The Bible Book of Genesis – Geology, Archaeology, and Theology – Part 13

Genesis 7 & 8: The Cataclysmic Deluge Account – a Worldwide Catastrophe or Local Flood? Part 5

The Geological Record and the Cataclysmic Deluge (part 2)

Fossil deposits – Worldwide Catastrophic Flood or Rare events over Millions of Years?

Formation of Fossils

For fossils to be formed the following requirements must be present.

• The organism dies.
• The body of the organism must be buried rapidly.
• The body of the organism must be buried deeply, not shallowly.
• There needs to be mineralized water permeating the sediment deposit to turn bone into rock.
• There needs to be a lack of oxygen in the sediment to slow or stop decomposition.

However, they do not need millions of years to form. An example of this is what happened in a mine in Australia which was closed in the 1920s and reopened in the 1970s. A miner had left his leather hat there. In 50 years it had become solid calcified ‘rock’ with every molecule of leather (organic material) replaced by calcium and silicon minerals.

Zeehan, West Coast Heritage Centre, Tasmania, Australia.^[1]

From https://greataustraliansecret.com/tasmania/west-coast-tasmania/zeehan/

Soft Tissue remains of Dinosaurs and other creatures

For example, Tyrannosaurus Rex blood vessels and blood cells were found and reported by Mary Schweitzer in 2007.^[2] See Youtube clip of ABC’s 60 Minutes interview^[3] and video of her findings, and an interview of Mary Schweitzer in Science Magazine^[4]. Mary Schweitzer accepts the standard Geological dating of 68 million years ago. She does not agree that these findings support either Creation or the Flood. The Smithsonian Magazine states “This drives Schweitzer crazy. Geologists have established that the Hell Creek Formation, where T. rex was found, is 68 million years old, and so are the bones buried in it. She’s horrified that some Christians accuse her of hiding the true meaning of her data. “They treat you really bad,” she says. “They twist your words and they manipulate your data.”” ^[5]

The majority of the paleontological community found it hard to accept that such material would last 68 million years. For some time they questioned whether it was indeed Tyrannosaurus Rex tissue until further research by Mary Schweitzer and other finds overwhelmingly confirmed that soft tissues and \ or proteins had survived.

The author accepts it is soft tissue, etc, merely questioning the geological age of millions of years assigned to these specimens. The Hell Creek formation suffers extreme heating and cooling cycles, and water penetrates the sandstones all of which would decay tissue and proteins rapidly. Even to have survived some 4,400 years or so since Noah’s flood is nothing short of miraculous.

However, since Mary Schweitzer’s discovery in 2007, further similar soft-tissue discoveries have been made. A good example is that of the horn of the dinosaur Triceratops horridus from the same Hell Creek formation in Montana, USA, in 2012.^[6] The horn was only a foot under the surface and water was underneath it when removed. Lamellar bone matrix with lamellar bone Osteocytes was found. Click here for a YouTube video showing a video of the finding, processing, and structures found under the microscope.^[7]

For further information on the wealth of evidence and types of soft tissue, proteins, etc which have been found please see the article “A Review of Original Tissue Fossils and Their Age Implications.”^[8]

Massive Dinosaur and Fossil Graveyards – Rapid Catastrophic or Slow Natural Processes?

