Fossils

Throughout the world’s rock layers there are billions of fossils, the remains of organisms that were
catastrophically buried largely during the global Flood (2348 BC). Understandably the vast majority of these
are marine creatures and they were buried quickly and sequentially by habitat.

The Making of a Fossil

Do fossils require millions of years to form? Hardly! Even secular geologists now recognize that rocks form very
quickly.

Fossils of Dinosaur National Monument

Each visitor to Dinosaur National Monument sees the same evidence—massive amounts of dinosaur (and other)
fossils all jumbled together. How one explains the formation of this fossil bed depends on one’s worldview.
When viewed from a biblical perspective, the evidence is consistent with what one would expect from a
worldwide Flood.

Putting Fossils Back Together

This research reminds us of the caution we should accord to every fossil reconstruction. Especially when it
comes to supposed “ape-men” like Lucy, Ardi, and others, we must be aware of the fact that evolutionary ideas
may be (consciously or subconsciously) guiding the reconstruction.

Five Fossil Mysteries

We can never answer all the questions. But with practice at “fossil sleuthing” from a biblical perspective, at least
we can get better and better at evaluating each new discovery in a God-honoring way that might yield new
insights into God’s person and work.

Experiment: Fast-Formed Fossils

by Heather Brinson Bruce on October 1, 2011 ; last featured January 6, 2019
Featured in Answers Magazine

Do fossils require millions of years to form? Hardly! Even secular geologists now recognize that rocks form
very quickly. The key is the right chemical conditions, not time. See for yourself with a simple experiment.
Everyone knows that the fossils we find all over the world took millions of years to form—scientists proved that
years ago, right?

Actually, even secular geologists recognize that fossils form rapidly. If they didn’t, the organism would decay so
quickly there would be almost nothing left to fossilize!
Scientists constantly test ways to understand and replicate the process of forming fossils. Taphonomists (those
who study how to make fossils) have demonstrated the astonishing speed of fossilization. Some fossils can be
generated in days, or even hours!1

Fossils can form in a wide variety of ways. Some common methods include:
1. The body can leave an impression or mold showing its outer shape in the surrounding sand or
mud. This can include footprints and the inside and outside of shells. With the right ingredients and
conditions, the mold can harden quickly, like cement.
2. Petrification takes place when minerals replace the original material of the plant or animal. These
petrified fossils must form quickly, before the body parts have time to decay. Petrified wood is a classic
example.
3. Permineralization, or encased fossilization, occurs when dissolved minerals fill the pores and
empty spaces in the plant or animal but don’t replace any of the original material. The chemicals then
turn into crystals, keeping the organism safe and preserved. While it is possible for many different
chemicals to do this, quartz is the most common. Most dinosaur bones are permineralized.
Fossils can form under all kinds of conditions all over the world. While water and dissolved minerals are usually
needed to form the three types of fossils above, many processes—coalification, compression, freezing,
desiccation (drying out), to name a few—do not require either.
Though there are numerous ways to make fossils, fossilization is somewhat rare today. Why is that?
God created the world to efficiently recycle organic matter. When something dies, scavengers, fungi (like
mushrooms), and/or bacteria normally consume it. This process of decomposition leaves nothing behind to
fossilize.

However, massive catastrophes like Noah’s Flood would produce the conditions necessary to quickly bury and
protect creatures so that they can fossilize. It appears that God wanted to leave abundant evidence of His past
judgment of mankind’s sin.
While scientists are still trying to sort out the complex details about fossilization, one fact is undisputed—it can
be amazingly fast.

See For Yourself . . .

Fossils are rare today, but you can make them in your own home! Try the following experiment and watch a
kitchen sponge “fossilize!”
Materials
 2 kitchen sponges
 1 shallow dish
 1 small pot
 1 cup of water
 Epsom salt
 Food coloring

Procedure
(Adults should supervise the experiment and perform all cutting.)
1. Cut both sponges into bone shapes and set one aside. Place the other sponge into a shallow dish.
2. Heat water close to boiling and stir in as much Epsom salt as will dissolve. Add food coloring to water (if
desired).
3. Pour the salt water over the sponge.
4. Place the bowl where it will not be disturbed for a few days. Leave uncovered so the water can
evaporate.
Final Result
Once dry, compare the two sponges. Break the fossil in half. What happened to the sponge material? Was it
encased (permineralized) or replaced (petrified)?

