We are all familiar with vocalizations in the animal world. For example, dogs bark, birds sing, frogs croak, and whales send forth their own distinct sounds.¹ Recently, a detailed investigation has been conducted to determine sounds made by animals previously thought to be mute.

A group of zoologists led by the University of Zurich declare that, “Their study includes evidence for 53 species of four major clades of land vertebrates – turtles, tuataras, caecilians and lungfishes – in the form of vocal recordings and contextual behavioral information accompanying sound production.”² The ScienceDaily article stated, “Many turtles, for example, which were thought to be mute are in fact showing broad and complex acoustic repertoires.”²

We read repeatedly in Genesis 1 that God created creatures after their kind. As such, it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that many (and possibly all) have unique sound production. “Acoustic communication is not only widespread in land vertebrates like birds and mammals, but also in reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.”²

Evolutionists deny the biblical record of creation and must posit a naturalistic origin of complex acoustic communication in animals. “Our results now show that acoustic communication did not evolve multiple times in diverse clades, but has a common and ancient evolutionary origin,” concludes the study leader Marcelo Sánchez.²

But not only did such communication not evolve multiple times, it most certainly did not evolve from some ethereal, unknown creature in deep evolutionary time. As the late non-creationist Tom Bethell stated, “Common descent is a deduction from Darwin’s theory, but it has never been demonstrated.”³

The research team also appealed to the highly questionable tree of life, “Combined with data of well-known acoustic clades like mammals, birds, and frogs, the researchers were able to map vocal communication in the vertebrate tree of life.”²

Dr. Casey Luskin stated in regard to this tenuous theory,

The truth is that common ancestry is merely an assumption that governs interpretation of the data, not an undeniable conclusion. Whenever data contradicts expectations of common descent, evolutionists resort to a variety of ad hoc rationalizations to save common descent from being falsified.⁴

The fossil record shows the sudden appearance of all the animal groups complete and fully formed without evidence of their evolution.⁵

Scripture says that God created each type after its kind 10 times in [Genesis 1] (see Genesis 1: 11-12, 21, 24-25). It seems that the writer of Scripture went out of his way to insist that animals and plants were created fully formed as particular kinds and did not get here by altering previous existing kinds, nor do they change into other basic kinds.⁶

But for evolutionists, not only are animals’ origins unknown, but that of their acoustic communication is equally unknown.

Despite its importance, little is known about when and at what stage in the evolutionary history of vertebrates this behavior first appeared. Comparative analyses can provide insights into the evolutionary origin of acoustic communication, but they are often plagued by missing information from key groups that have not been broadly studied.²

Writing in Nature Communications, Jorgewich-Cohen et al. state, “We suggest a single origin of acoustic communication in the last common ancestor of all Choanata [the Tetrapodomorpha—a clade of vertebrates] over 400 million years before present (mybp).”⁷ This last common ancestor is unknown, of course. The authors continue, “In support of this, vertebrate hearing epithelia and cerebral promotor circuits that control vocal behaviours are considered to be homologous and operate in the same hindbrain compartment, respectively.”⁷

Homology is a circular evolutionary concept,⁸ and is a “controversial term” according to some evolutionists.⁹ Could it be that vertebrates share similar anatomical features because they were created according to a common plan, by a common Creator?

God created all animals after their kind, complete with sophisticated vocal abilities.

References

1. Sherwin, F. Humpback Whale Calls Echo Creation. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org March 24, 2025.
2. Vocal Communication Originated over 400 Million Years Ago. University of Zurich. Posted on sciencedaily.com. August 25, 2022.
3. Bethell, T. 2016. Darwin’s House of Cards. Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute, 153.
4. Luskin, C. A Primer on the Tree of Life (Part 1): The Main Assumption. Evolution News and Views. Posted on evolutionnews.org May 5, 2009.  
5. Morris, J. and F. Sherwin. 2010. The Fossil Record. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
6. Morris, J. 2014. The Limits of Variability. Acts & Facts. 43 (8): 17.
7. Jorgewich-Cohen, G. et al. 2022. Common Evolutionary Origin of Acoustic Communication in Choanate Vertebrates. Nature Communications. 13 (1), article 6089.
8. Guliuzza, R. 2010. Similar Features Show Design, Not Universal Common Descent. Acts & Facts. 39 (10): 10–11.
9. Thain, M and M. Hickman. 2004. The Penguin Dictionary of Biology. Penguin Books, New York. 353.

Stage image: Protopterus annectens, African lung fish
Stage image credit: Cedricguppy - Loury Cédric, CC BY-SA 4.0. Used in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holder.

* Dr. Sherwin is a news writer at the Institute for Creation Research. He earned an M.A. in invertebrate zoology from the University of Northern Colorado and received an honorary doctorate of science from Pensacola Christian College.