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Scientific facts which annihilate evolutionary theory
The Evolution Cruncher
Chapter 12 Part 2 of 3
Fossils and Strata
Click here for Part 1 or Part 3
7 - ABRUPT APPEARANCE
ABRUPT
APPEARANCE OF THE HIGHER TAXA—(*#9/22 Abrupt Appearance*) The smaller, slower-moving
creatures appear suddenly in the Cambrian. Above the Cambrian, the
larger, faster creatures appear just as suddenly! And when these life-forms do
appear—they appear by the millions! Tigers, salmon, lions, pine trees,
gophers, hawks, squirrels, horses, and on and on!
Evolution
cannot explain this sudden emergence, and competent scientists acknowledge
the fact.
"The
abrupt appearance of higher taxa in the fossil record
has been a perennial puzzle. Not only do characteristic and distinctive remains
of phyla appear suddenly, without known ancestors, but several classes of a
phylum, orders of a class, and so on, commonly appear at approximately the same
time, without known intermediates."—*James W. Valentine and *Cathryn A. Campbell, "Genetic Regulation and the
Fossil Record," in American Scientist, November-December, 1975, p. 673.
"In
spite of these examples, it remains true, as every paleontologist knows, that
most new species, genera, and families, and that nearly all categories about
the level of families, appear in the record suddenly and are not led up to by
known, gradual, completely continuous transitional sequences."—*G.G.
Simpson, The Major features of Evolution (1953), p.
360.
"The
sudden emergence of major adaptive types as seen in the abrupt appearance in
the fossil record of families and orders, continued to give trouble. The
phenomenon lay in the genetic no-man’s land beyond the limits of
experimentation. A few paleontologists even today cling to the idea that these
gaps will be closed by further collecting . . but most regard the observed discontinuities as real and
have sought an explanation."—*D. Dwight Davis, "Comparative Anatomy
and the Evolution of Vertebrates," in Genetics, Paleontology, and
Evolution (1949), p. 74.
8 - STASIS
UNCHANGING
SPECIES—(*#13/17
Stasis*) An
important principle noted by every paleontologist who works with fossils is
known as stasis. Stasis means to retain a certain form, to remain
unchanged; in other words, not to change from one species to another! An important principle noted by every
paleontologist who works with fossils is known as stasis. Stasis
means to retain a certain form, to remain unchanged; in other words, not to
change from one species to another! An important principle noted by every
paleontologist who works with fossils is known as stasis. Stasis
means to retain a certain form, to remain unchanged; in other words, not to
change from one species to another! The problem for the evolutionists is
the fact that the animals in the fossil record did not change. Each
creature first appears in the record with a certain shape and structure. It
then continues on unchanged for "millions of years"; and is either
identical to creatures existing now or becomes extinct and disappears.
But all the while that it lived, there was no change in it; no evolution. There
were no evidences of what paleontologists call gradualism, that is,
gradual changes from one species to another. There was only stasis. The gap
problem (no transitional forms between species) and the stasis
problem (species do not change) ruin evolutionary theories.
"The
history of most fossil species includes two features particularly inconsistent
with gradualism:
"Stasis:
Most species exhibit no
directional change during their tenure on earth. They appear in the fossil
record looking much the same as when they disappear; morphological change is
usually limited and directionless.
"Sudden
appearance: In any
local area, a species does not arise gradually by the steady transformation of
its ancestors; it appears all at once and ‘fully formed.’ "—*Steven Jay
Gould, "Evolution’s Eratic Pace," in
Natural History, May 1977, p. 14.
9 - NO CHANGE FROM PAST TO PRESENT
FOSSILS
SAME AS THOSE NOW ALIVE—All of the fossils can be
categorized into one of two groups: (1) Plants and animals which became extinct
and (2) Plants and animals which are the same as those living today. Neither
category provides any evidence of evolution, for there are no transitional
forms leading up to or away from any of them. All are only distinct species.
Some
creatures became extinct at the time of the Flood or shortly afterward. But all
creatures which did not become extinct are essentially identical—both in fossil
form and in their living counterparts today! This is a major point. No
species evolution has occurred! The fossils provide no evidence of species
evolution!
10 - NOT ENOUGH SPECIES
SHOULD
BE MORE SPECIES—According
to evolutionary theory, a massive number of species changes had to occur in
ancient times, but we do not find evidence of this in the rocks. In order
for one species to change into another, we should find large numbers of
transitional species, partway between one species and another. But this is not
found. A leading paleontologist explains:
"There
are about 250,000 different species of fossil plants and animals known . . In spite of this large quantity of
information, it is but a tiny fraction of the diversity that [according to the
theory] actually lived in the past. There are well over a million species
living today and . . [it is]
possible to predict how many species ought to be in our fossil record.
That number is at least 100 times the number we have found."—*David M. Raup, "Conflicts between
(1)
The fossil evidence does not have enough different species, and (2) it reveals
no successively evolving species in ancient times.
But,
in addition, the fossil experts admit that far too many "new
species" names have been applied to fossils which have been found. Consider
this:
CONFUSION
IN NAMES—At this point
we shall mention a technical point that only adds to the confusion as paleontologists
try to search for the truth about the fossils. It also gives the impression of
far more extinct species in the fossil record than there actually are.
Fossil
hunters have the practice of giving different names to the same species if it
is found in rocks of different periods! *Dr. Raup, head paleontologist
at the Field Museum of Natural History in
"Dr.
Eldredge [
"Would
not this practice make a lot more species? Dr. Raup [
Obviously,
such a practice deepens the problem for the experts. In this chapter our
concern will be with underlying facts and principles, yet the doubling
and tripling of names for the same fossil species only makes it harder for the
experts to extract themselves from their Darwinian muddle.
"An
assistant of Dr. Eldredge, who was studying trilobite
fossils at the
The
experts tell us there are "millions of species," when there are not that many. Taxonomists
are the men who classify and give names to plants and animals. Among them, the "splitters"
are the ones who find it easier to make up new names than to go to the
trouble of properly identifying a specimen in hand.
"We
all know that many apparent evolutionary bursts are nothing more than
brainstorms on the part of particular paleontologists. One splitter in a
library can do far more than millions of years of genetic mutation."—*V.
