This section will explore answers to the following...
• What are Fossils?
• What is Fossilization?
• What is required for something become a fossil?
• How long does it take to make a fossil? (Not long)
• Where would we expect to find Flood Fossils?
• What are the Flood Deposition Layers? (Fossil Record)
• Responding to, “The fossil record proves Evolution.”
• What are “Polystrate fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Index fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Transitional fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Living fossils”?
• What caused the Dinosaurs to become fossilized?
• Why don’t we find Human Fossils?
• What are Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts)?
• What is the Cambrian Explosion?
• Where can I learn more about Fossils?
• What are fossils?
Fossils are remnants or traces of organisms from the past that are typically embedded and preserved in sedimentary rock. There are three types of fossils: imprints, casts, and mineralization. Imprints are where the organism simply left an imprint on a rock. Casts are where the organism left a cavity in a rock that got filled in by other material. Mineralization is where the material of the bones or other body parts get replaced by minerals. Layers of fossiliferous rocks provide a record of the sequence of their deposition. This “fossil record” is typically diagrammed in a cross-section known as the geological column. (Maybe Creationists could start calling them, “Flood Deposition Layers.”) Evolutionists hold that this record represents a history of life on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, and fossils are offered as the main evidence to support that organisms have evolved from simple to more complex forms. Most creationists believe that the vast majority of the fossils are instead the remains of plant and animals that died during the Biblical global flood.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossil)
• Where do fossils fit in the Big Picture of History?
They are evidence of the “Catastrophe” (Noah’s Flood)
• Check This Out - Fossils (3:22)
(Source: http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/23253/Check-This-Out-Fossils)
• How to Interpret Fossils and Boots (3:45)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmQgPTLIqdo)
• Fossil Evidence of Catastrophism (5:30)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71xC-mk8gjc)
• Noah’s Flood Formed the Fossils (17:25)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afMRHfKIuEs)
• Fossils - The Creationist’s Best Friend
(Source: http://www.creationism.org/topbar/fossils.htm)
• Fossils are Gospel Tracts from Noah’s Flood
(Source: http://creationtoday.org/fossils-are-gospel-tracts-from-noahs-flood)
• What is Fossilization?
Fossilization is the process by which plant and animal remains are preserved in sedimentary rock. The Earth is covered in layers of fossils, and this record of history helps us understand what types of organisms that lived in the distant past (i.e. before the flood of Noah). The study of how living organisms become fossilized in known as taphonomy (Greek for “laws of burial”). Under normal conditions, fossilization will rarely take place, and may best be explained through flood geology mechanisms. Nevertheless, there are two main beliefs regarding the formation of sedimentary rock that contain fossils.
Catastrophism - fossils were buried quickly by a catastrophe (like Noah’s Flood). Uniformitarianism - fossils (supposedly) were buried through uniform rates of erosion and deposition, largely consistent with current rates.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossilization)
• What is required for something become a fossil?
(Like a dinosaur) 1. Avoid being eaten before you die by carnivores. 2. Avoid being eaten after you die by scavengers. (Difficult, because you are dead.) 3. Get buried deeply otherwise the bacteria will make short work of you - if you are only buried by a foot or two of mud. 4. Get buried quickly, and the conditions must be right to form rock (pressure, certain minerals, chemicals) It takes more than just dying and falling down to become a fossil!
• How long does it take to make a fossil? (Not long)
Most people think that it takes a long time, and that’s partly because we have been repeatedly told that fossils are millions of years old. But experience - which is, after all, what science is all about - shows that it is not unusual for things to become stone very quickly under the proper conditions. The process of fossilization, where minerals replace the original material is illustrated very nicely by a miner’s hat. A miner lost his hat in a mine in Australia; it was found 50 years later, completely turned to limestone. The hat is now in a mining museum in Tasmania. If this were not a modern artifact but, say, a fish, it might have been declared to be millions of years old! Many, if not most, fossils were produced during the great flood of Noah’s time when plants and animals were quickly covered by sediment and water.
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/catastrophism/fossil-hat)
• Fossilized Ships Bell
A ‘fossil’ ship’s bell was found recently about 50 meters (170 feet) off the coast of Victoria, Australia. These metal bells have become firmly encased in solid rock. The specimen is currently in the possession of the Maritime Archaeological Unit of Heritage Victoria, where it is being desalinated. Most of us have been so ‘evolutionized’ by our culture that things like rocks or fossils are immediately associated with millions of years of slow processes. It does not often register with the general public that there is no scientific reason to believe that rocks take millions of years to form - it all depends on having the right ingredients. Of course, these ship’s bells are not millions of years old. They came from the wreck of the wooden sailing ship Isabella Watson, which sank off the coast of Victoria in 1852. [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3073364/posts)
[2] (Source: http://creationrev.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/FF-1-Bell-300x300.jpg)
• Fossilized Hat [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/fossilized-hats)
[2] (Source: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/catastrophism/fossil-hat)
• Petrified Cowboy Leg [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.bible.ca/tracks/rapid-fossils-rapid-petrifaction.htm)
[2] (Source: http://www.discoverynews.us/images/Boot%20w%20fossilized%20bone.jpg)
• Where would we expect to find Flood Fossils?
