Chapter 2
The Geologic Column and the Fossil Record
Many evolutionists are recognizing the lack of real evidence for
the geologic column and the lack of support in the fossil record for evolution. The
geologic column was developed in the early 1800's. It is based upon the evolutionary
assumption of "uniformitarianism" proposed by James Hutton (1726-1797) and
popularized by Charles Lyell (1797-1875). Uniformitarianism held that "the present
geologic processes were the key to the past". In other words there was no cataclysmic
world re-shaping flood as God had stated, but instead long ages of slow geologic processes
which laid down the sediments and the fossil record. At the same time, William (Strata)
Smith (1769-1839) was developing the idea of "guide" or "index"
fossils which were used to determine where layers would fit on the geologic chart or
column. Although not the only founders, Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin became two of the
main "fathers of evolution". Lyell popularized the idea of vast ages and
Darwin in 1859 with his book "Origin of Species" added the biological side of
evolution. The chart itself, in present form, shows sedimentary layers arranged in order
of the type of fossils found in each layer. The order is based on the theory of evolution
where life evolved from simple forms to more complex ones over millions of years. If a
layer contains simple fossils it is placed at the bottom of the chart signifying an older
layer. If a layer has more complex fossils such as mammals it is placed at the top of the
chart signifying a young layer because mammals supposedly evolved last. As far as the
physical evidence goes you cannot find this complete column anywhere on earth. Missing
layers are theorized as having eroded away. Yet generally there is a continuous contact
line from one layer of sediment to another with no evidence of erosion. Many times you can
find supposed older layers on top of younger layers completely out of sequence.
While Charles Darwin expected the fossil record to provide numerous
intermediary forms as life evolved from one kind to another the record after 130 years is
basically zero. Listen to what some of the top paleontologists have to say about the
absence of transitional forms. Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Paleontologist at the British
Museum of Natural History says that if he had found a transitional form, fossil or living
he would have included them in his book. Stephen Jay Gould, Professor of Geology and
Paleontology at Harvard University says that all paleontologists know that the fossil
record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between
major groups are characteristically abrupt.
What is found in the sediments and the fossil record is a record of
living things generally buried in their natural ecosystem. Also found are fossils buried
in graveyards with other fossils of abnormal circumstance. The creation model would have
predicted both types of occurrence. In a worldwide flood the first things to be rapidly
buried and fossilized would be the least mobile creatures. Clams, trilobites, nautilus'
etc. would generally be buried en mass. Animals which could reach the highest ground or
were strong swimmers would have survived the longest. They eventually would have drowned,
floated and rotted rather than be fossilized.
What Makes a Fossil
When you think about fossilization the evolutionary theory of long
ages with slow burial and a gradual transformation just does not fit the facts. Anytime an
organism dies it immediately begins to decay, scavengers come and in a short period of
time there is nothing left. In order to get a fossil you need special circumstances. The
main need is rapid burial which the creation model predicts as part of the flood. From
here you can add superheated water, chemicals and sediment due to the internal meltdown of
the earth. The recipe provided by the flood is perfect for fossil creation. You may have
heard the old coke can story used by evolutionists where the can is slowly buried and
fossilized over a long period of time. This example is rather deceptive because if you
substitute a living organism for the coke can you will never get a fossil.
Fossil Graveyards
Fossil graveyards have been found all over the earth. In Agate
Springs, Nebraska a fossil graveyard of around 9,000 animals was found buried in
"alluvial deposits" i.e. water laid sedimentary rock. The remains of
rhinoceros', camels, giant wild boars, birds, plants, trees, sea shells and fish are mixed
and intermingled in great confusion. Consider the Cumberland Bone Cave in the state of
Maryland. In one cave was found a graveyard of animals hopelessly intermingled, covered
and preserved by a flood deposit of gravel and rocks. The graveyard contained wolverines,
bears, tapirs, ground hogs, rabbits, coyotes, beaver muskrat, mastodon, elk, crocodile,
pumas etc. What event could have made such strange bedfellows?
In Como Bluffs, Wyoming a dinosaur graveyard was found which was seven
miles long littered with tons of bones. Several miles north of Como Bluffs a dinosaur
quarry was found which yielded 483 specimens weighing 146,000 pounds. The Cleveland Lloyd
quarry in Utah has yielded over 12,000 bones of 70 different animals and 10 different
kinds of dinosaurs. At Dinosaur National Monument near Vernal, Utah twenty complete
skeletons as well as bones and parts of skeletons representing nearly 300 individual
dinosaurs were extracted. There are similar graveyards in the Gobi desert of Mongolia, in
Africa, in the foothills of the Himalayas, in South America, in Europe, in short, all over
the world.
Consider the frozen soils of Alaska and Siberia. In the frozen
graveyard of central Alaska were found bears, wolf, fox, badger, wolverine, saber-tooth
cat, jaguar, lynx, mammoth, mastodon, horses, camel, antelope, bisons, caribou, moose,
elk, sheep, musk-ox, yak, ground sloth, and several rodents buried and frozen in great
number. Henry Howorth wrote about the fossil graveyards of Siberia in his book called
"The Mammoth and The Flood" published in 1887. Think about a 2,000 mile long
graveyard of mammoths, bison, horses, cattle, sheep, rhinoceros' as well as other
unidentified remains buried and frozen in water laid sediments. Howorth estimated over 5
million mammoths alone.