• Numerous mass dinosaur graveyards and other fossil graveyards.
  • Hilda, Northern Alberta, Canada ^[9], right by the border with Saskatchewan. Dated by Geologists at about 76 million years old, the fossil beds are believed to hold thousands of bones over an area of at least 568 acres (2.3 square km), including skeletons that belonged to a roughly cow-sized, plant-eating horned dinosaur known as Centrosaurus.
  • Qhemegha, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, nr Lesotho.^[10] Placed in the Late Triassic period approx. 220 million years old. Includes sauropodomorphs.
  • Dinosaur National Monument, Northern Utah, and Colorado, USA ^[11]. There are more than 1,500 bones from dinosaurs like Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus and Stegosarus. 
  • Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile^[12]. 46 Ichthyosaurs (Water dwelling dolphin-like reptiles).
  • Tanis in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation, USA.^[13] Exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils, catastrophically buried.
  • Ashley Phosphate Beds and associated beds, Charleston, Virginia, USA.^[14] Goose Creek Limestone has Galeocerdo cuvier (much larger than Oligocene Galeocerdo), reef & lemon sharks (Carcharhinus, Negaprion), snaggletooth sharks (Hemipristis serra), sand tiger sharks (Odontaspis/Carcharias), ancient mako (Carcharodon hastalis), and great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias), as well as the coveted Carcharocles megalodon. Pleistocene units have fossils of mammoths, mastodon, camels, horses, tapirs, peccaries, deer, moose, bison, carnivores, porcupines, capybaras, giant beavers, armadillos, glyptodonts, and ground sloths. Truly a massive graveyard.
  • Lance Formation, Hanson Ranch Bonebed, Wyoming^[15]. Catastrophically buried dinosaurs, turtles, alligators; fish such as sunfish, deep-sea bass, chub, pickerel, herring; birds, mammals, insects, and 2-2.5m palm leaves, among others, all buried together, from land, air, and water-dwelling habitats.
  • Frick, Aargau, Switzerland^[16]. 300+ dinosaur bones eg Plateosaurus, (Late Triassic). The bone bed stretches at least 1.5km.
• These bone graveyards are often the same species, e.g. 10,000 duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs?) in Montana, USA; Coelophysis graveyard in New Mexico of 1,000 small dinosaurs (chicken-sized).
  • This is not what happens today in nature, even in catastrophes. Slow chance process or cataclysmic burial?
• The bones of dinosaurs are commonly described as “being buried in a flood”.
• The bones of dinosaurs are often jumbled together rather than individual animals.
  • The only known reasonable cause is by water transportation and deposition.
• The bones of dinosaurs are not weathered at all or very little.
  • This indicates rapid burial, not slow gradual burial. Noticeable weathering or decay can start within hours of death. Slow chance process or cataclysmic burial?
• Bones of baby dinosaurs and young juveniles are rare.
  • Yet typically in times of drought or disaster, the young ones die first. (However, the Flood could easily wash away and disintegrate small dinosaurs, the bigger ones would be more likely to be buried rapidly rather than swept away and destroyed. Slow chance process or cataclysmic burial?
• Hundreds of fossil jellyfish-like creatures have been found in the Australian outback^[17] over an area of 400 square miles.
  • Many of the fossils have exquisite detail. At the rate of decay that jellyfish have, these jellyfish must have been buried and compacted within hours. Slow chance process or cataclysmic burial?
• Clarkia, Idaho, USA contains the Clarkia fossil beds. So far plant leaves of 140 species of trees have been found including Magnolia and Oak. They are decayed but not fossilized. They smell of organic decay, with colors still present of green, red, yellow, and orange. They are found with fish and sponge fossils of marine origin.^[18] Their claimed age is 16 million years old, but DNA fragments are still extractable from the leaves. Yet, today’s processes show that 50% of DNA decays and disappears in a specimen every 500 years (effectively its half-life). The quantities of DNA found being 1/400^th to 1/500^th give a dating of approximately 4,700 years. Is it just a coincidence that this age calculation closely matches the approximate length of time that has gone by since the cataclysmic flood of Noah’s day according to Bible chronology?
• Montceau-les-Mines, France, has a bed containing 100’s of thousands of marine fossils, buried with and among spiders, amphibians, scorpions, millipedes, insects, and reptiles.^[19]
• An Ichthyosaur, Chaohusaurus, which was a dolphin-like reptile, was found having given birth, with a second baby in the process of being born and a third awaiting birth. It can be found in the Anhui Geological Museum in China. This without doubt had to be a catastrophic burial and quick preservation.^[20]

Picture and Diagram of Icythosaur giving birth.

Credits: Motani R, Jiang D-y, Tintori A, Rieppel O, Chen G-b (2014) Terrestrial Origin of Viviparity in Mesozoic Marine Reptiles Indicated by Early Triassic Embryonic Fossils. PLoS ONE 9(2): e88640.^[21]

Fossil Skeletons and Death Throes Pose

Many semi-complete or virtually complete skeletons of land creatures have been preserved with their head and neck bent back over their body. Originally it was thought to be the result of rigor mortis on muscles or water currents, but observation in the real world (with chicken necks put into water), has lead to an understanding that these creatures instead suffered a sudden catastrophic burial (which kept them intact), with immediate complete soaking in water. Why not call it what it is, a sudden catastrophic burial in sediment and water? What about a massive flood?

This pose is common with many full skeletons. A collection of photographs of such fossils can be seen on this website here.^[22]

Archaeopteryx fossils in particular seem particularly prone to this type of burial.^[23]

Archaeopteryx lithographica, Eichstätter specimen, as displayed on the Munich Mineral Show 2009. 