Fossils are found sedimentary rock layers all over the world (to include the tops of mountains). This indicated that water had to cover those mountains at some point. Either there was a lot of water to cover the mountains or they were pushed up. Either way the evidence seems to point to a global (over all the earth) flood that covered the animal and plants quickly to create the fossils.
• What are the Flood Deposition Layers? (Fossil Record)
The fossil record is a “recording of history” composed of layers of fossils. The earth is covered in layers (strata) of sedimentary rock. This strata records the relative times when the fossilized organisms were buried by sediment. In contrast to many records of human history, however, layers of the “fossil record” come without universally recognized methods of dating. Evolutionists hold that this record represents a history of life on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, and fossils are offered as the main evidence to support the theory that organisms have evolved from simple to more complex forms. However, most Creationists believe that the vast majority of the fossils are instead the remains of plant and animals that died during the Biblical global flood. Some creationists prefer to use a phrase like “fossil layers” to avoid the connotation that it offers evidence for the macro-evolution of living forms over millions of years. Note: The “fossil record” doesn’t actually date anything - Evolutionist scientists do that. (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossil_record)
• Responding to, “The fossil record proves Evolution.”
No. The fossil record provides no evidence for macro-evolution. * (*Change in Kinds, Molecules to Man)
Some scientists suggest there is evidence for macro-evolution. They point to the fossil record. They argue we have transitional forms. These are intermediate fossils that demonstrate gradual change from one type of species to another. A few potential transitional examples here and there are not enough. Evolutionists need a lot more. Darwin said so himself in his book; “Origin of the Species.” “The number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great.” In other words, if Darwin’s theory is true we should find tons of transitional forms in the fossil record. But we don’t. Ask a paleontologist, the scientists who study the fossil record. Better yet, ask one of the world’s leading paleontologists, Niles Eldredge. When it comes to paleontology, Niles is a rock star. He says the fossil record has produced no evidence of transitional forms. In a moment of honesty, Niles writes that it is no surprise “paleontologists shied away from evolution for so long. It never seems to happen.” No gradual changes from one type of species to another in the fossil record. No “inconceivably great” number of transitional forms.
No, the fossil record is not evidence of macro-evolution.
(Source: http://www.str.org/quickthoughts/the-fossil-record-proves-evolution.-right#.VnDypl7ZOM8)
• Fossils Support Evolution (Because Evolution Is Assumed)
(Source: http://crev.info/2011/05/fossils_support_evolution_because_evolution_is_assumed)
Note: Invite someone who believes fossils support evolution to watch this short clip and then study the series produced by Dr. Werner.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
Fossils of modern appearing plants and animals in the Dinosaur rock layers.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - DVD Clip (3:17) [1] [2]
[1] (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
[2] (Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/living_fossils.html)
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/htdocs/Director's_letters/CSI-Director's-Letter-06-11.pdf)
• Book - Living Fossils - Evolution, the Grand Experiment
(Source: https://www.christianbook.com/living-fossils-volume-2-evolution-experiment/carl-werner/9780892216918/pd/216918?event=ESRCG)
(Source: Image - https://g.christianbook.com/g/slideshow/2/216918/main/216918_1_ftc.jpg)
• What are “Polystrate fossils”?
A polystrate fossil is one that crosses more than one layer of stratified rock. Fossilized trees, for example, are frequently found in upright positions passing through two or more layers. These kinds of fossils offer clear evidence against a uniformitarian view of the Earth’s fossiliferous strata. Polystrate fossils are found in many parts of the world.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Polystrate_fossil)
• Polystrate Fossils
The term “polystrate” was coined to describe a fossil which is encased within more than one (poly) layer of rock (strata) thus “polystrate” or “many layers.” Obviously the layers cannot be the result of slow accumulations, for a dead fish, for example, will not remain in an articulated condition for several years while sediment accumulates around it. No, it must be quickly buried in order to be preserved at all. Some of the big polystrate trees transgress strata otherwise thought to have required tens of thousands of years. Obviously, the entire section required less time than it takes a tree to rot and fall over. It has now been well demonstrated that rapidly-moving, sediment-laden fluids can result in an abundance of laminations and/or layers. They can be formed in lab experiments, by hurricanes, and were even formed by catastrophic mud flows associated with the eruption of Mount St. Helens. A better interpretation of past deposits would stem from acceptance of rapid intense geologic processes, such as Noah’s Flood. (Source: https://www.icr.org/article/what-are-polystrate-fossils)
Challenge. Please explain how the fossil layers can be millions of years old if an upright fossilized tree (polystrate fossil) is found going through them.
• A Classic Polystrate Fossil
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/classic-polystrate-fossil)
• The Polystrate Trees & Coal Seams
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/polystrate-trees-coal-seams-joggins-fossil-cliffs)
• How Long Did It Take to Deposit the Geologic Strata?
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/how-long-did-it-take-deposit-geologic-strata)
• Polystrate Fossils & the Creation/Evolution Controversy
(Source: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=512&article=195)
• What are the so-called “Index fossils”?