Dinosaur National Monument in Utah

 on July 31, 2008
Featured in Wonders of Geology
Dinosaur National Monument houses one of the largest on-location dinosaur fossil displays in the entire
world.
In its 210,000 acre (850 km2) park, Dinosaur National Monument houses one of the largest on-location
dinosaur fossil displays in the entire world. The over 1,500 large fossil bones hint of a time long ago. However,
the time may not be as long ago as many believe—depending on the worldview one has accepted.

Formation

Dinosaur National Monument lies completely within what geologists call the Morrison Formation. The Morrison
Formation spans over 700,000 square miles (2 million km2) from New Mexico into the provinces of Canada.
This formation includes layers of a silica-rich volcanic ash that once covered the whole area. The remains of
dinosaurs, clams, and snails are found jumbled within a pebbly sandstone layer.

History
In 1909, paleontologist Earl Douglass discovered eight articulated dinosaur tail vertebrae in the sandstone cliffs
of eastern Utah. As he began digging he found, to his astonishment, dinosaur fossil after dinosaur fossil, buried
one on top of the other.
After this great discovery, efforts began to preserve the dinosaur burial ground. This resulted in the building of
the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center around the rock wall that contained the fossils. The Visitor Center invites
every guest to view this dinosaur fossil collection and tries to explain, from a “millions of years” perspective,
how dinosaurs evolved and how this massive jumble of dinosaur fossils came to be. One of the most complete
dinosaur skeletons ever unearthed was found here in this mass burial. This skeleton was originally
named Brontosaurus. A number of years later, this skeleton was revealed to actually be a combination of
bones from two distinctly different dinosaurs. The major part of the skeleton was then
renamed Apatosaurus, though currently it has been reunited with its proper head and classified back as
a Brontosaurus.

Interpretation
Evolutionary View
According to some, 150 million years ago a river flowed through this area where many dinosaurs lived. As the
dinosaurs died, their carcasses and bones were gradually and progressively picked up by the flooded waters of
the river and were carried and deposited into the main channel, where they were buried one on top of the other.
Over the millions of years that followed, the deposited sand and mud hardened and became solid rock. Through
time, the earth’s crust was reshaped and rock layers were bent, the face of the cliff becoming exposed by slow
erosion. Long exposure to the elements of rain, snow, and wind caused the sedimentary rock to erode, slowly
revealing the buried fossils.

The Biblical View

Scientists who accept a biblical perspective come to very different conclusions when considering the same
evidence. They understand that a global worldwide Flood (as recorded in Genesis 6–9) would dramatically
change the face of the earth and cause mass burials of large and small dinosaurs along with many species of sea
creatures, forever entombing them in rapidly deposited sediment layers.
Created on Day 6 with the other land creatures and man, dinosaurs walked the earth until the catastrophic Flood
destroyed all land-dwelling, air-breathing creatures not preserved on the Ark. Although representatives of each
dinosaur kind were on the Ark and survived to repopulate the earth after the Flood, those that weren’t on the Ark
perished in the Flood.

Many of these were washed together by the swirling Flood waters and buried in the rapidly forming sedimentary
layers. When the earth-covering waters finally receded, the earth’s surface was greatly altered as mountains rose
and valleys lowered. This explains why we find fossils of sea creatures and other former marine life in these high
cliffs and in many other mountains around the world.
Found with the dinosaur fossils of Dinosaur National Monument is a group of clams, called unionid bivalves.
The evidence shows that not only were they deposited in an unlikely place (among land animals), but they were
buried very rapidly. When these clams die, their two shells normally come undone within days. However, in this
unearthed mass burial, we see that many are still fully intact.

The clams and the dinosaurs were swept into the violent currents of the floodwaters, carried to their final
destination and then buried in sediment, where they hardened in time, preserving the remains of these once-living
creatures. The subsequent folding of these rock layers and their erosion was likewise very rapid towards the end
of the Flood event.

Consider it
Each visitor to Dinosaur National Monument sees the same evidence—massive amounts of dinosaur (and other)
fossils all jumbled together. How one explains the formation of this fossil bed depends on one’s worldview.
When viewed from a biblical perspective, the evidence is consistent with what one would expect from a
worldwide Flood, and it confirms the truths of the Bible.

Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs were created by God on day six of creation, approximately 6,000 years ago. Dinosaurs were
originally vegetarian. During the global flood, many were buried and fossilized, but two of each kind
survived on Noah’s ark. Dinosaurs eventually died out due to human activity, climate changes, or other
factors.

When Did Dinosaurs Live?

Evolutionists claim dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. But it is important to realize that when they dig up a
dinosaur bone, it does not have a label attached showing its date. The Bible states that God made the land
animals, including dinosaurs, on day six (Genesis 1:24–25), so they date from around 6,000 years ago.

Types of Dinosaurs
Hypsilophodon foxii was one of the first dinosaurs discovered in 1849.
Tyrannosaurus rex, first described in 1905, this “tyrant lizard king” still holds the crown as the largest and
most fearsome terrestrial predator ever discovered in North America.
The sauropods (“lizard feet”) included the largest land animals in history.
A newly uncovered dinosaur, Albertaceratops nesmoi, had horns about three–feet long (located right above
its eyebrows).

Dinosaurs and the Bible

As you add up all of the dates in the Bible, you’ll come to the conclusion that the creation of the earth and
animals, including the dinosaurs, occurred only thousands of years ago, not millions of years ago. Thus, if the
Bible is right (and it is!), dinosaurs must have lived within the past few thousands of years.

Behemoth in the Bible

Two great creatures, Behemoth and Leviathan, are described by God in Job. Some commentators have suggested
behemoth was an elephant or hippo, but the description simply doesn’t match (e.g., behemoth “moves his “tail
like a cedar”). It appears God is describing a sauropod dinosaur and a fearsome now-extinct sea creature.

Leviathan in the Bible

Though technically not a dinosaur but rather a marine reptile that may have also been able to come up onto land
(Job 41:25 and 30), Leviathan can correctly be called a "dragon" which includes terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial
reptiles.
In the biblical book of Job, God challenges Job by questioning his ability to capture Leviathan and make it his
servant (Job 41:1–4). Leviathan is not a creature that little children can play with (Job 41:5) and is too large for
traders to sell (Job 41:6).
God reminds Job that if a man is even thinking of capturing Leviathan with harpoons or fishing spears, then he
needs to consider the battle that will take place (Job 41:7–8). If he does engage in battle with Leviathan, it will be
the first and only time. Leviathan cannot be subdued by any man: this is a false hope, as he “is laid low even at
the sight of him” (Job 41:9).

Humans & Dinosaurs Together?

Biblical creationists believe that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time because God said that he created man
and land animals on day six. There is historical evidence of dinosaurs and man living together, such as the
petroglyph in Natural Bridges, Utah, legends and stories of dragons in Europe, and the dragon motif in China.
But one striking artifact in Asia is the bas-relief picture of a dinosaur in the ruins of Angkor outside of Siem
Reap, Cambodia.

Soft Tissue Found in Dinosaurs

Dr. Mary Schweitzer and her team caught the world’s attention with a Science paper in 2005 that described
intact blood vessels and red blood cells in a T. rex bone. But in fact, secular scientists have been reporting soft
tissue in dinosaurs for decades in sometimes seldom-read technical literature.

Dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark?

In Genesis 6:19–20, the Bible says that two of every sort of land vertebrate (seven or seven pairs of the “clean”
animals) were brought by God to the ark. Therefore, dinosaurs (land vertebrates) were represented on the ark.
Although there are about 668 names of dinosaurs, there are perhaps only 55 different “kinds” of dinosaurs.
Furthermore, not all dinosaurs were huge like the Brachiosaurus, and even those dinosaurs on the ark were
probably “teenagers” or young adults.
Were Dragons Real?
Ancient historians and writers clearly believed creatures like dragons were real. They describe seeing them first
hand—often in the context of other types of animals that still live today. Some historians even describe the fiery
flying serpents as real creatures in regions near where Moses and Isaiah were and point out the winged nature of
these flying serpents. Such things are a great confirmation of the biblical text.

Are Birds Evolved Dinosaurs?

