The master diver: Pelamis

With skills superior than a diver, Pelamis, which is a species of sea snake, proves the perfection of the way Allah creates…

The habitat of the yellow bellied sea snake (Pelamis platarus) is the coasts of South-East Asia, North Australia and river mouths. Pelamis is a relatively small snake. With its maximum 80 cm. length, it weighs no more than 200 grams. Its venom  in its tiny tooth which is about 1,5 mm. is about 5 times more venomous than that of the cobra. 3 thousandth of 1 gr. venom of a Pelamis is lethal for a human being. (Bilim ve Teknik [Science and Technique], “Sea Snakes are Coming”, April 1991 p.34)

In their studies, Ira Rubinoff, Jorge Motta and Jeffrey Graham from Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute confirmed that these snakes spend 87 percent of their time under the water. Pelamis surfaces only for a second to breathe, which is a quite well performance for underwater.

The Superior diving technique of Pelamis

Pelamis has a single lung that extends from its head to its tail. The lung covers 10 percent of the body volume while it is full of air and provides oxygen to the snake which is underwater only for about 17 minutes. However research reveals that some dives extend to 50 m deep and last about 213 minutes. This performance of Pelamis becomes possible by the snake’s ability to use its lungs in a way to control the buoyancy of water. Before diving to the deep sea the snake fills its lung with air. The air it intakes is about 20 percent of its body. The diving takes place in four stages. In the first stage it dives with a speed of 5 m. per minute. As it dives deeper, the pressure of water increases and the lungs of the animal contracts. In the second stage, while the snake continues to dive with a 1,7 m per minute, it reaches a critical depth, at which point its own weight and the buoyancy of water are stabilized. At this point the animal comes to the end of its diving and starts rising to the surface. In the third stage, the snake rises slowly, at a speed of 0,11 m per minute. In the last stage the snake rises to the surface with a speed of 3-4 m per minute. For such a dive the animal fills its lung with air proportional with the depth it will dive. During this dive Pelamis also receives one third of the oxygen it needs from the water through its skin.
    
Special Circulatory System designed for diving

The snake has a heart that sends the dirty blood both to the lung and sub dermal capillary vessels for oxygen intake and to the body cells so as to deliver the remaining oxygen. This circulatory system peculiar to the snakes ensures that the nitrogen collected in the blood out is thrown out. This is of vital importance, for otherwise, by rapidly turning into gas state, the nitrogen that dissolves in blood in great amounts under pressure may cause the snake to be crippled by the bends.  (Harun Yahya, For Men of Understanding)

Allah grants appropriate features to each living being so that they can survive in their habitat. This delicate system peculiar to Pelamis is only one of the signs of Allah’s Might and Glory manifested all around the universe:
 

He to Whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly. (Surat al-Furqan, 2)