Index fossils are fossils used to identify a particular layer of the man-made (artificial) geological column. If an “index fossil” is found in a certain rock layer that fossil is used to put a date (usually millions) on anything else found in that layer. Marine fossils (like Trilobites) are the most common “index” fossils. One problem with “index fossils” is they are supposed to represent animals/fish that are allegedly millions of years old (and no longer alive today - extinct). However many “supposedly” old and extinct animals have been found alive - notably the Coelacanth. Another problem with Index fossil dating is the false assumption that it takes millions of years to form a fossil. And we know it doesn’t - many “artifacts” have been found fossilized with known dates of the early 1950’s.
[1] [2] [3]
[1] (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Index_fossil)
[2] (Source: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/index-fossils-faq.htm)
[3] (Source: http://targettruthministries.com/2014/05/may-snapshot)
• Example - Coelacanth Fossil and Not-so-Fossilized Fish
According to Evolutionists - the Coelacanth dates back 400 million years. Coelacanth fossils pre-date the dinosaurs by millions of years (according to Evolutionists), and were thought to have gone extinct with them 65 million years ago (according to Evolutionists) until one was discovered alive in 1938.(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Living_fossil)
• Coelacanth - The World’s Oldest Fish
(Source: http://www.creationtips.com/coelacanth.html)
• What are the so-called “Transitional fossils”?
“Transitional fossils” are the expected evidence to support Darwinian Evolution of one “kind” of animal (sea, land) to another. And despite claims to the contrary none have been found. There are no fossils between simple single-cell organisms, such as bacteria, and complex invertebrates, such as trilobites. Trilobites appear suddenly in the fossil record without any transitions leading up to them. Fish have no ancestors or transitional forms to show how invertebrates, with their skeletons on the outside, became vertebrates with their skeletons inside. Fossils of a wide variety of flying and crawling insects appear without any transitions. Dragonflies, for example, appear suddenly in the fossil record. The highly complex systems that enable the dragonfly's aerodynamic abilities have no ancestors in the fossil record. In the entire fossil record, there is not a single unequivocal transition form proving a causal relationship between any two species. From the billions of fossils we have discovered, there should be thousands of clear examples if they existed. The lack of transitions between species in the fossil record is what would be expected if life was created. (Source: http://www.icr.org/fossils-stasis)
• Fossils Show Stasis and No Transitional Forms
(Source: http://www.icr.org/fossils-stasis)
• Tiktaalik Roseae - Fossil Fraud (3:48)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-v-cmPCaAI)
• What are the so-called “Living fossils”?
Living fossils are plants or animals that closely resemble species known from fossils. Many such organisms were considered extinct and only known through fossil evidence, but were later discovered alive. According to the Bible and its chronology, all plants and animals were created around the same time only a few thousand years ago. Most naturalists find this thought laughable and yet many plants and animals alive today have changed little from their relatives that allegedly lived millions of years ago. In fact, most living fossils are almost identical to their fossilized ancestors.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
Fossils of modern appearing plants and animals in the Dinosaur rock layers.
• Living Fossils Point to Recent Creation
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/8974)
• Wollemi Pine - Living Fossil [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Wollemi_pine)
[2] (Source: http://www.icr.org/article/wollemia-nobilis-living-fossil-evolutionary-enigma)
• What caused the Dinosaurs to become fossilized?
If an animal dies today it begins to degenerate pretty fast because of heat, humidity, scavengers and of course oxygen. Bugs, worms and bacteria also go to work on the decaying animal and it doesn’t take it very long to go from road kill to rot. If the dinosaurs had simply died of old age or in a battle with another dinosaur, they would have quickly decayed and we would have no record of them today. Something traumatic had to occur to cover the fossilized animals with mud in order to begin the process of fossilization. Consider using the term “mud flood.” Despite what many of us have been told, the making of fossils can be a very short process (not thousands or even millions of years). Fossil beds have been found with thousands of animals all piled up and jumbled together. These huge piles of ancient animals and dinosaurs must have died and been buried very quickly. These fossil beds are found all over the world and are evidence that the world was once covered by a huge flood.
(Source: http://www.discoverynews.us/PrintedArticles/DINOSAURS%20and%20the%20BIBLE.htm)
• Why don’t we find Human Fossils?
The fossil record abounds with the remains of past life. If the creationist interpretation of the fossil record is basically correct, most of the fossils were deposited during the Flood of Noah’s day. These organisms were trapped and buried in ocean-bottom mud, which later hardened into sedimentary rock, fossilizing the organic remains. But where are the human remains? First, we must rightly consider the nature of the fossil record. Over ninety-five percent of all fossils are marine creatures, such as clams, corals, and trilobites - mostly invertebrates with a hard outer surface. Of the remaining five percent, most are plants. Much less than one percent of all fossils are land animals. This encompasses reptiles (including dinosaurs) - amphibians, mammals, birds, and humans. Land creatures have a “low-fossilization potential.” As land animals die in water, they bloat, float, and come apart. It is very difficult to trap a bloated animal under water, in order for it to be buried. Furthermore, scavengers readily devour both flesh and bone. Seawater and bacterial action destroy everything. The scouring ability of underwater mud flows, common during the Flood, would grind bone to powder.