Ager, "The Nature of the Fossil Record,"
Proceedings of the Geological Association, Vol. 87, No. 2, 1976, p. 132
[Chairman of the Geology Department,
(See
chapter 11, Plant and Animal Species, for more on this.) It is
well-known among the experts that there are far more splitters out there
than lumpers,—simply because applying a new
name for a fossil is easier and brings more fame than going through all the
drudgery of researching into who had earlier named it.
*Edward
Cope and *Othniel Marsh were two major museum fossil
collectors in
"Sadly,
in the later bitter rivalry between Cope and Marsh, Leidy
[an earlier fossil collector] was all but forgotten. Paleontologist Henry
Fairfield Osborn, director of the
11 -
LARGER ANCIENTLY THAN TODAY
LARGER
FOSSILS ANCIENTLY—It is
an intriguing fact that, if the fossil evidence supported any species
modification, it would be devolution—not evolution! Ancient plants and
animals were frequently much larger than any now living. Not only do we
find no crossing over the species line among fossils, but we also discover that
species are not evolving, but degenerating with the passing of time.
A
cardinal principle of evolutionary theory is that creatures must evolve into
more complexity as well as bigger size. But the fossil record bears out neither
theory. There is clear
evidence of the complexity to be found in invertebrates, the supposedly
"lowest" form of life. But there is a size differential as well:
"[Edward
Drinker] Cope is known to many students only for ‘Cope’s
Law,’ which asserts, roughly speaking, that everything goes on getting
bigger . . Alas, it is not generally
true. The modern tiger is smaller than the sabre-toothed
tiger of the last ice age . . The horsetails of our
ditches are tiny compared with the sixty-foot [18 m] horsetails of the
Carboniferous. And where are the giant snails of the early Cambrian or the
giant oysters of the Tertiary?"—*G.R. Taylor, Great Evolution Mystery
(1983), p 122.
The
Bible indicates that in ancient times, people lived longer and were much
larger. So it should not be surprising that extinct creatures were
frequently larger than those alive today. They probably lived longer too. Among
the fossils we find the following:
Plants: (1) Enormous plants once existed, far exceeding anything
alive today. (2) Fifty-foot [152 dm] high ferns with 5-6 foot [15-18 dm]
fronds. (3) Scouring rushes grew to a width of 12 inches [30.48 cm] in
diameter. (4) One-hundred-foot [30.4 dm] high scale trees, with trunks
4-6 feet [12-18 dm] in diameter are found only in fossil form. None are alive
today.
Small
sea life: (5) Giant trilobites up to 18
inches [45.72 cm] long, with none alive today, and the creatures now living and
most similar to them are quite small. (6) Fifteen-foot [457 cm] long
straight-shelled cephalopods (Enckiceras proteiforme), and [9-foot 1274 cm] sea scorpions
(Euryprids) once lived. Nothing of such
immense sizes is found among them today. Those fossil Euryprids
were the largest arthropods that ever lived.
Insects: (7) Some insects were 4 to 8 inches [10.16-20.32 cm] in
length. Dragonflies had a wingspread of 29 inches [73.66 cm], and some centipedes
were 12 inches [30.48 cm] in length.
Amphibians: (8) Today’s amphibians are small salamanders or frogs. But
in the past, there were the giants of Stegocephalia,
of which Onychopus gigas alone weighed 500 pounds [226.8 kg].
Larger
marine life: (9) How would you like to meet a shark
with jaws 6 feet [183 cm] across? That is what sharks were like in ancient
times. (10) Basilosaurus was a
marine mammal with a 4-foot [12 dm] head, 10-foot [30 dm] long body, and 40-foot
[12.2 m] tail.
Birds: (11) Diatiyma looked
somewhat like an ostrich, but was 7 feet [21 dm] tall and had a head as big as
a horse. (12) The Phororhacos was
nearly 8 feet [24 dm] tall with a skull 23 inches [58.42 cm] across. (13) Dinornis was 10-feet [30.5 dm] tall,
and was the largest bird that ever lived.
Larger
mammals: (14) The Mongolian Andresarchus had a skull 2½ feet [76 dm]
long, and was one of the largest carnivores ever to live. (15) Imagine meeting
a long-horned rhinoceros 14 feet [4.3 m] tall? Another rhinoceros, Baluchiterium, was 13 feet [40 dm] high and
25 feet [76 dm] long. (16) There were huge wooly mammoths, gigantic
hairy mastodons, and 14-foot [43 dm] tall imperial mammoths. (17) Giant armadillos
once lived, and ground sloths as big as
elephants. (18) Pigs (Entelodonts) were
6 feet [18dm] high. (19) One bison (Bison latifrons)
had a 6-foot [18 dm] horn spread.
Reptiles: (20) Crocodile-like phytosaurs
were 25 feet [76 dm] long, and dolphin-like ichthyosaurs were
30 feet [91 dm] in length. (21) There were 35-foot [171 dm] long marine
reptiles (Mosasaurs) and 11-foot [34
dm] marine turtles (Archelon). (22) The
Pteranodon had a 25-foot [76 dm]
wingspread. (23) And then there were gigantic land reptiles, including the
45-foot [137 dm] Tyrannosaurus Rex, the 65-foot [189 dm]
long Brontosaurus, the 10-ton [9,072 kg] Stegosaurus,
and the 80-foot [244 dm] long Diplodocus. The Brachiosaurus
was 50 feet [152 dm] tall, 100 feet [305 dm] in length, and weighed 80
[72.5 mt] tons. That would make it approximately
three times as large as the largest dinosaur now known, and place it in the
range of size of the blue whale—called the largest creature on earth.
In
1971, three specimens of the largest bird were found in
12 - REVIEWING THE BASIC FOSSIL EVIDENCE
THE
MISSING TREE—The fossil record does not
present a "family tree"; for there is no trunk and no
branches; only twigs! The fossil record does not present a "family
tree"; for there is no trunk and no branches; only twigs! If you remove the connecting links of a
tree—the trunk and the branches,—what will you have left? only
twigs lying all over the ground! That is the picture we find in plant and
animal species living today. That is the same picture we find in the geologic
column. No trunk, no branches—only distinct twigs, each one different
than the others.
"So
far as we can judge from the geologic record, large changes seem usually to
have arisen rather suddenly, in terms of geologic time. Fossil forms
intermediate between large subdivisions of classification, such as orders and
classes, are seldom seen."—*Paul A. Moody, Introduction to Evolution
(1962), p. 503.
