Speed By Design

Can you picture driving down the Interstate at the top speed limit and looking out to see me running alongside your car as you travel between 65 and 70 miles per hour?

I am a cheetah, and I have actually been known to reach 71 miles per hour! Did my ancestors realize they needed such speed to catch their prey and adapt their bodies accordingly? Did they just happen to survive because “nature” made so many mistakes (mutations) in their favor? Or did an all-knowing God design them and me for survival?

Many scientists say that I am distinctly different from all other cats, both in my anatomy and my behavior. If the theories of evolution were true, shouldn’t I be pretty much like other cats?

Like most of the cat family, I am an excellent hunter. But unlike most of them, I usually hunt during the day, and am therefore equipped with excellent eyesight. Sometimes I perch on high places to sight the right type of animal, then spring onto my prey. But if I must chase, I usually do it at about half my maximum speed. Then when I’m within a few hundred yards of my prey, I make a lightning dash, swiping the hind legs from under my prey and pouncing on it.

My speed is what I survive on. At top running speed, I cover an amazing 23 feet per stride!

Ancient people captured cheetahs like me and used them to hunt wild game. An emperor in India was said to have kept 1000 cheetahs. How sad for our kind.

Some people say that cheetahs adapted themselves because of their need for survival. But what did my ancestors do before they had all the features needed for speed? Did only the speediest of my kind survive because they chanced to have all or most of the anatomy that made speed possible?

Compare a jet bomber and a railroad car. Isn’t someone planning that one can dart very fast and the other can carry heavy cargo? If you were hired to design a jet bomber, would you use the same materials you would use if building a railroad car? Isn’t intelligence needed to select the materials appropriate for each?

Just look at me! Look at all the highly designed features of me. I have:

A streamlined, greyhound-like body, with light-weight bones, small collar bones and vertical shoulder blades to facilitate speed (Were we able to select “light-weight” for our bones?)

A long heavy tail for balancing during high-speed leaping, also for quickly changing directions and breaking quickly from high speed (How did we keep from summersaulting forward when we tried to stop – before we had such a tail?)

A flexible backbone that stretches and contracts like a spring. As my spine bends upward, my hind legs actually reach ahead of my front legs. And as my spine snaps downward, my legs extend far out in front and in back of my body allowing me to spring an amazing 23 feet per stride! (Imagine a backbone that acts like a spring – without any designer!)

I have a small rounded head set on a long neck (Did my ancestors stretch their necks so often that their necks actually grew longer?)

My eyes have an elongated retinal fovea, giving me a sharp, wide-angle view of my surroundings. (Did we “see” the need for better range of vision and change the shape of our eyes to accommodate our need?)

I have dark tear marks beneath each eye like football players sometimes use for day games enhance my vision by minimizing the sun’s glare.

My Creator gave me extra long legs and complicated muscular systems that increase the rate and length of my stride and give me extra power for each spring. (Did we design our own muscle system? Did you humans – with far more brain power than I – design your own?)

And He designed oversized nostrils and lungs to provide quick air intake that I need for rapid acceleration; my teeth are small to accommodate the extra large nasal passages (Did an exhausted cheetah say, “I really need more air more quickly. I’ll increase the size of my nostrils and grow bigger lungs – and I can get along with smaller teeth”?)

I have oversized liver, heart, and adrenals to facilitate a rapid physical response (Did we decide on the size of our organs?!)

Did you notice my special paw pads and non-retractable claws to increase traction? Even the pads of my toes are specialized. Very hard and sharply pointed forward, they act as cleats when I break from a fast run or make a sharp turn. (You can put cleats on your shoes, but how did the cheetah figure out how to grow special paw and toe pads to serve our needs?)

As a result of these features, I have the ability to accelerate very quickly. From a standing start, it is said that I can reach a speed of 60 miles per hour more quickly than many racing cars!

I depend on my speed to kill my prey. And I often lose my prey to hungry lions and hyenas, because after I make a sprint and kill my prey, I need half an hour to catch my breath before I can eat. So once I have my prey at hand I devour it as soon as I can. I even know where to start to get maximum benefit fast – I consume the hind quarters of my prey first, because these have the largest concentration of protein – how did I find that out? A GOOD DESIGNER!

I would say that I am another of God Almighty’s awesome designs! And I love it!

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