Consider the fossil fish graveyards of California and Great Britain.
The shale beds of California are estimated to contain more than a billion fish of 6 to 8
inches in length. In the "old red sandstone" of Great Britain massive quantities
of fish are buried in an area covering thousands of square miles. They are buried together
in contorted and convulsive positions as the flowing mud entombed them. Think about this
fossil for a minute. A fossil skeleton of a baleen whale was found in a quarry in Lompoc,
California. What makes this fossil of special interest is the position it was buried in.
The whale was found to be standing on its tail! Did the whale stand on its tail for
millions of years while the sediments slowly built up around it?
Coal Formation
Most people have the evolutionary induced idea that coal formed
from swampy peat bogs over millions of years. A trip out to the coal fields in Australia
reveals a different story. Investigation of the physical evidence in the coal fields of
Australia reveals that the coal beds of the world are the fossilized remains of pre-flood
vegetation. Examination of coal under an electron microscope clearly reveals plant remains
which have undergone a metamorphosis.
When you visit some of the open pit coal mines of Australia you will
witness a number of peculiar things. All over the pit are water sprinklers keeping the
coal wet. Investigation proves that the coal is little more than a mass of rotting
vegetation which will spontaneously ignite if not watered down. But even more interesting
is what is found in and through the coal layers. In many places are found petrified tree
logs vertically penetrating numerous coal seams. If the coal was laid down in a swamp over
millions of years how did the petrified tree logs come about? Besides this, within the
coal layers were found many fossilized pine logs and stumps and a continuous pollen layer.
Think about it, do pine trees grow in swamps? How did a continuous pollen layer arise?
Another important clue was observed. The coal sat on a layer of white
clay which had decomposed from volcanic ash. Where was the soil from the swamp? The answer
becomes obvious when flood conditions are thought through. The coal never was formed by a
swamp. During the flood you had volcanic activity, vegetation was ripped up by the moving
flood waters, deposited en mass and covered by sediments. The moving waters had gathered
and sorted the pollen and laid it down in a continuous layer.
The physical evidence shows coal as pre-flood vegetation. According to
the Genesis account it was formed rapidly not slowly over millions of years. When we
consider its rapid formation we can refer to hard scientific support. Coal has been formed
rapidly in the lab through simulating the right conditions. The experiment involved
boiling wood chips in slightly acidic water combined with white clay. After 28 days the
wood chips took on the consistency and chemical composition of coal. The conditions used
in the lab are precisely the conditions present during Noah's flood. The internal meltdown
of the earth superheated the waters, chemicals and decay of vegetation would have made the
water acidic and the tremendous volcanism provided the white clay.
Sediment Formation
The geologic column purports to represent the formation of
sediments over millions of years. However our evidence of rapid coal formation absolutely
refutes this idea. Throughout the world you find coal layers mixed with sediment layers.
The coal and sediment layers were laid down at the same time during and after Noah's
flood. The geologic column alleges to cover earth history from the Cambrian age (570
million years ago) where simple life forms began. From here life forms supposedly became
more complex until man appeared on the scene 1-2 million years ago. But when we look at
the physical evidence we see another story.
Evidence for man's existence should only be found in the most recent
layers according to the geologic column. However the evidence utterly refutes this. In
Cambrian strata (570 m.y.) there was found sandal and footprints and iron bands,
Ordovician strata (500 m.y.) a sandal print and metal hammer, Silurian strata (435 m.y.) a
human skeleton, Pennsylvanian (318 m.y.) a iron pot, tools and a gold chain, Jurassic
(192.5 m.y.) leg and foot bones and footprint, Cretaceous (136 m.y.) human skeleton, shoe
prints, and cast metal nodules and on and on. This is only a small sample of what has been
found proving man's existence throughout the geologic column.
We've looked at some of the evidence which refutes sediments slowly
building up over millions of years. Consider for a moment the eruption at Mt. St. Helens.
On May 18, 1980 the dormant volcano erupted but not in the usual manner. Mt. St. Helen's
erupted sideways through a bulge on its north side. It literally blew down the heavily
forested area over many square miles. Tremendous mud flows devastated the area and flowed
into the north fork of the Toutle river which flows west to the Pacific. Over the next two
years the inner cone was building up and erupted again in 1982 sending forth more mud
flows. These flows cut a 125 foot deep canyon through the previous mud flow sediments as
well as older eruption formations. When scientists went back in they found a miniature
grand canyon system created in less than a week with a small creek flowing at the bottom.
What they observed were canyon walls of finely laminated sediments. Catastrophic forces
had created sediments in a matter of days not over millions of years as evolutionary
theory supposes. This is entirely consistent with the description in Genesis where all the
fountains of the deep were broken up. Extensive volcanism, superheated water and mud flows
are made to order with the internal meltdown of the earth.