H. Raab (User:Vesta), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fossil Dinosaur footprint Tracks

Any animal making footprints in dry sand or exposed mud will rapidly fill and become indistinct or even obliterated. Experiments have been made which confirm this. Indeed, the reader can confirm this by walking on a sand dune or dry sand on a beach. Likewise with exposed but highly waterlogged mud or sand. Only where the sand or silt or mud was already underwater and then buried rapidly will there be a chance of a distinctive footprint being preserved.

When we examine the fossil record what do we find?

• More than 1 billion dinosaur tracks worldwide.
• Tracks of Dinosaurs that due to body shape and structure, would likely have been poor swimmers, are rarely found.
• Tracks of Dinosaurs that due to body shape, or structure, would likely have been potentially good swimmers are commonly found.
  • This would suggest that the footprints were made by dinosaurs paddling, wading through water, or swimming along, with feet just touching the sediment. Many times only front feet imprints are found indicating swimming or near swimming.
• Tracks are mainly of adult and juvenile dinosaurs. Baby dinosaur tracks are rare.
• Tracks are usually in a straight line or near a straight line.
  • Animals that are grazing usually wander around. They do not move in the straight lines as commonly found in the fossil record.
  • Animals that are trying to escape another animal or something else, such as a flood! usually go in straight lines away from the danger.
• Tracks are on single flat bedding planes, they do not go up hills.
• Tracks of one type of dinosaur can be found hundreds of feet above and allegedly millions of years later than, tracks of the same type of dinosaur, which is mathematically realistically impossible and illogical.
  • On the other hand, if sediment layers were laid down in hours or days as in the Flood, that would be more than possible.

The following pictures, which were all taken by the author in 2006, give photographic confirmation of the above points. They are from Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia, and the whole site was proposed to be a UNESCO World Heritage site, although it seems that was later rejected.

Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia

The site on a slab of oolitic fossiliferous limestone is absolutely enormous. It is 1.2km long and 80 meters high. The main track bearing level has some 12,092 individual footprints, with 465 individual trails in an area of approximately 65,000m². The main groups of Dinosaur tracks found are theropods, ornithopods, ankylosaurs, and sauropods (about 25%). There are a further 8 layers with small amounts of tracks. Tectonic movements since the formation of the fossils have pushed the former flat bed into a near-vertical position at an angle of approximately 73 degrees. It is the largest concentration of dinosaur tracks in the world.

Overview of the scale of the site (1.2km x 80m) high. Note the excavator at the base. Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia. (Author copyright)

Above: Two sets of parallel tracks in straight lines. Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia. (Author copyright)

Possibly Stegosaurid Tracks

Above: Closeup of large Dinosaur footprints (again in a straight line), Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia. (Author copyright) Possible Sauropod footprints like Brontosaurus.

Note above the scale and the straight lines of the footprints. Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia. (Author copyright) Possible Ankylosaur (vertical) crossed by possible Therapod like Tyrannosaurus.

Above: A close-up of a large dinosaur footprint with a hand for scale. Cal Orck’o, Sucre, Bolivia. (Author copyright)

Tentative identifications of the tracks the author photographed were made with the help of the following articles in Science Direct 4.1.2^[24] and this diagram^[25].

(Image La gaveta)

Unexpected features of Dinosaur Eggs and Nests

• Very few nests have structures, only about 6 have been found with a proper nest structure.
• Little or no vegetation is associated with the eggs.
• Eggs are usually found laid on flat bedding planes.
• Eggs are quite porous, and the Embryo would dry out, yet many more embryos are found than expected.
• Many Egg clutches are found to be double-shelled perhaps indicating the mother was stressed at the time. It is interesting to note that this double-shelled phenomenon is documented with chickens. It is formed by the result of a reverse peristalsis contraction. When chickens are stressed the egg can receive an extra calcium layer or a completely separate second shell.

Even in a flood situation, the dinosaur mother would still have to lay her eggs. When they come, they come! A flood would also explain the lack of nest structures, the little or no vegetation, the double shelling due to stress, and the lack of time for the embryo to dry out.

A review of the pictures online^[26] of fossil dinosaur egg finds support the above first two points. (Ignore the artistic recreations of nests!)

