Sonar Inside a Dolphin’s Skull

A dolphin can distinguish between two different metal coins under water in complete darkness and up to 3 kilometers away. Does it see that far? No, it does this without seeing. It can make such accurate determinations by means of the perfect design of an echolocation system inside its skull. It gathers very detailed information on shape, size, speed and structure of near objects.

It takes some time for a dolphin to master the skills needed to use such a complicated system. While an experienced adult dolphin can detect most objects through a few signals, a juvenile has to experiment for years.

Dolphins do not use their echolocation just to detect their surroundings. Sometimes they group during feeding and emit high-pitched sounds so powerful that they dazzle their prey, which are then ready to be picked up. An adult dolphin produces sounds inaudible to humans (20,000 Hz. and above). The focusing of soundwaves is done in several areas of the dolphin's head. The melon, which is a fatty structure in the dolphin's forehead, serves as an accaustical lens and focuses the clicks of the dolphin into a narrow beam. Therefore, the dolphin can direct the clicks at will by moving its head. It can direct these waves at will by moving its head.

The clicks immediately echo back when they hit any obstacle. The lower jaw acts as a receptor, which transmits the signals back to the ear. On each side of the lower jaw is a thin bony area, which is in contact with a lipid material. Sound is conducted through this lipid material to the auditory bullae, a large vesicle. Then the ear forwards the data to the brain, which analyses and interprets the meanings. A similar lipid material also exists in the sonar of whales.

Different lipids (fatty compounds) bend the ultrasonic (sound waves above our range of hearing) sound waves traveling through them in different ways. The different lipids have to be arranged in the right shape and sequence in order to focus the returning sound waves. Each separate lipid is unique and different from normal blubber lipids and is made by a complicated chemical process that requires a number of different enzymes. This sonar system in dolphins could not possibly have developed gradually, as claimed by the theory of evolution. That is because only by the time the lipids would have evolved to their final place and shape, could the creature have made use of this crucial system. In addition, support systems like the lower jaw, the inner ear system and the analysis centre in the brain would all have to be fully developed. Echolocation clearly is an "irreducibly complex" system, which for it to have evolved in phases is simply impossible. Hence, it is obvious that the system is another flawless creation of God.