Unintelligent Design III: Whale Leg Bones

This image shows leg bones removed from a humpback whale captured off the coast of Britih Columbia in 1919, including femur, tibia, tarsus and metatarsal. The whale had two symmetrical hind legs, which were over four feet long and covered in normal blubber and skin. There's no doubt that this whale was a rare anomaly, and that its legs were a mutation, but why would a whale possess the genes for making hind legs in the first place? It seems that either whales evolved from four-legged land-dwelling animals, or that God was, let's say, a little sloppy when he magicked them out of thin air.

You can read more about vestigial organs here.

Unintelligent Design II: The Panda's Thumb

The Panda's Thumb is a much more serious and scientific blog countering creationism, and I recommend it. It's named after a very famous piece of unintelligent design. A panda's paw consists of five digits each with a claw, similar to a regular bear. But pandas also have a sixth digit, a rudimentary opposably thumb that evolved from a small bone called a radial sesamoid, which in bears and other creatures is only used for strengthening connective tissue. Pandas can press this thumb against their palms and use it to grip bamboo shoots. If the panda had been designed for eating bamboo, it would make much more sense to have a "proper" opposable thumb like the rest of us.


You can read more about the panda's thumb here.

Unintelligent Design I: The Brain of the Giant Squid

The giant squid has a donut-shaped brain, with its oesophagus passing straight through the hole in the middle. This means that it has to chew up its food very thoroughly. If it tried to swallow something too large, it could suffer brain damage.