WOODMORAPPE’S
WORLD RESEARCH PROJECT—Since early childhood, we have all been exposed to these charts of
rock strata and fossils, with the impressive dates alongside. It is called a
"Geologic Column" chart.
A
correlative scientific analysis, remarkable for its in-depth thoroughness and
worldwide coverage, was published in the December 1983 issue of Creation
Research Society Quarterly. Authored by John Woodmorappe, the 53-page article contains 807
references, 17 very detailed charts and graphs, 35 world maps, and 2 regional
maps.
In
this lengthy article, Woodmorappe validates several
interesting points, among which are the following:
(1) Fossils
do not tend to overlay one another in successive strata; instead they tend to
be mixed together in successive strata. One third of them
span three or more strata levels.
(2) There
is not an orderly progression of strata, from bottom to top. Successively
"higher" index fossils are not found in "higher" strata as
they are supposed to be. Index fossils do not tend to overlay one
another in successive strata; instead they are generally found here and
there on what approximates a chance arrangement! Such fossils are often
clumped at a great horizontal distance from the index fossils they are supposed
to overlay. More than 9500 global occurrences of major index fossils were
marked on 34 world maps in order to analyze overlay occurrences. Great care was
taken to be sure that the data on these maps would be as accurate as possible.
After preparing maps for each type of index fossil, Woodmorappe
overlaid them on a light table in order to compare and tabulate instances in
which index fossils were above each other in harmony with classical
evolutionary rock strata theory.
Table
3 was then prepared to compare the 34 world maps of index fossils. Using it,
you can make xeroxes of these maps and make your own
overlay analyses on a light table. Or you can make copies onto overhead
projector transparencies—and show them to students and other audiences.
"Table
3 has been drafted to show the results of superposing Maps 1-34 against each
other. There are 479 cross-comparisons; every fossil versus every other that
belongs to another geologic period. It can be seen that only small
percentages of all localities of any given fossil overlie, or are overlain by,
any other single fossil of another geologic period. Thus fossils of different
geologic periods invariably tend to shun each other geographically, and this in
itself may be taken as prima facie evidence that all fossils are
ecological and/or biogeographic equivalents of each
other—negating all concepts of evolution, geologic periods, and geologic time.
To the Diluviologist, this tendency of any two
different-‘age’ fossils to be geographically incompatible allows an
understanding of fossils in light of the Universal Deluge [the Genesis
Flood]."—John Woodmorappe, "A Diluviological Treatise on the Stratigraphic
Separation of Fossils," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, December
1983, p. 150 [bold type ours].
Table
4 was prepared to show possible multiple fossil overlays rather than just two
as with Table 3. The results of this presentation are disastrous for
evolutionary theory.
"There
does not appear to be any trend for individual fossils to be exceptionally
commonly juxtaposed or non-juxtaposed with others."—Op. Cit., p. 151.
As
we have earlier explained, it is the "index fossils" which are
relied on as the proof of the evolutionary theory of fossil strata placement
and dating. Here is Woodmorappe’s conclusion in
regard to these so-called "index fossils":
"A
total of over 9500 global occurrences of major index fossils have been plotted
on 34 world maps for the purpose of determining superpositional
tendencies. 479 juxtapositional determinations have
shown that only small percentages of index fossils are juxtaposed one
with another. Very rarely are more than one-third (and never more than half) of
all 34 index fossils simultaneously present in any 200 mile (320
kilometer) diameter region on earth."—Op. cit., p. 133
[bold type ours].
(3)
Beginning on page 151 of his article he considers possible causes and Flood
mechanisms, as possible solutions to why these fossils are to be found in such
a confused pattern.
(4) Woodmorappe concludes with an extensive discussion, on
pages 167-171, of why so few mammal, bird, and human fossils have been found.
You
may wish to obtain a copy of his article to read through and make transparency
charts to share with others. The Creation Research Society Quarterly is
one of the best publications in its field.
ASKING
THE EXPERTS—Let us
briefly pause in our examination of the strata/fossil evidence and what it
reveals. We will now journey to three of the largest paleontological
museum holdings in the world:
We
will first go to the
After
publishing his 1978 book, Evolution, *Dr. Colin Patterson of the
"I
fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of
evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I
would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used
to visualise [portray] such transformations, but
where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it.
"[Steven]
Gould [of Harvard] and the
Let
us now leave *Dr. Colin Patterson in
"Most
people assume that fossils provide a very important part of the general
argument made in favor of Darwinian interpretations of the history of life.
Unfortunately, this is not strictly true."—*David Raup,
"Conflicts between
*Dr.
Raup then quotes a well-known statement by *Charles
Darwin that he (*
"We
are now about 120 years after
We
will now leave Chicago and journey to one of the largest museums in the nation,
the American
Museum of Natural History in New York City, where *Dr. Niles Eldredge is in charge of its massive fossil
collection.
While
attending a science writers’ convention in
"No
one has found any such in-between creatures. This was long chalked up to ‘gaps’
in the fossil records, gaps that proponents of gradualism [gradual evolutionary
change from species to species] confidently expected to fill in someday when
rock strata of the proper antiquity were eventually located. But all the fossil
evidence to date has failed to turn up any such missing links.
"There
is a growing conviction among many scientists that these transitional forms
never existed."—*Niles Eldredge, quoted in
"Alternate Theory of Evolution Considered," in
Drs.
*Patterson, *Raup, and *Eldredge
spent a lifetime in fossil analysis before giving the above statements.
Together, they have been in charge of at least 50 percent of the major fossil
collections of the world. They have the evidence, they know the evidence, they work with it day after day.
Figuratively,
they sit on top of the largest pile of fossil bones in the world! They know
what they are talking about. Their conclusion: "There are no
transitional forms."
But WITHOUT transitional forms there can be NO evolution—for THAT IS what evolution is
all about!
Evolution is not
copper changing into sulphur, it is not air changing
into sunlight, nor is it wolves changing into German shepherds. It would be a
true species change.
Evolution is one basic type of plant or animal changing into
another basic type of plant or animal (apple trees into oak trees or goats
into cows). There should be fossil evidence of those changes. The
evidence would be "transitional forms" filling the "gaps"
between the basic types. But such transitions are nowhere to be found.