Having a true bird appear in the fossil record before alleged feathered dinosaurs, no mechanism to change scales
into feathers, no mechanism to change a reptilian respiratory system into an avian respiratory system, and no
legitimate dinosaurs found with feathers are all good indications that dinosaurs didn’t turn into birds. The
evidence is consistent with what the Bible teaches about birds being unique and created after their kinds.
Genesis is clear that God didn’t make birds from pre-existing dinosaurs. In fact, dinosaurs (land animals made on
day six) came after winged creatures made on day five, according to the Bible. Both biblically and scientifically,
chicken-eaters around the world can rest easy—they aren’t eating mutant dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Movies
Television programs, thousands of books, and countless hours of research by thousands of qualified scientists
have been devoted to studying dinosaurs. Is there an answer to their “mystery”? Sadly, many of the materials
produced on the topic of dinosaurs teach parents and children evolutionary ideas and lead them away from
believing the Bible.

What Happened to the Dinosaurs?

After Noah’s flood, around 4,300 years ago, the remnant of the land animals, including dinosaurs, came off the
ark and lived in the present world, along with people. Because of sin, the judgments of the curse in Eden and the
flood of Noah’s day have greatly changed earth over the past 6,000 years. Post-flood climatic change, lack of
food, disease, and man’s activities caused many types of animals to become extinct. The dinosaurs, like many
other creatures, died out.

Conclusion: Dinosaurs as “Missionary Lizards”

As Christians, we can use dinosaurs as “missionary lizards.” We can take what is popular with the culture and
show how God’s Word explains it better. For example, soft tissue, like blood vessels and red blood cells, has
been found in dinosaur bones. This soft tissue couldn’t last millions of years. The fossils confirm a young earth.
We can use dinosaurs to help people trust the history of the Bible and also trust in the message of Jesus Christ
that is also found in God’s Word.

Five Fossil Mysteries . . .

That Evolution Can’t Explain
by Dr. Marcus Ross, A. Peter Galling, and Kurt P. Wise on January 1, 2010 ; last featured September
26, 2012
Featured in Answers Magazine

Since ancient times, fossils have aroused mystery and wonder. Where did they come from? What are they?
Recent discoveries only add to the mystery . . . until the Bible is included in the picture.
Mysteries, mysteries, everywhere! Some are young, and others old. Some are big, and others small.

No matter what the mystery, however, the place to begin looking for answers is always God’s Word (Proverbs
1:7). It is the one sure source of truth that sheds light on the history of life on earth.
On the following pages are five random examples of fossil mysteries that beg for an explanation, if we want to
better understand the past. Every day, new discoveries raise additional perplexing questions that inquisitive folks
want to answer.

We can never answer all the questions. But with practice at “fossil sleuthing” from a biblical perspective, at least
we can get better and better at evaluating each new discovery in a God-honoring way that might yield new
insights into God’s person and work.
So consider this a test.

One: Life’s Unexpected Explosion

What Explains the Cambrian Explosion?
by Kurt P. Wise on January 1, 2010
Forty major animal groups appear out of nowhere at the bottom of the fossil record. Where did this
“Cambrian Explosion” come from?
Even 150 years ago geologists saw that the oldest fossils in the world sat atop thousands of feet of rock
containing no fossils at all. The lowest fossil-bearing rocks were at that time beginning to be called “Cambrian”
rocks, and the rocks beneath them “Precambrian.” The Cambrian rocks contained abundant fossils, so passing
from the Precambrian into the Cambrian looked like an “explosion” of fossils—something which came to be
known as the “Cambrian Explosion.”

The Search to Answer Darwin’s Questions

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, he considered the Cambrian Explosion
one of the most significant challenges to his entire position. Why?
In Darwin’s view, species arise from other species in small steps over long periods of time. The more different
two animal species were, the more evolutionary steps and the more time would be required to connect them. He
also thought that all animals evolved from a single ancestor along an animal “family tree”—species producing
new species, similar to families producing the next generation in a human family tree.
Unexpected Variety—At the lower fossil layers, known as the Cambrian, is an incredible variety of sea
creatures without any ancestors below them. This sudden appearance of variety is a mystery
to evolution, which would expect species to arise in small steps over long periods of time.