According to the Bible the purpose of Noah's Flood was to destroy the land communities - not preserve them - especially humans. For purposes of discussion, let us assume 300,000,000 people died in the Flood, and that each one was preserved as a fossil evenly distributed in the sedimentary record, which consists of about 300,000,000 cubic miles. The chances of such a fossil intersecting the Earth’s surface, being found by someone, and then being properly and honestly identified is vanishingly small. On the other hand, if evolution is true, and humans have lived on Earth for three million years, many trillions have lived and died. Where are their fossils? This is the more vexing question.
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/why-dont-we-find-more-human-fossils)
• Note: If you knew a flood was coming, what would you do? Most likely get into a boat or go to high ground. Neither place would provide much of an opportunity to be buried. In many places around the world, human remains have been found behind walls in sealed caves, could these have been people trying to escape the floodwaters?
(Source: https://www.genesisalive.com/the-question-of-fossils.html)
• 1933 South Africa Human Thighbone Fossil Discovery
Dr. P.W. Lardler found a human thighbone at the base of a consolidated boulder bed in 1933. The locality was the Blind River site close to East London, South Africa. This boulder bed was about 8 feet thick and covered by about 25 feet of other deposits. This person may have died in the Flood.
• What are Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts)?
There are some fossils that cannot be made to fit the Evolutionary Timeline at all. Such fossils, called Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts), are found in layers totally out of kilter with the Evolutionary timeline. The most startling evidences are human artifacts like the following …
• The Bronze Bell. It was encased in a large piece of coal. Standard dating of the bituminous coal seam from which it was taken dates it from the Carboniferous Period, approximately 300 million years old. Certainly no human artifact could reside in such “ancient” strata.
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/amazing-anomalous-fossil)
• The London Artifact (Hammer). It is an iron hammer, surrounded by a solid mass of cretaceous rock. The handle was partially petrified. It was discovered in London, Texas.
(Source: http://paleo.cc/paluxy/hammer.htm)
• Example - Recent Petrifaction - The London Artifact
(Source: http://www.godrules.net/evolutioncruncher/default.htm)
• What is the Cambrian Explosion?
The Cambrian Explosion is the term used to define the relatively sudden fossil appearance of new animal species and body forms in the geologic record. The Cambrian Explosion defies modern evolutionary theory of gradual descent through mutations and natural selection from one common ancestor, because the fossil record should then show simplest life forms at the bottom, and a slow upward chain of complexity building upwards. A sudden appearance is indicative of a sudden creation.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Cambrian_explosion)
• Video - That’s A Fact - Cambrian Explosion (1:35)
(Source: https://vimeo.com/122747540)
• The Cambrian Explosion - Part 1 (7:49)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMKYd0WSV0)
• The Cambrian Explosion - Part 2 (3:25)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPkSMTQc8Cw)
• What are Trilobites? (Fossils)
Trilobites are extinct arthropods. One of the closest living relatives to the trilobite is the Horseshoe Crab. Trilobites lived in the marine waters. Most could swim, but some couldn't so they just crawled around on the ocean floors. The Trilobite is a very complex creature, especially it’s eye, which is so complex that it could not have evolved, especially since there are no transitional fossils that indicate an evolution. This goes to show that it must have had a Creator. This has only been discovered a couple years ago. Evolutionists try to say that now the creatures are getting more and more complex and complicated as life goes on, but really it already had started out that way. Some creationists believe that the best extra-biblical evidence for creation would come from the design of a Trilobite eye and that this creation by God is the most reasonable hypothesis for the reason of the complexity of the trilobite’s schizochroal eye. Creationists believe that the Trilobites became extinct because of Noah’s flood, they think that their bodies were to small and weak to curl up and defend themselves from the rough seas.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Trilobite)
• Trilobites - Sudden Appearance and Rapid Burial
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/trilobites-sudden-appearance-rapid)
• My Favorite Evidence for Creation - Trilobite Eyes
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/my-favourite-evidence-for-creation)
• Trilobite Eyes - Ultimate Optics
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/extinct-animals/trilobite-eyes-ultimate-optics)
• Lenses Beyond Compare - Trilobites
(Source: http://espanol.apologeticspress.org/articles/61)
• Where can I learn more about Fossils?
Book - Living Fossils - Evolution, the Grand Experiment
(Source: https://www.christianbook.com/living-fossils-volume-2-evolution-experiment/carl-werner/9780892216918/pd/216918?event=ESRCG)
(Image - https://g.christianbook.com/g/slideshow/2/216918/main/216918_1_ftc.jpg)
Dr. Carl Werner reviewed thousands of fossils from the dinosaur era, and compared them to the animals and plants of today with the view that while some animals (like dinosaurs and flying reptiles) have gone extinct, others have remained substantially the same for thousands of years.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - DVD Clip (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/living_fossils.html)
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/htdocs/Director's_letters/CSI-Director's-Letter-06-11.pdf)
• Dating Fossils and Rocks (DVD)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/dating-fossils-and-rocks/?sku=30-9-118)
SKU: 30-9-118, Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048, 800.778.3390
• Illustra Media - Darwin’s Dilemma (DVD)
(Source: http://www.christianbook.com/darwins-dilemma/pd/063094?event=ESRCN)
CBD Stock No: WW063094, Christian Book Distributors (CBD), 140 Summit St., Peabody, MA 01960, 800-247-4784
• Untold Secrets of Planet Earth - Fossils (Book)
(Source: http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/untold-secrets-fossils-p-1980.html)
Product Code: 10-2-644, Creation Ministries International
PO Box 350, Powder Springs, GA 30127, (800) 6161-CMI
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• What are Fossils?