THE
FISH THAT BECAME OUR ANCESTOR—(*#10 From Fish to Amphibian*) According to one of the legends of evolutionary theory,
a critical point in our ancestry came one day, when a fish decided to crawl out
of the water and start walking. He found it all so exciting that he turned
into a land animal. The rest is evolutionary history: amphibians, reptiles,
birds, mammals, and man resulted. So you have a lot to thank that fish for.
In
the 1980s, Luther Sunderland interviewed the head paleontologists of five of
the largest natural history museums in the
"This
perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against
the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of
the geological record."—*Charles Darwin, Origin of the Species, 6th
edition (1956), pp. 292-293.
But
*
Since
his time (*
WORSE
THAN BEFORE—*Charles
Darwin speculated that, in our modern world, natural selection is changing
species into brand new ones. But we find that *
*
The
desperate straits of the evolutionists are caused by their frenzied search to
prove evolution true! It has only brought to view a vast wealth of fossil data
able to bury the theory. And it would bury it too, IF we all knew the truth of
the situation. But the textbook and popular magazines continue churning out the
statement, "evolution has now been proven to be a fact," and then vindicating those statements by
referring to the peppered moth and recapitulation as proofs of evolution! (See
chapter 9, Natural Selection for the peppered moth; and chapter 16, for Recapitulation.
Also see chapter 17, Evolutionary Showcase. That chapter is astounding.)
Whether
it be the fossil past or the natural world around us
today; the only variations are within the true species, never across
them. We can breed new varieties of roses,
pigeons, or dogs, but they remain roses, pigeons, and dogs. Genetic studies
clearly show that mutation and natural selection—working alone or together—
cannot produce evolutionary change. Fossil evidence confirms this.
WHAT
IT TAKES TO SURVIVE—Speak of
"survival of the fittest"! The long survival of evolutionary theory
disproves the phrase!of
"survival of the fittest"! The long survival of evolutionary theory
disproves the phrase! Here we have survival of the weakest, most
foolish, and most easily disproved of "scientific" concepts.
Evolution as a theory survives because (1) the public does not know
what is going on, (2) most scientists are working in very narrow
fields and do not see the overall picture that you are learning in this
book, and (3) many conscientious researchers dare not speak up
lest they be relieved of their positions and salaries.
Yes,
the scientists are working in narrow fields—
• The
biologists and geneticists bemoan the lack of evolutionary evidence in their
fields (living species and genetic research), but then comfort
themselves that, perhaps, the fossil evidence has established it.
• The
paleontologists and stratigraphers bemoan the void of
evolutionary evidence in the fossil strata (species which earlier lived on
the earth) but conclude that, surely, the startling advances in species
discoveries and genetics research upholds it.
The
scholars and researchers attend their own narrowed scientific meetings and
rarely have time to check with those in other fields of study. The
experts in each scientific specialty imagine that other experts elsewhere have
solidly proven evolution, even though in their field of study it is ready to
fall through the floor.
So
much is known about so little in the sciences today that few experts can see
the BIG picture. And the general public is given the WRONG picture. Evolution is as dead as the Dodo bird of the
SOME
OF THE PROBLEMS—Here are a few of the key problems with the fossils in
the strataHere are a few of the key
problems with the fossils in the strata. These problems are serious enough that
any one of them is enough to overthrow the evolutionary theory in regard to paleontology and stratigraphy:
(1)
Life suddenly appears in the bottom fossil-strata level, the Cambrian, with no
precursors.
(2)
When these lowest life-forms appear (they are small slow-moving, shallow-sea
creatures), they are extremely abundant, numbered in the billions of specimens,
and quite complex.
(3)
No transitional species are to be found at the bottom of the strata, the
Cambrian.
(4)
Just below the Cambrian, in the Precambrian, there are no fossil specimens.
(5)
No transitional species are to be found below the lowest stratum, in the
Precambrian.
(6)
No transitional species are to be found above the bottom stratum, from the
Ordovician on up.
(7)
Higher taxa (forms of life) appear just as suddenly
in the strata farther up. These higher types (such as beavers, giraffes, etc.)
suddenly appear with no hint of transitional life-forms leading up to them.
(8)
When they appear, vast numbers of these life-forms are to be found.
13 - THE FOSSILS
IMMENSE
NUMBER OF FOSSILS—One of
the most startling facts about the sedimentary strata around the world is the
vast quantities of fossils they contain. Without a worldwide Flood,
it would be impossible for such huge amounts of plants and animals to have been
rapidly buried. And without rapid burial they could not have fossilized.
Yes,
there are immense numbers of rapidly buried fossils; read this:
About
one-seventh of the earth’s surface is tundra—frozen mud,—containing the fossil
remains of millions of mammoths and other large and smaller animals.
Then there are the log jams of dinosaur bones
found in many places in the world. Over 300 different kinds of dinosaurs
have been excavated from one place in
Old
Red Sandstone in
These
vast beds of sedimentary fossil-bearing strata cover about three-fourths of
the earth’s surface, and are as much as 40,000 feet thick.
COLLECTED
HEAPS—There are heaps and heaps of fossil
specimens in the collections of paleontologists and museumsThere are
heaps and heaps of fossil specimens in the collections of paleontologists and
museums.
Men
have searched for fossils since the beginning of the 19th century, and the
facts are now available: there is no evidence of evolution in the fossil
record.
Forty-three
hundred years ago, a great catastrophe, the Flood, overspread the world.
In
our own day, a great catastrophe has inundated evolutionary theory. No less an authority than a
Smithsonian paleontologist describes the basis of the problem:.
"There
are a hundred million fossils, all catalogued and identified, in museums around
the world."—*Porter Kier, quoted in New Scientist, January 15, 1981, p.
129 [Smithsonian scientist].
*David
Raup, head paleontologist of the Field Museum of
Natural History in
"So
the geological time scale and the basic facts of biological change over time
are totally independent of evolutionary theory. In the years after
NOT
MADE NOW—Several years ago, two scientists
tried to make some fossilsSeveral years ago, two scientists tried
to make some fossils. According to the school textbooks, it should not be hard
to do. *Rainer Zangerl and *Eugene S. Richardson, Jr., placed dead fish in
wire cages and dropped them into several
Sedimentary
strata are filled with fish fossils, yet when a fish dies today, it never
fossilizes; it bloats, floats, and then is eaten by scavengers and other
small creatures.
