water. Once they are out of sight of the beach, they do not get turned around and accidentally swim back. They are so well-designed that they swim to special feeding areas thousands of miles away from the beach where they were born.

After many months of traveling thousands of miles, the females return to the exact same beach where they were born. There they lay their eggs and the process starts again. How do the turtles find their way back? Scientists aren't sure. They think that the turtles have a way to use the Earth's magnetic field to find their way home. One thing is for sure. Intelligent humans haven't learned to build robotic vehicles that can travel just 142 miles by themselves. But sea turtles can travel thousands of miles back to the exact same beach where they were born. Therefore, we know the turtles must have been designed by Someone more intelligent than humans. The truth is, God designed the turtles and gave them their built-in guiding system.



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Advanced Reader: Amazing Teeth Designed by God

by Eric LyonsGod’s “fingerprints” are all around us (Psalm 19:1; Isaiah 6:3)—even in the structures we call teeth. From the elephant’s 10-foot-long tusks to the beaver’s buckteeth, children will enjoy improving their reading skills while learning about the brilliantly designed teeth of several amazing creatures.

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