• What is Fossilization?
• What is required for something become a fossil?
• How long does it take to make a fossil? (Not long)
• Where would we expect to find Flood Fossils?
• What are the Flood Deposition Layers? (Fossil Record)
• Responding to, “The fossil record proves Evolution.”
• What are “Polystrate fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Index fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Transitional fossils”?
• What are the so-called “Living fossils”?
• What caused the Dinosaurs to become fossilized?
• Why don’t we find Human Fossils?
• What are Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts)?
• What is the Cambrian Explosion?
• Where can I learn more about Fossils?
• What are fossils?
Fossils are remnants or traces of organisms from the past that are typically embedded and preserved in sedimentary rock. There are three types of fossils: imprints, casts, and mineralization. Imprints are where the organism simply left an imprint on a rock. Casts are where the organism left a cavity in a rock that got filled in by other material. Mineralization is where the material of the bones or other body parts get replaced by minerals. Layers of fossiliferous rocks provide a record of the sequence of their deposition. This “fossil record” is typically diagrammed in a cross-section known as the geological column. (Maybe Creationists could start calling them, “Flood Deposition Layers.”) Evolutionists hold that this record represents a history of life on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, and fossils are offered as the main evidence to support that organisms have evolved from simple to more complex forms. Most creationists believe that the vast majority of the fossils are instead the remains of plant and animals that died during the Biblical global flood.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossil)
• Where do fossils fit in the Big Picture of History?
They are evidence of the “Catastrophe” (Noah’s Flood)
• Check This Out - Fossils (3:22)
(Source: http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/23253/Check-This-Out-Fossils)
• How to Interpret Fossils and Boots (3:45)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmQgPTLIqdo)
• Fossil Evidence of Catastrophism (5:30)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71xC-mk8gjc)
• Noah’s Flood Formed the Fossils (17:25)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afMRHfKIuEs)
• Fossils - The Creationist’s Best Friend
(Source: http://www.creationism.org/topbar/fossils.htm)
• Fossils are Gospel Tracts from Noah’s Flood
(Source: http://creationtoday.org/fossils-are-gospel-tracts-from-noahs-flood)
• What is Fossilization?
Fossilization is the process by which plant and animal remains are preserved in sedimentary rock. The Earth is covered in layers of fossils, and this record of history helps us understand what types of organisms that lived in the distant past (i.e. before the flood of Noah). The study of how living organisms become fossilized in known as taphonomy (Greek for “laws of burial”). Under normal conditions, fossilization will rarely take place, and may best be explained through flood geology mechanisms. Nevertheless, there are two main beliefs regarding the formation of sedimentary rock that contain fossils.
Catastrophism - fossils were buried quickly by a catastrophe (like Noah’s Flood). Uniformitarianism - fossils (supposedly) were buried through uniform rates of erosion and deposition, largely consistent with current rates.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossilization)
• What is required for something become a fossil?
(Like a dinosaur) 1. Avoid being eaten before you die by carnivores. 2. Avoid being eaten after you die by scavengers. (Difficult, because you are dead.) 3. Get buried deeply otherwise the bacteria will make short work of you - if you are only buried by a foot or two of mud. 4. Get buried quickly, and the conditions must be right to form rock (pressure, certain minerals, chemicals) It takes more than just dying and falling down to become a fossil!
• How long does it take to make a fossil? (Not long)
Most people think that it takes a long time, and that’s partly because we have been repeatedly told that fossils are millions of years old. But experience - which is, after all, what science is all about - shows that it is not unusual for things to become stone very quickly under the proper conditions. The process of fossilization, where minerals replace the original material is illustrated very nicely by a miner’s hat. A miner lost his hat in a mine in Australia; it was found 50 years later, completely turned to limestone. The hat is now in a mining museum in Tasmania. If this were not a modern artifact but, say, a fish, it might have been declared to be millions of years old! Many, if not most, fossils were produced during the great flood of Noah’s time when plants and animals were quickly covered by sediment and water.
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/catastrophism/fossil-hat)
• Fossilized Ships Bell
A ‘fossil’ ship’s bell was found recently about 50 meters (170 feet) off the coast of Victoria, Australia. These metal bells have become firmly encased in solid rock. The specimen is currently in the possession of the Maritime Archaeological Unit of Heritage Victoria, where it is being desalinated. Most of us have been so ‘evolutionized’ by our culture that things like rocks or fossils are immediately associated with millions of years of slow processes. It does not often register with the general public that there is no scientific reason to believe that rocks take millions of years to form - it all depends on having the right ingredients. Of course, these ship’s bells are not millions of years old. They came from the wreck of the wooden sailing ship Isabella Watson, which sank off the coast of Victoria in 1852. [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3073364/posts)
[2] (Source: http://creationrev.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/FF-1-Bell-300x300.jpg)
• Fossilized Hat [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/fossilized-hats)
[2] (Source: https://answersingenesis.org/geology/catastrophism/fossil-hat)
• Petrified Cowboy Leg [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://www.bible.ca/tracks/rapid-fossils-rapid-petrifaction.htm)
[2] (Source: http://www.discoverynews.us/images/Boot%20w%20fossilized%20bone.jpg)
• Where would we expect to find Flood Fossils?