"When
a fish dies its body floats on the surface or sinks to the bottom and is
devoured rather quickly, actually in a matter of hours, by other fish. However,
the fossil fish found in sedimentary rocks is very often preserved with all its
bones intact. Entire shoals of fish over large areas, numbering billions of
specimens, are found in a state of agony, but with no mark of a scavenger’s
attack."—*lmmanuel Velikovsky,
Earth in Upheaval (1955), p. 222.
The
strata have lots of animals in them, but when an animal dies today, it never
fossilizes; it rots if the buzzards do not find it first. Dead animals do not normally produce
fossils.
"The
buffalo carcasses strewn over the plains in uncounted millions two generations
ago have left hardly a present trace. The flesh was devoured by wolves or
vultures within hours or days after death, and even the skeletons have now
largely disappeared, the bones dissolving and crumbling into dust under the
attack of weather."—*Carl O. Dunbar, Historical Geology (1949), p. 39.
There
is an abundance of fossilized plant life in the strata; yet, when a weed, bush,
or tree dies, it turns back to soil; it does not harden into a fossil.
It requires some very special conditions to produce fossils.
Those conditions occurred one time in history. The evidence is clear that it
was a worldwide phenomenom, and that it happened
very, very quickly...
RAPID
BURIAL—A striking fact about the fossils is that
they were obviously all laid down at the same time—and very, very
rapidly!
Where
are the bison today? As we just read, most were slain by buffalo hunters in the
Plains States of
The
fact is that fossils never form at the present time, yet in the sedimentary
strata we find literally billions of them! Examination of the strata bearing
them reveals it was obviously laid down by a massive flood of water.
The
sheer immensity of these fossil graveyards is fantastic. And to think that it never happens today! Speaking about
sedimentary deposits that he found in the Geiseltal,
in central
"More
than six thousand remains of vertebrate animals and a great number of insects, molluscs, and plants were found in these deposits. The
compressed remains of soft tissues of many of these animals showed details of
cellular structure [with] well-preserved bits of hair, feathers and scales . . The stomach contents of beetles, amphibia, fishes, birds and mammals provided direct
evidence about eating habits."—*N.O. Newell "Adequacy of the
Fossil Record," in Journal of Paleontology, May 1959, p. 496.
It
would be impossible for vast numbers of plants and animals to be suddenly
buried under normal circumstances. Yet we find that the fossils were
buried so quickly that the food could be seen in many of their stomachs.
Even the delicate soft parts of their bodies are visible, so rapid had been the
burial. Quick, high compression adds to the evidence for extremely rapid
burial. All of the life-forms were suddenly flattened out. Sharks have
been found flattened to ¼ inch in thickness with the tail still upright, suggesting
sudden catastrophic burial. It took rapid action to do that.
"Robert
Broom, the South African paleontologist, estimated that there are eight hundred
thousand million skeletons of vertebrate animals in the Karro
formation."—*Op. cit., p. 492.
Describing
herring fossils in the Miocene shales of
"More
than a billion fish, averaging 6 to 8 inches in length, died on 4 square miles
[10.36 km2] of bay bottom."—*Harry S. Ladd, "Ecology,
Paleontology, and Stratigraphy," in Science,
What
happened? Some terrible catastrophe occurred that suddenly overwhelmed the
earth! Fossil seashells have been found in the highest mountains of the
planet, including the highest range of them all,
the
FISH
SWALLOWING FISH—
Obviously,
this required a very sudden event to capture and kill a fish swallowing a
fish! Nothing like this happens today.
In
the Hall of Paleontology, at
FOSSIL
FOOTPRINTS—Leonard
Brand and James Florence did some excellent research! They gathered together the
great majority of fossil footprint records from approximately 800 published
papers, as well as from data in five major paleontological
museums. This information was then correlated with burial records on the
fossils themselves.
Comparing
it all, they came up with some surprising conclusions:
(1) Birds
and mammals were buried on about the same levels as the footprints of their species
were found. This was in the Quaternary and Tertiary at the very end of the
Flood.
(2)
But, below these top strata, the footprints of amphibians,
non-dinosaur reptiles, and dinosaurs were made well below the levels where
the bulk of their bodies were buried!
That
second discovery is rather astounding. If long ages had occurred during
each strata, then the footprints and bodies should be
found together. But if a worldwide single Flood was responsible for
all the strata, then we would expect to find large numbers of amphibians,
reptiles, and dinosaurs walking around earlier in the Flood, yet buried later
in it!
For
further data and charts on this, see the reference given below:
"During
the early to middle part of the Flood large numbers of amphibians and reptiles
were moving about, and thus producing footprints. Later as the Flood progressed
(upper Jurassic and Cretaceous) there were very few live amphibians or reptiles
to produce footprints, except for the large dinosaurs. During the Cretaceous
when the only footprints preserved were the large dinosaur tracks, there were
many amphibian and reptile bodies that were being buried to produce the
abundant Cretaceous body fossils. During the Cenozoic almost no amphibian or
reptile footprints were preserved.
". .
During the flood the birds and mammals were in the uplands, away from the
depositional basins, because of ecological differences and/or more adaptable
behavioral responses to the unusual biological crisis caused by the
flood."—Leonard Brand and James Florence, "Stratigraphic
Distribution of Vertebrate Fossil Footprints Compared with Body Fossils"
in Origins, Vol 9, no. 2 (1982), p. 71.
PLANTS
AND ANIMALS NOT TOGETHER—According
to the theory, over a period of millions of years, plants and animals died,
dropped to the ground and changed into fossils (even though such fossilization
never occurs today). Gradually, they were covered with dirt as, over the
centuries, falling leaves turned into dirt.
But
in reality, it is only rarely that we find plants and animals together in
the fossil beds! That is why "Minium’s
Dead Cow Quarry" in
Why
would plants and animals normally not be found together in the fossil strata? The reason is simple enough. They were
all washed into place by the worldwide Flood. The water tended to sort them
out, resulting in rafts of vegetation being floated into place, which
became our present coal beds, while other pockets in the strata became filled
with "fossil graveyards" as animals were washed into other
locations.
IN
WHAT FORM ARE THE FOSSILS?—There are millions upon millions of fossils. You may wonder what
those fossils are like. Here are the seven primary types of fossils:
(1) Hard
parts (the bones and shells) of some plants and animals were
preserved.
