Holding their breath
The Guinness Book of World Records lists an impossibly long 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds as the human record for holding your breath. So, how do crocodiles manage to stay submerged for hours? They were designed to hold their breath, as their hemoglobin shows. Hemoglobin is a protein complex in the blood which absorbs oxygen when we breath in, then releases it to cells in our bodies. In most vertebrates, oxygen is released in response to the presence of organic phosphate molecules. However, in crocodiles, oxygen is released when bicarbonate is present. This is one key secret to their amazing breath-holding abilities. Switching hemoglobin to respond to bicarbonate instead of organic phosphate would require 21 specific and coordinated protein changes. There is no obvious incremental evolutionary pathway by which this is possible. One researcher noted, "There are lots of can't-get-there-from-here problems in the tree of life." Intelligent researchers can admit that unguided processes can’t produce this change. So, did God create predators with breath-holding superpowers? Well, holding their breath doesn’t make crocodiles carnivores, but it does make them awe-inspiring creatures, even in a fallen world. Reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222018401
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Back together again
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Holding their breath
The Guinness Book of World Records lists an impossibly long 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds as the human record for holding your breath. So, how do crocodiles manage to stay submerged for hours? They were…
They’re watching you
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