Fossils are found sedimentary rock layers all over the world (to include the tops of mountains). This indicated that water had to cover those mountains at some point. Either there was a lot of water to cover the mountains or they were pushed up. Either way the evidence seems to point to a global (over all the earth) flood that covered the animal and plants quickly to create the fossils.
• What are the Flood Deposition Layers? (Fossil Record)
The fossil record is a “recording of history” composed of layers of fossils. The earth is covered in layers (strata) of sedimentary rock. This strata records the relative times when the fossilized organisms were buried by sediment. In contrast to many records of human history, however, layers of the “fossil record” come without universally recognized methods of dating. Evolutionists hold that this record represents a history of life on Earth over hundreds of millions of years, and fossils are offered as the main evidence to support the theory that organisms have evolved from simple to more complex forms. However, most Creationists believe that the vast majority of the fossils are instead the remains of plant and animals that died during the Biblical global flood. Some creationists prefer to use a phrase like “fossil layers” to avoid the connotation that it offers evidence for the macro-evolution of living forms over millions of years. Note: The “fossil record” doesn’t actually date anything - Evolutionist scientists do that. (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Fossil_record)
• Responding to, “The fossil record proves Evolution.”
No. The fossil record provides no evidence for macro-evolution. * (*Change in Kinds, Molecules to Man)
Some scientists suggest there is evidence for macro-evolution. They point to the fossil record. They argue we have transitional forms. These are intermediate fossils that demonstrate gradual change from one type of species to another. A few potential transitional examples here and there are not enough. Evolutionists need a lot more. Darwin said so himself in his book; “Origin of the Species.” “The number of intermediate and transitional links, between all living and extinct species, must have been inconceivably great.” In other words, if Darwin’s theory is true we should find tons of transitional forms in the fossil record. But we don’t. Ask a paleontologist, the scientists who study the fossil record. Better yet, ask one of the world’s leading paleontologists, Niles Eldredge. When it comes to paleontology, Niles is a rock star. He says the fossil record has produced no evidence of transitional forms. In a moment of honesty, Niles writes that it is no surprise “paleontologists shied away from evolution for so long. It never seems to happen.” No gradual changes from one type of species to another in the fossil record. No “inconceivably great” number of transitional forms.
No, the fossil record is not evidence of macro-evolution.
(Source: http://www.str.org/quickthoughts/the-fossil-record-proves-evolution.-right#.VnDypl7ZOM8)
• Fossils Support Evolution (Because Evolution Is Assumed)
(Source: http://crev.info/2011/05/fossils_support_evolution_because_evolution_is_assumed)
Note: Invite someone who believes fossils support evolution to watch this short clip and then study the series produced by Dr. Werner.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
Fossils of modern appearing plants and animals in the Dinosaur rock layers.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - DVD Clip (3:17) [1] [2]
[1] (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
[2] (Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/living_fossils.html)
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/htdocs/Director's_letters/CSI-Director's-Letter-06-11.pdf)
• Book - Living Fossils - Evolution, the Grand Experiment
(Source: https://www.christianbook.com/living-fossils-volume-2-evolution-experiment/carl-werner/9780892216918/pd/216918?event=ESRCG)
(Source: Image - https://g.christianbook.com/g/slideshow/2/216918/main/216918_1_ftc.jpg)
• What are “Polystrate fossils”?
A polystrate fossil is one that crosses more than one layer of stratified rock. Fossilized trees, for example, are frequently found in upright positions passing through two or more layers. These kinds of fossils offer clear evidence against a uniformitarian view of the Earth’s fossiliferous strata. Polystrate fossils are found in many parts of the world.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Polystrate_fossil)
• Polystrate Fossils
The term “polystrate” was coined to describe a fossil which is encased within more than one (poly) layer of rock (strata) thus “polystrate” or “many layers.” Obviously the layers cannot be the result of slow accumulations, for a dead fish, for example, will not remain in an articulated condition for several years while sediment accumulates around it. No, it must be quickly buried in order to be preserved at all. Some of the big polystrate trees transgress strata otherwise thought to have required tens of thousands of years. Obviously, the entire section required less time than it takes a tree to rot and fall over. It has now been well demonstrated that rapidly-moving, sediment-laden fluids can result in an abundance of laminations and/or layers. They can be formed in lab experiments, by hurricanes, and were even formed by catastrophic mud flows associated with the eruption of Mount St. Helens. A better interpretation of past deposits would stem from acceptance of rapid intense geologic processes, such as Noah’s Flood. (Source: https://www.icr.org/article/what-are-polystrate-fossils)
Challenge. Please explain how the fossil layers can be millions of years old if an upright fossilized tree (polystrate fossil) is found going through them.