(2) Carbon
alone was preserved. This is where our coal beds came from.
(3)
The original form is preserved only in casts and molds. The
original material dissolved away and a cast of its shape was preserved. This
would also require sudden burial.
(4)
Sometimes petrification of wood
occurred. An excellent example of this would be the
(5)
There are prints of animal tracks. Thousands of animal tracks
have been found preserved in stone, and the prints are always shown running
away from something. In Glen Rose,
(6)
Ripple marks and
rain drop splashes. Ancient hail imprints (which are quite different
than raindrops) have never been found. The weather must have been consistently
warm when the Flood began (*W.H. Twenhofel,
Principles of Sedimentation (1950), p. 621).
(7)
Worm trails, droppings, feathers, chemicals, and even fish odor were
preserved by sudden burial!
CAMBRIAN
FOSSILS IN FINE DETAIL—Before concluding this section
on what is included in "fossils," we should mention that the soft
parts of the plants and animals are at times clearly traced in the rocks. One
excellent example of this is the
In
1910, a pack train loaded with supplies was struggling over a mountain path
high in the
These
specimens were primarily bottom-dwellers from ancient seas, such as worms,
trilobites, brachiopods, lampshells, and more. Here, in these very high
mountains, the soft parts of these creatures are from Cambrian deposits
(the lowest of all strata) were clearly visible. Even delicate internal
organs were traced on the stone. The transitional species leading up to
those common Cambrian specimens ought to have been found, but they were not.
Yet
POLYSTRATE
TREES—Here are two views of upright, fossilized trees in sedimentary strata. One
is a drawing; the other a photograph.
Polystrate trees could not possibly occur if the strata were slowly
laid down over millions of years, as the evolutionists claim.
Polystrate trees
Click to see Straight and Polystrate Trees
click “Back” button to return
"These
went further [than merely including fossil bones]—with the outline of the body,
even the soft internal organs were often traceable like miniature X-ray films.
Among the many fossils found are a wide range of major kinds. I already
referred to three main kinds—brachiopods, worms and arthropods (the
trilobites). Almost every major kind of animal has been found there, except
those with backbones."—Harold O. Coffin, "Famous Fossils from a
Mountaintop," in Origins,
BURIED
FORESTS—Another dramatic evidence of a
catastrophic flood of massive proportions—as the cause of the sedimentary
strata—is the buried forests.
Coal
beds, of course, are one such example of buried forests. They will be
discussed in more detail later in this chapter.
One
of the best places to see buried forests is Specimen Ridge in
But
careful analysis of the entire ridge reveals a unity of age, burial conditions,
and surrounding deposits. A succession of strong currents, interspersed with
flows and volcanic showers from another direction, washed the sedimentary strata
into place.
(Both
later in this chapter, in chapter 14, and somewhat in chapter 6, we give more
attention to the implications of these fossil upright trees, also called polystrate trees.))
Stop
and think of it a minute: Would a vertical tree die and stand there for
half a million years while rock strata gradually covered it? Yet we find polystrate trees in the strata and even in coal beds.
NON-EXTINCT FOSSILS—The great majority of animals and plants that lived long ago
were just like those alive today, with the exception of some extinct species. Here
is a sampling of what you will find in the complete strata of the
"geologic column"—but remember that this "complete" strata
is to be found in its entirety nowhere in the world. Beginning at the
bottom, and proceeding to the top, this is what we find:
Precambrian
. . . . . . algae, bacteria, fungi
Cambrian
. . . . . . . . sponges, snails, jellyfish
Ordovician
. . . . . . . . clams, starfish, worms .
Silurian
. . . . . . . . . . . scorpions, corals
Devonian
. . . . . . . . . sharks, lungfish
Carboniferous
. . . . . ferns,
cockroaches
Permian
. . . . . . . . . .
beetles, dragonflies
Triassic
. . . . . . . . . . pines, palms
Jurassic
. . . . . . . . . . crocodiles, turtles
Cretaceous
. . . . . . . . ducks, pelicans
Paleocene
. . . . . . . . . rats, hedgehogs
Eocene
. . . . . . . . . . . lemurs, rhinoceroses
Oligocene
. . . . . . . . . beavers, squirrels, ants
Miocene
. . . . . . . . . . camels, birds
Pliocene
. . . . . . . . . . horses, elephants
Pleistocene
. . . . . . . . man
(Later
in this chapter, under the section, "Mixed-up Fossils," we
will learn that the fossils are not neatly contained in certain strata; they
are often far above or below their assigned strata.)
It
is obvious from the above list, that the species we had before, we have now. Those
fossils are just like their counterparts living today. Yes, there are some
extinct species, for some kinds have died out. But it is of interest that even a number of the anciently extinct
species—have in recent years been found to be still living!
Here
are some of the thousands of creatures alive today that are totally identical
to what they looked like millions of years ago: Cockroach (250 million years); starfish
(500 million years); shark (181 million years); sea urchin (100
million years); ginkgo tree (200 million years); dragonfly (170
million years); bacteria (600 million years).
Consider
the bat: All the fossil bats look just like the ones that fly around now. It
was reported that *Jepsen had found the oldest fossil
bat ever! (*G.L. Jepsen reported in Science, for
LIVING
FOSSILS—(*#17 Living
Fossils [coelacanth and plesiosaur]*) [Appendix 17 on our website has stories, four photographs, and
more, but no quotations.]
There
are species found only in rock strata, and supposedly millions of years
old, which have been declared "extinct for millions of years." This has been considered another
"proof" of evolution, although extinction is no evidence of
evolution; evolving into new life-forms is.
Yet
in recent decades a number of these "extinct for millions of years"
species have been found to not be extinct after all!
The
BIG question is this: Where then were they all those "millions of
years" they were missing from the upper rock strata?
"Long
before I began to research the subject in any detail, I had brooded about a
number of puzzling features—things which didn’t seem to fit the [evolutionary]
argument—which the textbooks largely ignored.
"There
is, for example, the fact that some creatures fail to evolve but chunter on
quite successfully as ‘living fossils.’ Bees preserved in amber from the
Tertiary period are almost identical with living bees. And everyone has heard
of the coelacanth, supposed to have been extinct since the beginning of the
Cretaceous period. The plant world also offers living fossils, such as the
gingko, with a leaf unlike that of any modern tree."—*G.R. Taylor,
Great Evolution Mystery (1983), pp. 25-26.