With animals as enormously different as the trilobites and brachiopods (e.g., lamp shells) found in Cambrian
rocks, Darwin inferred that an enormous amount of time and many, many generations of species must have come
before the Cambrian (roughly “442 million years ago” by secular radiometric dating 1). So why weren’t any
ancestors of these animals found as fossils in the Precambrian? Darwin suggested the fossils had been formed,
but that they had long since been eroded away. Since in most places rock really was missing between the
Cambrian and Precambrian (such as Grand Canyon’s “Great Unconformity”), Darwin’s idea seemed reasonable.
So the search was on to find the missing fossils. Precambrian rocks were searched for fossils, and the world was
searched for a place where Precambrian rocks had not been eroded away. So what has been the result of 150
years of searching? A more explosive Cambrian Explosion!

Answers to the Questions Lead to More Questions

The missing rock layers were found in about a dozen sites around the world, and fossils were finally found in
Precambrian rocks worldwide. But the fossils were not as expected. Precambrian fossils included bizarre
organisms too different from Cambrian animals to be their ancestors, as well as fossils of bacteria and even
microscopic animal embryos (mostly sponge
embryos). But the ancestors of the Cambrian animals
have never been found. If the rocks were able to
preserve single cells, they could have preserved any
animals that were really there. So it would seem that
the Cambrian ancestors never really existed!

New Findings Raise More Questions—In

Charles Darwin’s day, scientists had not yet
found any ancestors of the animals in the
Cambrian fossil layers. After 150 years of
searching, we now know that no rock layers are
missing, and the variety of Cambrian animals is
even greater than Darwin knew. How did so
much variety arise suddenly?
The searchers ran into another problem. They also
unearthed more Cambrian fossils. Besides trilobites
and brachiopods, they found echinoderms and even vertebrates. In fact, they found fossils of all the animal
“crown groups”—those groups most different from each other and thus from the most distant parts (or “crown”)
of the animal “family tree.”

In other words, if all animals did evolve from a common ancestor, the main branches of the entire evolutionary
tree of animals must have evolved before the Cambrian. It isn’t just the ancestors of trilobites and brachiopods
that are missing; it’s the ancestors of all 30–40 major animal groups (phyla). This makes the Precambrian rocks
even emptier and the Cambrian rocks even fuller than they had originally appeared!

The Cambrian has another problem: too few species. In our everyday experience, if we meet two Americans who
are twelfth cousins and descendants from the same immigrant, we expect to find many other living American
descendants who came from the same immigrant. For similar reasons, if we see very different animals in the
Cambrian, we expect to find many, many other closely related species. But we find far fewer species than
expected.

Measuring time in millions of years has worsened things even more. Radioisotope dating used to spread the
Cambrian Explosion out over 100 million “radiometric years,”1 but refinement of the methods has shrunk the
explosion to something on the order of about 10 million radiometric years or less. Above the Cambrian rock
layers we find other animals that differ from the Cambrian animals as much as the Cambrian animals differ from
one another. Yet these creatures are dated more than 100 million radiometric years after the Cambrian.

If evolution were true, then, in the Cambrian Explosion at least 100 million radiometric years of “normal”
evolutionary change had to have occurred in about 10% of that time.
Since evolution can’t explain the Cambrian Explosion, what can?

A Biblical Perspective Gives Answers

By starting our scientific investigation with a firm faith in the truth of the biblical account of the flood, scientists
can find a solution to the Cambrian Explosion, which is so mysterious within the evolutionary perspective.

Burying sea creatures on a worldwide scale could be the work of a global Flood. This would also explain why we
see animals from most of the crown groups but relatively few species. If we look around the world today, typical
environments contain examples from most crown groups but relatively few total species. If the Flood buried only
one environment at a time, then each layer in the fossil record reflects the mix of crown groups and species from
one environment.

Then why don’t we find many fossils below the Cambrian? The earliest stages of the Flood, when the “fountains
of the great deep were broken up” (Genesis 7:11), were apparently very violent. Many creation geologists believe
these early stages of the Flood shaved most of the pre-Flood sediment off the ocean floors. This would have
destroyed most of the fossils that had formed in the pre-Flood world. Then, only after the violence of the waters
had partially settled down, would the sediment and freshly killed sea-dwelling organisms begin forming the first
sedimentary rocks and fossils from the Flood (the Cambrian rocks and fossils). So only rarely, if at all, would
pre-Flood fossils be expected beneath the earliest Flood rocks.