• A Classic Polystrate Fossil
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/classic-polystrate-fossil)
• The Polystrate Trees & Coal Seams
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/polystrate-trees-coal-seams-joggins-fossil-cliffs)
• How Long Did It Take to Deposit the Geologic Strata?
(Source: https://www.icr.org/article/how-long-did-it-take-deposit-geologic-strata)
• Polystrate Fossils & the Creation/Evolution Controversy
(Source: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apPubPage.aspx?pub=1&issue=512&article=195)
• What are the so-called “Index fossils”?
Index fossils are fossils used to identify a particular layer of the man-made (artificial) geological column. If an “index fossil” is found in a certain rock layer that fossil is used to put a date (usually millions) on anything else found in that layer. Marine fossils (like Trilobites) are the most common “index” fossils. One problem with “index fossils” is they are supposed to represent animals/fish that are allegedly millions of years old (and no longer alive today - extinct). However many “supposedly” old and extinct animals have been found alive - notably the Coelacanth. Another problem with Index fossil dating is the false assumption that it takes millions of years to form a fossil. And we know it doesn’t - many “artifacts” have been found fossilized with known dates of the early 1950’s.
[1] [2] [3]
[1] (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Index_fossil)
[2] (Source: http://www.allaboutcreation.org/index-fossils-faq.htm)
[3] (Source: http://targettruthministries.com/2014/05/may-snapshot)
• Example - Coelacanth Fossil and Not-so-Fossilized Fish
According to Evolutionists - the Coelacanth dates back 400 million years. Coelacanth fossils pre-date the dinosaurs by millions of years (according to Evolutionists), and were thought to have gone extinct with them 65 million years ago (according to Evolutionists) until one was discovered alive in 1938.(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Living_fossil)
• Coelacanth - The World’s Oldest Fish
(Source: http://www.creationtips.com/coelacanth.html)
• What are the so-called “Transitional fossils”?
“Transitional fossils” are the expected evidence to support Darwinian Evolution of one “kind” of animal (sea, land) to another. And despite claims to the contrary none have been found. There are no fossils between simple single-cell organisms, such as bacteria, and complex invertebrates, such as trilobites. Trilobites appear suddenly in the fossil record without any transitions leading up to them. Fish have no ancestors or transitional forms to show how invertebrates, with their skeletons on the outside, became vertebrates with their skeletons inside. Fossils of a wide variety of flying and crawling insects appear without any transitions. Dragonflies, for example, appear suddenly in the fossil record. The highly complex systems that enable the dragonfly's aerodynamic abilities have no ancestors in the fossil record. In the entire fossil record, there is not a single unequivocal transition form proving a causal relationship between any two species. From the billions of fossils we have discovered, there should be thousands of clear examples if they existed. The lack of transitions between species in the fossil record is what would be expected if life was created. (Source: http://www.icr.org/fossils-stasis)
• Fossils Show Stasis and No Transitional Forms
(Source: http://www.icr.org/fossils-stasis)
• Tiktaalik Roseae - Fossil Fraud (3:48)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-v-cmPCaAI)
• What are the so-called “Living fossils”?
Living fossils are plants or animals that closely resemble species known from fossils. Many such organisms were considered extinct and only known through fossil evidence, but were later discovered alive. According to the Bible and its chronology, all plants and animals were created around the same time only a few thousand years ago. Most naturalists find this thought laughable and yet many plants and animals alive today have changed little from their relatives that allegedly lived millions of years ago. In fact, most living fossils are almost identical to their fossilized ancestors.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
Fossils of modern appearing plants and animals in the Dinosaur rock layers.
• Living Fossils Point to Recent Creation
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/8974)
• Wollemi Pine - Living Fossil [1] [2]
[1] (Source: http://creationwiki.org/Wollemi_pine)
[2] (Source: http://www.icr.org/article/wollemia-nobilis-living-fossil-evolutionary-enigma)
• What caused the Dinosaurs to become fossilized?
If an animal dies today it begins to degenerate pretty fast because of heat, humidity, scavengers and of course oxygen. Bugs, worms and bacteria also go to work on the decaying animal and it doesn’t take it very long to go from road kill to rot. If the dinosaurs had simply died of old age or in a battle with another dinosaur, they would have quickly decayed and we would have no record of them today. Something traumatic had to occur to cover the fossilized animals with mud in order to begin the process of fossilization. Consider using the term “mud flood.” Despite what many of us have been told, the making of fossils can be a very short process (not thousands or even millions of years). Fossil beds have been found with thousands of animals all piled up and jumbled together. These huge piles of ancient animals and dinosaurs must have died and been buried very quickly. These fossil beds are found all over the world and are evidence that the world was once covered by a huge flood.
(Source: http://www.discoverynews.us/PrintedArticles/DINOSAURS%20and%20the%20BIBLE.htm)
• Why don’t we find Human Fossils?