So many of these "living fossils" have been found that
scientists have given a name to the study: Cryptozoology,
the study of "hidden animals." According to evolutionary theory,
they were once alive, then got hidden for millions of years, and continue
living today. Here are some of these "living fossils," all of which
are alive today:
(1) Coelacanth
fish: The crossopterygian fish—"extinct" since
Cretaceous. It has not been found in the strata for the past "50
million years"—yet is alive today.
(2) Metasequoia: The
"dawn redwood"— "extinct" since Miocene; not in the
strata for the past "60 million years," yet it is alive today.
(3) Tuatara:
A beakheaded reptile—"extinct" since
Cretaceous; not found in the strata for the past "135 million
years"—but today is alive.
(4)
Neopilina: A segmented deep-sea
mollusk— "extinct" since Devonian. Although missing from the
strata for the past "500 million years," it is alive now.
(5) Lingula: A brachiopod
shellfish—"extinct" since Ordovician; not in the strata for the
past "500 million years," yet it is happily living today.
The
now-famous Coelacanth was a large fish known only from its
fossil and allegedly extinct for 50 million years. Extinct, that is, until
several specimens were found in the ocean! The first was found in a
fisherman’s net off the coast of
It
only requires a moment’s thought to arrive at a startling fact: How could
the Coelacanth have become extinct 50 million years ago, and then be
found now? In order to be declared "extinct" such a long
time ago, the creature would obviously have had to have been found by
paleontologists in older strata—and then not found at all in more recent strata.
Why is the Coelacanth not in those more recent strata? Did it decide to
hibernate for 50 million years?
This
is clear-cut evidence that the sedimentary strata was the result of a rapid
laying down of sediments during the Flood,—rather than the tortuously slow "inch a hundred
years" deposition pattern theorized by the evolutionists.
Interestingly
enough, some of these "living fossils" formerly were used by
evolutionists as "index fossils" to prove the ancientness of
certain rock strata! As
you will recall, most index fossils are small marine organisms. They live so
deep in the ocean that many of them (trilobites, graptolites, ammonites, etc.)
may still have living representatives alive today, since we have but only
slightly explored the ocean bottoms.
There
are scientists who believe they will find living trilobites before long (see "Start Search for Living
Trilobites," Science Digest, September 1959), and one living fossil,
very close to the trilobite has already been discovered (see "Living
Fossil Resembles Long-extinct Trilobite," Science Digest, December 1957).
Many
other examples could be cited. Here are two:
"In
the 19th century, hunters reported tales among
"After
a nearly disastrous series of misadventures, he finally captured an okapi in
1906. One of the few large mammals discovered in the 20th century, the okapi
turned out to be a living representative of a genus (Palaeofragus)
known from fossils and believed by zoologists to have been extinct for 30
million years."—*R. Milner, Encyclopedia of Evolution (1990), p. 102.
"According
to Science News (June 9, 1990, p. 359), a species of dogwood tree, the Diplopanax stachyanthus,
was believed by botanists to have died out about 4 million years ago.
Apparently only fossil records remained of this tree.
"But
now a botanist at
"But
wait a minute. If evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest, then I
would expect older and inferior species to die out and be replaced by newer and
better evolved species. If that be the case, what is a 15 million year old tree
doing hanging around today? It should have died out long ago. Or else the
figure of 15 million years is grossly wrong. In either case, something is
evidently wrong with the theory of evolution."—Bob Vun
Kannon, "A Living Fossil," The Adventure,
September 1990.
The
existence of "living fossils" is a serious one for the evolutionist. Evolutionary
theory is based on several concepts, two of which are violated here: (1)
If a species becomes extinct, it cannot come back to life. (2) Species
evolve upward, and can never return back to an earlier form. If that
particular species has not existed for the past 15 million years, how then
could it exist today?
THE
EXTINCT DINOSAUR—Ever since *Charles Lyell, the extinct
dinosaur has been considered an outstanding example of evolution. Yet all
that it proves is that animals can become extinct; there are
no facts related to dinosaurs which prove evolution (species change) in
life-forms. That which extinct dinosaurs do prove is that the uniformitarian theory (which is the basis of evolution) is
incorrect. Some massive catastrophe overwhelmed and destroyed the dinosaurs.
In
order for the dinosaur to prove evolution, there would have to be transitional
forms leading up to them.
But the dinosaurs are like everything else: distinct species.
LIVING
DINOSAURS—Evolutionists are anxious that it be thought that no dinosaurs are
alive todayEvolutionists are anxious that it be thought that no
dinosaurs are alive today. According to their theory, dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic
era—from about 225 million years ago to 65 million years ago. If some of them
were to be found alive today, then evolutionists think this would weaken their
theory. But actually that would neither prove nor weaken
their theory, since dinosaurs—past or present—present no evidence of the
evolutionary process.
In
museums all over the world, dinosaur-bone displays are exhibited as a proof
of evolution. Their very extinction is supposed to establish it. —But did
you know that a living dinosaur has been found?
In
April 1977, a Japanese fishing vessel caught a 4,000 pound [1814 kg] dead
creature in its nets off the east coast of New Zealand. It was photographed, sketched, carefully measured, and flipper
samples were kept for tissue analysis. It has every appearance of being a
Plesiosaur, or sea-dwelling dinosaur—which prior to 1977 had only
been found in fossil form! Japanese scientists are convinced it was indeed
a Plesiosaur. Japan even printed a postage stamp of the creature, in honor of
the find. (A photograph and sketch of one is shown on page 107 of Ian Taylor’s
excellent book, In the Minds of Men.)
But
there are other living creatures which answer to the description of
"dinosaurs." What is a dinosaur? Very simply, it is a large
reptile. Crocodiles, alligators, and caiman are large reptiles.
"Although
they are now 99 percent extinct and seldom exceed twelve feet in length, the
American alligator attained lengths of nearly twenty feet as recently as the
turn of the century (see National Geographic Magazine, January 1967, p.
137). Only about 500 years ago the aepyornis,
a dinosaur bird nearly ten feet [30 cm] tall and weighing half a ton [456
kg], still lived on the island of Madagascar (see National Geographic
Magazine, October 1967, p. 493)."—John C.
Whitcomb, World that Perished (1988), p. 30.
