Wednesday 11 June 2014

Fossil Preservation and the Global Flood

Right, some quick bytes to take a break from my planetary science series. :)

A common objection to mainstream scientific opinion on fossils and deep time is that a Great Global Flood, happening conveniently about 4300 years ago provides excellent, if not better conditions for fossil preservation. However, this fails explanatory power upon closer inspection of the fossils themselves. I will today focus on fossils recovered, particularly on dinosaur ones and why its extremely unlikely they were preserved in a global flood. 

1) Incomplete fossilization and evidence of scavenging- Sometimes only a dinosaur head is found, or the limbs are missing. Incomplete or partial burial explains this well-some parts decay faster than others if buried at different rates. Why would the global flood do this  if dino fossils are found right smack in the middle of the geological column? Obvious signs of scavenging is compelling evidence that they werent buried by the Flood- these Protoceratops were found to  have Velociraptor teeth on them.
Joel of Naturalis Historia also noted an excellent piece on some recently discovered Titanosaur fossils-with T.Rex teeth embedded in their bones. Is this possible in the middle of a Great Flood? 

2)Fossil eggs-Seriously. Note that these fossils of dinosaur eggs have only been found in only Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. These couldnt have been laid before the supposed Flood-then they would have been found at the bottom of the geologic column. Note that the Flood was supposed to have deposited sediments both above and below them. How is this so? the standard escape hatch is that well, there was a lull in the Flood Waters so maybe the surviving dinos continued breeding and laying eggs. What makes this so unbelievable is that it means that the surviving dinosaurs would have to be standing on top of thousands of feet of Cambrian-Ordovician-Silurian-Devonian-Carboniferous-Permian Flood deposits to continue breeding. Seriously how long were they treading water?

3) Fossil tracks- a form of trace fossils-the idea that footprints could be preserved in the middle of a great flood is personally ridiculous to me. Note that tracks have been excavated from deep within the geologic column. Why didnt the extremely violent flood waters destroy the footprints before subsequently depositing yet another layer of sediments atop? Read a good breakdown here.

4) Coprolites-otherwise known as "fossil poop" they are another problem for the Global Flood. Why?
Simple, they, like any eggs found, had to be laid, well, near the same time the dinosaurs themselves were buried too! Furthermore, its extremely unlikely they could have survived fossilisation, and much more likely to have dissolved or smashed to pieces. And take a look at this turtle coprolite:

Credit to Glenn Morton for this Eocene era turtle coprolite.


 
Notice the crusting over into layers? Does it remind you of anything? Yes, this is a very obvious sign of dessication. Now how could cracking of this level occur during the Flood?

Conclusion

By far, the most compelling evidence that the fossils were relics of a bygone era is their consistency. You would expect to find giant insects in the Carboniferous-Permian (occasionally along with the peat swamps that they thrived in), and you would find dinosaur coprolites, tracks and eggs along with dinosaur fossils wholly in the Mesozoic.

Is there a better explanation for this?



3 comments:

  1. Most of your comments are very good, and I only have one concern. The supposed coprolite you show actually appears to a common pseudofossil, and more specifically an inorganic iron nodule, sometimes referred to as "turtle rocks" for obvious reasons.For more info see:
    http://www.geology.ar.gov/geology/pseudofossils.htm I work with fossils and coprolites on a regular basis, and am quite certain that it is not a coprolite. Since there are many pictures available on the web and elsewhere of unquestioned coprolites, I recommended replacing the photo with one of these instead. Thanks.

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    1. Wow, thanks so much for the warning. I will make this change as soon as possible.

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