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs seem to fascinate everybody. Every time there is a new
fossil discovery the media runs a big story emphasizing its 64 million year old age. The
movie Jurassic Park begins with the line "64 million years ago". Evolutionary
dogma has dinosaurs living millions of years before man came on the scene. Let's examine
the dinosaur in relation to the creation model, historical accounts and the physical
evidence.
The word "dinosaur" is a Latin word meaning "terrible
lizard". It was coined in 1841 by an Englishman named Richard Owen. The corresponding
word used in Greek is "dragon" meaning "reptilian like being". In the
Old Testament the Hebrew word used is "tanniyn" meaning "a marine or land
monster". Because the term dinosaur is a relatively new name we usually find the name
dragon, behemoth, whale or leviathan used to describe them in the Bible.
In Genesis 1 v 21 it says God created great whales (tanniyn) on the
fifth day. Genesis 1 v 24-26 describes God creating the land animals which would include
the dinosaurs on the sixth day. Man was also created on the sixth day. It becomes
important to realize that the creation account has man and dinosaur living together at the
same time. This is in direct conflict with evolutionary dogma. The Old Testament mentions
dragons (dinosaurs) a number of times in the post-flood account of history.
The book of Job chapter 40 v 15-24 describes a creature called
Behemoth. Reading the description reveals he has a tail like a cedar tree and legs like
pillars of bronze. Footnotes in various Bibles suggest this might be a hippo or an
elephant however neither have tails like a cedar tree. A straightforward analysis reveals
the Bible describing a giant sauropod dinosaur. Job chapter 41 describes the leviathan.
The description is astounding. In verse 7 man is unable to penetrate its skin with iron
spears. Verse 14 says its teeth are large and fierce looking. Verse 15 says his scales are
impenetrable. Verse 18-21 says it can spew a burning chemical spray from out of its mouth
like fire. Verses 26-28 says iron and brass weapons and arrows are as straw and stubble to
him. Verse 31 says he makes the sea to boil like a pot when he moves through it. The
description here is of a ocean/land dinosaur which is fearless indeed.
Ancient peoples all over the world have accounts of dinosaur-like
creatures roaming the earth. Some accounts over time have become embellished or
exaggerated. However many accounts are descriptive, straight-forward and told in a factual
manner. There have been cave drawings which look uncannily like an Edmontosaurus. An old
science book from Europe called "Historia Animalium" states that dragons were
not extinct until the 1500's. The dragons had become extremely rare and small by then.
This would be consistent with the creation account of gradual dinosaur extinction due to
harsh post-flood conditions and hunting.
In the Liscomb bone beds of Alaska scientists have collected fresh
unfossilized dinosaur bones. They found numerous dinosaur bones sticking out of the
permafrost. The bone portion above the ground was fossilized but the deeper they dug the
less the bone was fossilized. Surely a fresh unfossilized bone would not have survived for
64 million years intact. It would have disintegrated in all the supposed climate changes
that evolution postulates. It seems more logical and reasonable that a fresh unfossilized
dinosaur bone would survive for a few thousand years after the flood if in a permanently
frozen state. Remember the fossil graveyards of Siberia with an estimated 5 million
mammoths buried. You can add some dinosaurs to that scenario.
Evidence that man and dinosaur lived at the same time has been
discovered in the Paluxy River area near Glen Rose, Texas. Excavations have revealed 57
human footprints, 197 dinosaur footprints and a fossilized human finger. Human footprints
and dinosaur footprints together absolutely refute the evolutionary dogma that dinosaurs
lived over 60 million years before man. These human footprints right along side dinosaur
footprints have been cross-sectioned and clearly reveal the pressure deformations below
the footprint. This would be expected with a human walking through a soft mud flat. In
fact in some of the dinosaur footprints they have found human footprints within the
dinosaur print.
Even up to this present century there is evidence that some dinosaurs
have survived without becoming extinct. In 1977 a Japanese fishing trawler pulling up its
nets found a small dead Plesiosaur which looks like a sauropod with a long neck and
flippers. Perhaps a live land dinosaur still exists deep in the jungle. Man has still not
fully explored every area of the planet.
Some Reference Material for Fossils, Graveyards, and Dinosaurs
1. The Deluge Story in Stone by Byron C. Nelson
published by Bethany Fellowship, Inc.
2. The Flood by Alfred M. Rehwinkel
published by Concordia Publishing House
3. Dinosaurs by Mace Baker
published by New Century Books, Redding, Calif.
Author's address, 2620 Cecelia Court, Redding, Calif., 96002
Phone (916) 221-4034
4. Footprints and the Stones of Time by Dr. Carl Baugh
and Dr. Clifford Wilson published by Hearthstone Publishing
WATS Line 1-800-652-1144
5. Creation Research Science Education Foundation
July-August 1994, Volume 2, Number 4
Article on the Liscomb Bone Bed
Box 292, Columbus, Ohio, 43216-0292
Phone (614) 837-3097
6. The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible
by Paul S. Taylor
