Daily Devotional – September 13

Paleontology

Trilobites once lived on the ocean floor. We have identified many different species of trilobites; most had two compound eyes, some had no eyes, and others had eyes on stalks like snails. But all trilobite eyes have been found to be unique and complex. Their eyes were not made of living cells, but of a see-through-crystal substance like tiny “rock crystals”. That is why the eyes of these creatures were easily fossilized and we can know so much about them. Each compound eye is made up of many single lenses. The optics of these “rock crystals” allowed the trilobite to see things equally well whether they were far away or close up - at the same time! How trilobites were able to do this is very complicated. Each “rock crystal” was made up of two materials. These two lenses were affixed to each other and so designed that they solved the problem of blurriness or spherical aberration. We did not solve these optics problems until Rene Descartes (1637), Christian Huygen (1690), and others addressed the problem. These scientists had to employ difficult mathematical formulas that allow us to enjoy the optics we use today. Yet, the trilobites’ eyes used these laws of optics for their complex lenses.

Trilobites are mostly found in Cambrian rock. The Cambrian layer is near the bottom of the geological column that evolutionists claim contain the fossilized remains of the simplest creatures. Do trilobite eyes sound simple? Dr. Riccardo Levi-Setti, an expert on trilobites, said that the eyes of a trilobite could qualify for a patent. The design of the trilobite eye makes use of Fermat’s principle, the Abbe sine law, Snell’s laws of refraction, and the optics of birefringent crystals. Of course, the God of the universe, who made the trilobite eye, does not need to patent his invention. He owns everything anyway.

One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.

~ Psalm 145:4

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.