Fossilized nest of oviraptorosaurid eggs. The specimen is held in the Paleowonders Fossil and Mineral Museum, Taiwan (catalog number 0010403018).^[27]

Polystrate Fossils

Polystrate Fossils are fossils that go through multiple layers of strata. These fossils could not be created without catastrophic burial. If just a part was exposed to the air or water, the fossil (mainly fossilized trees, would start to rot. Slowly being covered with sediment would just not result in the polystrate fossils we find.

For example in Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada, fossil lycopod trees can be found. They are trunks up to a1 meter in diameter (3ft). Although it is known these trees grew to 30 feet tall (9m), at Joggins they are only stumps of about 2ft to 10ft (0.6m-3.3m).

There are the following facts that support rapid sedimentation rather than the claimed slow processes.

• No distinctive soil level is found. Only a few of the trees arise from the organic coal layers.
• The stumps are usually vertical or near vertical and often penetrate two or more strata including thin coal seams.
• These stumps can overlap (vertically) other trees starting in overlying layers. The stump would not have survived long enough for a second forest to grow and collect as peat.
• Well preserved leaves are abundant, which indicates rapid burial.
• A marine tubeworm called Spirorbis is frequently found in association with the fossil trees, implying that all were exposed to seawater.
• Partial Roots and rootlets found are orientated to the current direction discerned from the ripple marks and crossbedding features of the sediments.

Ancient in situ lycopsid, probably Sigillaria, with attached stigmarian roots. The specimen is from the Joggins Formation (Pennsylvanian), Cumberland Basin, Nova Scotia. ^[28]

Conclusion about Rapid or Gradual Processes

The author strongly believes after weighing up the evidence, that the Geological fossil record gives abundant evidence of a worldwide cataclysmic deluge. The evidence for a worldwide flood is mounting up in that the majority of fossil deposits are found to have been created by catastrophic processes over a short period of time, rather than by slow gradual processes over millions of years combined with occasional catastrophic events.

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References

1. https://greataustraliansecret.com/tasmania/west-coast-tasmania/zeehan/ ↑

2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1685849/ ↑

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-K7_H27Wq4 ↑

4. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/i-don-t-care-what-they-say-about-me-paleontologist-stares-down-critics-her-hunt ↑

5. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-shocker-115306469/ ↑

6. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065128113000020?via%3Dihub ↑

7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwgE9MlNCs ↑

8. https://www.icr.org/article/review-original-tissue-fossils-their ↑

9. https://www.livescience.com/8340-world-largest-dinosaur-graveyard-linked-mass-death.html ↑

10. https://natureecoevocommunity.nature.com/posts/54340-exploring-the-dinosaur-graveyards-of-the-eastern-cape ↑

11. https://www.nps.gov/dino/learn/nature/dinosaurs-of-dinosaur.htm ↑

12. https://www.voanews.com/silicon-valley-technology/chiles-torres-del-paine-park-yields-fossil-treasure-trove ↑

13. https://news.ku.edu/2019/03/29/stunning-discovery-offers-glimpse-minutes-following-dinosaur-killer-chicxulub-impact ↑

14. https://coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-ashley-phosphate-beds.html ↑

15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUsooi4vDo ↑

16. https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2007/08/12/3152831.html ↑

17. https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/pages/da729570-2b1a-4591-a7f0-3935aa2f8d5c/files/national-heritage-ediacara.pdf ↑

18. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/idaho/fossil-park-id/ ↑

19. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068314000505 ↑

20. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26975-stunning-fossils-mother-giving-birth/ ↑

21. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0088640 ↑

22. https://www.genesispark.com/exhibits/trivia/death-pose/ ↑

23. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/science/archaeopteryx-fossils-appear-twisted-but-not-because-of-agony.html ↑

24. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0895981120305356#fig1 ↑

25. https://gavetasdemiescritorio.blogspot.com/2014/03/cal-orcko-donde-los-dinosaurios-dejaron.html ↑

26. https://www.google.com/search?q=dinosaur%20nests%20and%20eggs&tbm=isch&tbs=rimg:CTK_1QSAOIhRZYZl-68PIZQ79&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CB4QuIIBahcKEwjw0dzi2_bxAhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQIg&biw=2462&bih=1091 ↑

27. Wiemann J, Yang T, Sander PNN, Schneider M, Engeser M, Kath-Schorr S, Müller CE, and Sander PM., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons ↑

28. Photograph used courtesy of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rygel,_M.C. CC BY-SA 3.0 ↑

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