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Discovery Magazine 04/01/2008


Playing Possom

You may have seen this interesting creature climbing a tree or lying on the side of the road. You might have seen one rummaging through your garbage. Its actual name is the Virginia opossum, but most people just call it a possum. Even though you might have seen a possum, you might not know how unique it really is.

The opossum is a marsupial, which means the females carry their babies in a pouch. The babies crawl into the pouch just 13 days after they are conceived. When they arrive there, they are only about the size of a honeybee. They stay in the pouch for about two months, then they move to their mother's back, where they stay for another two weeks. Sometimes, a mother opossum can have 16 babies, so her back can get pretty crowded.

Evolutionists say the opossum is a "living fossil" because the fossils of opossums that are supposed to be 65 million years old look just like the opossums that are living today. The truth is, the entire Universe is only about 6,000 years old, so opossum fossils cannot be millions of years old. If God made opossums (which He did), we would expect them to stay the same and not evolve into other animals, which is exactly what the fossil record shows.

God gave opossums another unique ability. When they are threatened, they can go into a "coma" and pretend to be dead. Sometimes they can stay in their "dead" state for several hours. Because of this, many people use the term "playing possum" to describe someone who is faking something. Opossums are nocturnal. They are also omnivores, which means they eat plants and animals.

The next time you see a furry little pouched opossum, remember all the interesting things God designed it to do, and thank Him for giving us so many examples of His wonderful creative abilities.



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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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