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This article is from
Creation 16(4):35, September 1994

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Editor’s note: As Creation magazine has been continuously published since 1978, we are publishing some of the articles from the archives for historical interest, such as this. For teaching and sharing purposes, readers are advised to supplement these historic articles with more up-to-date ones suggested in the Related Articles and Further Reading below.

The strange case of the Yum Yum dog

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While vacationing in Lahaina, Hawaii, my wife and I happened to see a most unusual exhibit at the Whaler's Village Museum. Among all sorts of whale exhibits stood a full-sized model of a dog within a plexiglass case. The model was equipped with an audio system which through the day emitted a pre-recorded growl followed by 'yum, yum, yum'.

I asked the lady at the counter, who had to listen to the display all day, what it was all about. She said it demonstrated how a dog-like animal was the ancestor of whales.

I asked how she knew that. She said she was told that a tooth had been found which was evidence that the dog-like creature had evolved into a whale.

“See, it's right here in the book”, she said, as she pointed to an artist's full-colour rendition in a children's book on whales.

The transitional tooth intrigued my wife, so she wrote to the museum curator politely asking for more information. She received no reply.

The model was equipped with an audio system which through the day emitted a pre-recorded growl followed by ‘yum, yum, yum’.

Years ago I had the opportunity to train dolphins at a marine aquarium. It was in my best interest to learn something of the nature of the dolphins' teeth and whales' teeth, for I had some concern that they may become embedded in my fingers as I hand-fed these animals fish such as mackerel and smelt.

Not only did I learn that dolphins have small round teeth, but I also learned they have sonar which enables them to differentiate between my finger and the fish. Thankfully they preferred the latter.

While there, I also learned that the tooth structure helps differentiate dolphins from porpoises. I have swum with these beautiful animals, and in so doing inspected their teeth 'up close'. Never did I see any structure which resembled a dog's tooth. And the reverse holds for my dog's teeth.

The fabrication of a dog ancestor of the whales with a pre-recorded 'growl, growl, yum, yum, yum' voice, all from a supposed single tooth, was more than I could swallow. But then again, the gullible might be coaxed into believing that the 'yum, yum, yum' sound was only an early form of sonar!

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