By starting our scientific investigation with a firm faith in the truth of the biblical account of the Flood, scientists
can find a solution to the Cambrian Explosion, which is so mysterious within the evolutionary perspective.
Two: Those Not-So-Dry Bones
Soft Tissue in a T. Rex Fossil?
by Dr. Marcus Ross on January 1, 2010
Featured in Answers Magazine

If dinosaurs died millions of years ago, how can their fossils still contain soft tissue?
Scientific debates often can be rather dry, filled with unfamiliar terms and minute details difficult for the lay
reader to follow. But over the last five years, a shocking discovery has taken center stage in an intense debate that
even children can follow. Soft, unfossilized blood vessels and red blood cells have been discovered in dinosaur
fossils! How could soft tissues survive after being buried in rock?

In 2005, a team of scientists found a femur of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that contained intact blood vessels
and red blood cells (small circle above). Once freed from the bones, the blood vessels could be
stretched—and even snapped back into place!

In 2005, a team of scientists led by paleontologist Mary Schweitzer published a paper in which they described an
unusual femur (upper leg bone) of a Tyrannosaurus rex.1 While the outer bone was completely fossilized,
the interior regions were somehow sealed off from fossilizing fluids. Inside the T. rex femur were intact blood
vessels and red blood cells. Once freed from the bones, the blood vessels could be stretched—and even snapped
back into place!

The paper produced a storm of media and scientific attention. At issue: the T. rex fossil is believed by
evolutionists to be 68 million years old. How could these biological structures survive intact?
Shortly after, Schweitzer and her colleagues made more headlines with a second paper. This one described intact
proteins from the T. rex femur.2 The problem: laboratory tests and theoretical research have shown that proteins
similar to those seen in the T. rex fossil degrade too quickly—even in ideal laboratory conditions—to survive
for more than a few thousand years.3

In 2008, a paper by paleontologist Thomas Kaye and colleagues challenged Schweitzer’s original findings at
their core.4 These researchers had discovered similar soft structures in a whole range of other fossil animals,
including several from the same geologic layers as the T. rex (the Hell Creek Formation). Instead of vertebrate
blood vessels and cells, this paper documented that all the structures were formed by bacteria some time after
fossilization happened.
In early 2009, scientists found a fossil of a duck-billed dinosaur that contained a host of soft-tissue
structures. The analysis of this fossil (done by multiple, independent labs) concluded the fossil
contained collagen, elastin, hemoglobin, and osteocytes.

For example, the “stretchy” blood vessels in their samples were actually tough films, secreted by bacteria. These
films looked like blood vessels because the bacteria had coated the holes where the blood vessels once were,
leaving behind false “blood vessels.” Kaye’s team also discovered inside these bacterial “vessels” round pyrite
(fool’s gold) crystals. They concluded that Schweitzer’s team must have mistaken these for red blood cells
(which are round in reptiles and birds, but flattened in mammals). They also discovered similar kinds of organic
chemicals as Schweitzer’s team, but from substances made by bacteria. Kaye’s paper seemed to counter most of
the Schweitzer team’s evidence that they had found original T. rex tissues.

But in early 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues struck again with a new paper. 5 Now a duck-billed dinosaur from
the Judith River Formation (below the Hell Creek, and supposedly 80 million years old) was described with a
host of soft-tissue structures. Furthermore, the analyses of this fossil were done by multiple, independent labs.
Several vertebrate-specific proteins (collagen, elastin, and hemoglobin) were discovered, as were unambiguous
osteocytes (bone-forming cells seen only in vertebrate animals).

No one expected soft tissue to be found in dinosaur fossils, but these discoveries really make sense if the bones
were buried only a few thousand years ago during Noah’s flood.

The Schweitzer team’s latest paper clearly answers all the challenges posed by Kaye’s bacterial-origin
hypothesis.6 In both of Schweitzer’s reports, the claim of dinosaur soft tissue is real.

But this still leaves the bigger question: how could soft tissues survive for millions of years? No experimental
results support long-age survival, as the last paper by Schweitzer’s team readily admits. And honestly, no young-
earth creationists expected soft tissue to be found in dinosaurs. Perhaps that expectation was an artifact of our
training (which is often in evolution-dominated schools). Sometimes evolutionary assumptions are in places we
haven’t recognized.