"Because
the huge skeletons that were built up out of fossilized remnants were clearly
reptilian in nature, they were called ‘terrible lizards,’ which in Greek is dinosauria, by the nineteenth-century
zoologist Sir Richard Owen. But the ancient giant reptiles are more closely
related to alligators than to lizards, and should have been named dinocrocodilia."—*Asimov’s
Book of Facts (1979), p. 136.
We
have both small and large alligator-type creatures alive today. Some extinct dinosaurs were as small as
a chicken, but some modern alligator-type creatures are quite large. Some
crocodiles alive today (Crocodylus porosus), can reach a length of 33 feet
[100.6 dm]; all are large, heavy, fierce reptiles.
The komodo dragon (Varanus
komodoensis) is another large reptile and looks
very much like a dinosaur. It was discovered in 1912; and, although
evolutionists tried to explain it away by calling the komodo a "lizard,"
it surely is more than that! Consider the following description:
"The
body is covered with small scales; the neck is thick and the head broad and
elongated. The huge mouth contains teeth ½ in [1 cm] long and deeply cleft
tongue 12-16 in [30-40 cm] long. The legs are well developed and there are long
claws on the toes. The muscular tail has no fracture planes and is somewhat
laterally compressed.
"The
Komodo dragon is the biggest predator on the islands [in Indonesia] where it
lives. It hunts hog, deer, wild pig, macaques, and rats, and digs up the eggs
of mound birds . . It can run as fast as a man for
short stretches. Smaller specimens are said to lurk in trees above tracks used
by game and jump onto the backs of deer or pigs."—*Great Book of the Animal
Kingdom (1988), p. 152.
The
komodo dragon, truly a reptilian giant, attacks and
kills large hogs has a lifespan of 25 years, is 10 feet [30 dm] long, and has a weight of
350 pounds [158.76 kg]! It is decidedly larger than some of the extinct
reptiles, called "dinosaurs." (There was a wide variety of extinct dinosaurs: some of
the extinct ones were quite small; some ran rapidly like ostriches and caught
birds with their front paws, and some flew like birds.)
The komodo dragon is the biggest of the monitors, of which there
are 31 species. Some are quite large. Most live in the islands north of
Australia. One of these, the Papua monitor (Varanus salvadori) is
longer than the komodo dragon—over 13 feet in length—although
it is not as bulky.
A
number of prominent scientists, including *Myer, consider crocodiles and alligators to be
"living fossils."
"Nile
crocodiles and American alligators belong to a group of reptiles called
broad-nosed crocodilians. In the warmer parts of the world, broad-nosed
crocodilians are the largest predators to walk on land. They are living fossils
in the sense that they resemble ancient forms in the shapes and the ruggedness
of their heads and bodies."—*Ernst Myer,
"Crocodilians as Living Fossils," in Living Fossils (1984), p. 105.
EXTINCT
FOSSILS—What about the fossilized creatures which are
now extinct? All that extinct fossils—such as dinosaurs—prove is that animals
can die out. Extinction is not evolution, and provides no evidence of
evolution.
In
addition to the dinosaurs, a number of other animal and plant species became
extinct also. Interestingly enough, the extinct species were generally more
complex than plants and animals now living!
NONE
OF THE FOSSILS OR STRATA ARE ANCIENT—Fossils from every level of sedimentary strata have been analyzed
by amino acid dating methods (see chapter 6, Inaccurate Dating Methods.)
Scientists
have been shocked to discover that both the "youngest" as well as the
"oldest" fossils (even those of the Cambrian!) reveal traces of amino
acids! This is
astounding news, and runs counter to evolutionary theory. This means that,
instead of being hundreds of millions of years apart, ALL of the fossil-bearing
strata were laid down fairly recently at about the same time! In order to "save
the fossils" as a trophy of evolution, there has been speculation that
amino acids in the "oldest" fossils are merely contaminants that
somehow got there at some recent time.
Shells from as far back as the Jurassic
strata, which is supposed to be 135-180 million
years old, have been found to have amino acids still locked into protein
structures.
Shells from as far back as the Jurassic
strata, which is supposed to be 135-180 million
years old, have been found to have amino acids still locked into protein
structures. The amino acid residues came from inside those shells—so the
shells cannot be more than a few thousand years old!
Amino
acid studies in the fossil-bearing sediments reveal that there are no ancient
fossil strata!
HUMAN
REMAINS IN ANCIENT DEPOSITS— Near the end of chapter 13, Ancient Man, we will describe
a number of instances in which evidences of human beings have been found in
what evolutionists consider to be extremely ancient rocks and coal. That
information clearly disproves the geologic column dating theories, so we
will summarize some of that information here. For more detailed coverage, we
refer you to the chapter on Ancient Man.
Evidence
from chapter 4, Age of the Earth, and the last part of chapter 13, Ancient
Man, reveals that both the planet and mankind are quite young—and have not
been here over 6,000-10,000 years.
Here
is a summary of some of the data found near the end of the Ancient Man chapter:
(1) Guadaloupe Woman: The
almost-complete skeleton of a woman was found in limestone which is supposed to
be 28 million years old. The limestone sheet, in which the skeleton was
encased, was hard, thick, and over a mile [1.609 km] in length.
(2) Calaveras Skull: A
completely mineralized human skull was found in Pliocene stratum which dates to
over 2 million years old.
(3) Human
footprints: Human footprints have been found in various sites in
the United States, as well as in Laetoli, Africa.
These would include:
[1] Glen
Rose tracks: Children’s and adult footprints, up to 15 and 21½
inches [38-54.6 cm] in length, have been regularly found in Early Cretaceous
rock throughout most of this century on the former riverbed of the Pulaxy River in Texas. Children’s tracks always accompany
those of adults, tracks go across very large dinosaur tracks and have been
found above them, and all tracks are running. These tracks are in Early
Cretaceous formations, which date to 120 million years ago.
[2] Antelope
Springs tracks: William Meister and others have found sandaled human
tracks stepping on trilobites in Cambrian strata (570 million years old),
in
(4)
Evidence in coal: Human remains and relics of various kinds have
been found in coal, dating to millions of years ago. This includes a human
skull, two giant human teeth, a gold chain, gold thread, steel nail, metal screw,
wedge-shaped object, and an iron pot.
CONTINUE: Chapter 12 Fossils and Strata Part 3
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