Yet the discovery really makes sense if the bones were buried only a few thousand years ago during Noah’s
Flood. One thing is for sure: more creationists will be looking inside more bones to see what treasures are hidden
there.

Three: Without a Leg to Stand On

Bird Legs Differ from Dinosaur Legs
by A. Peter Galling on January 1, 2010 ; last featured November 23, 2009
Featured in Answers Magazine

Birds are vastly different from dinosaurs, even in the way they walk. How could one come from the other?
“Birds are the modern version of dinosaurs,” declare many evolutionists who believe theropod dinosaurs evolved
into birds.1 Artists even go so far as to depict these reptiles with feathers and other avian features. 2 But not all
evolutionists accept the dogma. In a recent Journal of Morphology paper, Devon Quick and John Ruben of
Oregon State University exposed a major flaw in the dinosaur-to-bird model—and simultaneously revealed a
unique feature of bird biology.3

The scientists examined the unusual way that birds use their femur (thigh bone) when walking. Unlike most other
creatures, birds do not move their femurs significantly. Instead, birds use their lower legs. But their odd “knee
running” motion isn’t just a funny quirk. It’s actually crucial to their ability to breathe rapidly. The femur bones
and thigh muscles support the bird’s air-sac lung as it breathes, preventing the lungs from collapsing.

The Bird Walk—Birds have a distinct, almost comical, way of walking (from the knee down). Scientists
now understand the reason behind this unusual walk. The bird’s upper leg bone (the femur) must
remain firmly in place to support their unique air-sac lung. Why don’t dinosaurs have lungs or legs
similar to birds? The answer should be pretty obvious. Picture courtesy of Oregon State University.

“This is fundamental to bird physiology,” Quick said. “It’s really strange that no one realized this before.”
Dinosaur fossils show no evidence of fixed femurs, the researchers determined. “Theropod dinosaurs had a
moving femur and therefore could not have had a lung that worked like that in birds,” Ruben explained. “That
undercuts a critical piece of supporting evidence for the dinosaur–bird link.” The lung structure and physiology
of dinosaurs was likely much closer to crocodilian creatures than to birds.

David Menton, a former Washington University anatomist who has researched the dinosaur-to-bird idea,
commented, “It appears that both feathers and the avian mode of breathing are unique to birds.”
Perhaps the dinosaur–bird connection, now rejected by creationists and some evolutionists, will one day fall out
of favor entirely. But Ruben noted, “There’s a lot of museum politics involved in this, a lot of careers committed
to a particular point of view even if new scientific evidence raises questions.”

At the very least, we now know of another ingenious anatomical feature that the Creator gave birds from the very
beginning so they could achieve the miracle of flight.

Four: Amazingly Preserved Leaves

by Kurt P. Wise on January 1, 2010
Featured in Answers Magazine

When leaves die, they shrivel up and crumble. So why is the fossil record full of well-preserved, flat leaves?
Our high school biology teacher gave us homework over the summer: put together a plant collection.
Unfortunately, when fall arrived, not all the collections looked like plants! Unless you follow special directions,
plants shrivel, brown, and crumble soon after being picked. Perhaps such an assignment—or trying to preserve a
rare four-leaf clover or a favorite flower—is the only way to understand how difficult it is to preserve a plant.
With this thought in mind, the vast number of fossil plants at Mazon Creek (near Chicago, Illinois) is remarkable.
Not only are the leaves well preserved, but they are quite flat—flatter, in fact, than they were when they were
alive! How is this?

The mystery deepens when one realizes that Mazon Creek is not unique. Similar well-preserved, flattened fossils
are found around the world.

These are just a sample of the millions of fossilized leaves that have been recovered from the Mazon
Creek deposit near Chicago. What catastrophic process could preserve so many leaves so splendidly?
Photo courtesy of Creation Museum.

Under special conditions, leaves will become rigid today. If a green leaf is stripped from a plant and submerged
in water, the still-living cells will swell, stretching the flexible membrane surrounding the cells and pressing
against cell walls outside that membrane. (This process, called turgor pressure, causes wilting house plants to
straighten when watered.)

If a leaf is dead when it falls into water, however, nothing happens. The reason is simple. When a plant “dies”
(biologically speaking), the membranes surrounding the cells break and shrink away from the cell walls.

So we deduce that special conditions must have produced the leaves in the fossil record:
Step 1: The leaves must have been ripped off while the plants were still alive.
Step 2: The leaves must have been carried in water long enough for water to enter the cells and stiffen (flatten)
the leaves.
Step 3: Since leaves curl up as soon as the water drains away, the flattened leaves must have been buried before
the water left the cells.

The Bible’s account of a global flood provides the clues that help us solve the mystery of how these leaves could
be deposited worldwide.

The Bible’s description of a global Flood provides the clues that help us solve the mystery of how these leaves
could be deposited worldwide. As rising water inundated the earth, we would expect the plants to be ripped up
and then float in water, before sinking and being buried.

The catastrophe destroyed more than just one kind of leaf. The Mazon Creek fossils include many kinds of small
ground plants (such as ferns), intermediate-sized trees (such as tree ferns), and very tall trees (such as giant scale
trees, which are now extinct). Every part of each of those plants (from roots to bark, branches, leaves, flowers,
and seeds) has been found, as well as varied animals that probably lived with those plants. So it seems that parts
of an entire ecosystem were suddenly destroyed and buried in some watery catastrophe.
Similar fossil localities with the same plants are found across the eastern United States, Europe, and westernmost
Asia. So it seems that both the ecosystem and the catastrophe must have been huge—at least the size of a
continent. That’s just what might be expected of a global flood!

When evaluated through the lens of Scripture, Mazon Creek fossil leaves confirm what is written on the leaves of
the Bible.
Normally leaves shrivel up soon after they die. So why do we find so many leaves so well preserved
worldwide—even flatter than they are in life? A unique combination of events, unlike anything we see
today, would make this “wonder” possible. God’s Word gives us a record of events like this.
Five: Tracks But No Trilobites
by Kurt P. Wise on January 1, 2010
Featured in Answers Magazine
Why do we find lots of trilobite tracks in lower rock layers, but we don’t find any trilobite fossils until
higher up?

I was excited, scampering up a remote hill near Death Valley. I finally had an opportunity to visit one of only a
dozen or so places in the world where you can find the lowest layers of animal fossils.
Starting near the car, I scoured the ground very carefully for fossils. After examining one layer I would search
the layer above it, slowly working through higher and higher rocks. The flaky shale rocks were the kind that
preserves fossils well, so I was sure I’d find something.

At long last I found a trilobite trackway—the only fossil I found in that layer. In
the next layer I found several more tracks, but no remains of the trilobites
themselves. As I went up, the tracks became more abundant, but I found not the
slightest hint of the animals that made the tracks.

Stopped Dead in Its Tracks

Scientists have discovered lots of amazing trilobite tracks in the fossil record
(called cruziana, top photo). They have also found mass graves of wonderfully
preserved trilobites (bottom photo). The puzzle is that the bodies appear in
layers above the tracks. If the layers were deposited over millions of years, this
would be a great mystery. But what if the trilobites were scurrying for their
lives, climbing through successive waves of mud that flooded over them, and
then they finally expired from exhaustion? Do we have any record of a massive
catastrophe that could form so many layers so quickly, then kill the trilobites?

Then suddenly I came to a layer jam-packed with trilobite “shells.” I had been
concentrating so hard on finding just one little fragment of a trilobite that the
abundance startled me.
Odd. Why would dozens of feet of rock have tracks but not the animals that
made them? This finding is especially mysterious if you believe the rock was
deposited over thousands of years.

Interestingly enough, the site is not unique. Tracks are found before trilobites
everywhere that the lowest trilobite layers are known.

Such a worldwide pattern of fossil layers suggests that a global catastrophe, such
as the Bible describes, once struck the world. What if, when the “fountains of
the great deep were broken up” (Genesis 7:11), the spreading waters surprised
the trilobites living on the ocean bottom? As the water became muddy, trilobites
scurried about in terror, leaving their tracks behind them. Then as a layer of mud
covered their tracks, they climbed through the mud and left tracks on the next
layer—repeating this process until they finally succumbed in exhaustion and
were themselves buried and preserved.

Follow the trilobite tracks, and they lead us to the worldwide Flood of the Bible!