The fossil record abounds with the remains of past life. If the creationist interpretation of the fossil record is basically correct, most of the fossils were deposited during the Flood of Noah’s day. These organisms were trapped and buried in ocean-bottom mud, which later hardened into sedimentary rock, fossilizing the organic remains. But where are the human remains? First, we must rightly consider the nature of the fossil record. Over ninety-five percent of all fossils are marine creatures, such as clams, corals, and trilobites - mostly invertebrates with a hard outer surface. Of the remaining five percent, most are plants. Much less than one percent of all fossils are land animals. This encompasses reptiles (including dinosaurs) - amphibians, mammals, birds, and humans. Land creatures have a “low-fossilization potential.” As land animals die in water, they bloat, float, and come apart. It is very difficult to trap a bloated animal under water, in order for it to be buried. Furthermore, scavengers readily devour both flesh and bone. Seawater and bacterial action destroy everything. The scouring ability of underwater mud flows, common during the Flood, would grind bone to powder.
According to the Bible the purpose of Noah's Flood was to destroy the land communities - not preserve them - especially humans. For purposes of discussion, let us assume 300,000,000 people died in the Flood, and that each one was preserved as a fossil evenly distributed in the sedimentary record, which consists of about 300,000,000 cubic miles. The chances of such a fossil intersecting the Earth’s surface, being found by someone, and then being properly and honestly identified is vanishingly small. On the other hand, if evolution is true, and humans have lived on Earth for three million years, many trillions have lived and died. Where are their fossils? This is the more vexing question.
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/why-dont-we-find-more-human-fossils)
• Note: If you knew a flood was coming, what would you do? Most likely get into a boat or go to high ground. Neither place would provide much of an opportunity to be buried. In many places around the world, human remains have been found behind walls in sealed caves, could these have been people trying to escape the floodwaters?
(Source: https://www.genesisalive.com/the-question-of-fossils.html)
• 1933 South Africa Human Thighbone Fossil Discovery
Dr. P.W. Lardler found a human thighbone at the base of a consolidated boulder bed in 1933. The locality was the Blind River site close to East London, South Africa. This boulder bed was about 8 feet thick and covered by about 25 feet of other deposits. This person may have died in the Flood.
(Source: https://www.academia.edu/574223/A_re-examination_of_a_human_femur_found_at_the_Blind_River_Site_East_London_South_Africa_Its_age_morphology_and_breakage_pattern)
• What are Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts)?
There are some fossils that cannot be made to fit the Evolutionary Timeline at all. Such fossils, called Anomalous Fossils (or Fossil Artifacts), are found in layers totally out of kilter with the Evolutionary timeline. The most startling evidences are human artifacts like the following …
• The Bronze Bell. It was encased in a large piece of coal. Standard dating of the bituminous coal seam from which it was taken dates it from the Carboniferous Period, approximately 300 million years old. Certainly no human artifact could reside in such “ancient” strata.
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/amazing-anomalous-fossil)
• The London Artifact (Hammer). It is an iron hammer, surrounded by a solid mass of cretaceous rock. The handle was partially petrified. It was discovered in London, Texas.
(Source: http://paleo.cc/paluxy/hammer.htm)
• Example - Recent Petrifaction - The London Artifact
(Source: http://www.godrules.net/evolutioncruncher/default.htm)
• What is the Cambrian Explosion?
The Cambrian Explosion is the term used to define the relatively sudden fossil appearance of new animal species and body forms in the geologic record. The Cambrian Explosion defies modern evolutionary theory of gradual descent through mutations and natural selection from one common ancestor, because the fossil record should then show simplest life forms at the bottom, and a slow upward chain of complexity building upwards. A sudden appearance is indicative of a sudden creation.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Cambrian_explosion)
• Video - That’s A Fact - Cambrian Explosion (1:35)
(Source: https://vimeo.com/122747540)
• The Cambrian Explosion - Part 1 (7:49)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKMKYd0WSV0)
• The Cambrian Explosion - Part 2 (3:25)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPkSMTQc8Cw)
• What are Trilobites? (Fossils)
Trilobites are extinct arthropods. One of the closest living relatives to the trilobite is the Horseshoe Crab. Trilobites lived in the marine waters. Most could swim, but some couldn't so they just crawled around on the ocean floors. The Trilobite is a very complex creature, especially it’s eye, which is so complex that it could not have evolved, especially since there are no transitional fossils that indicate an evolution. This goes to show that it must have had a Creator. This has only been discovered a couple years ago. Evolutionists try to say that now the creatures are getting more and more complex and complicated as life goes on, but really it already had started out that way. Some creationists believe that the best extra-biblical evidence for creation would come from the design of a Trilobite eye and that this creation by God is the most reasonable hypothesis for the reason of the complexity of the trilobite’s schizochroal eye. Creationists believe that the Trilobites became extinct because of Noah’s flood, they think that their bodies were to small and weak to curl up and defend themselves from the rough seas.
(Source: http://creationwiki.org/Trilobite)
• Trilobites - Sudden Appearance and Rapid Burial
(Source: http://www.icr.org/article/trilobites-sudden-appearance-rapid)
• My Favorite Evidence for Creation - Trilobite Eyes
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/evidence-for-creation/my-favourite-evidence-for-creation)
• Trilobite Eyes - Ultimate Optics
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/extinct-animals/trilobite-eyes-ultimate-optics)
• Lenses Beyond Compare - Trilobites
(Source: http://espanol.apologeticspress.org/articles/61)
• Where can I learn more about Fossils?
Book - Living Fossils - Evolution, the Grand Experiment
(Source: https://www.christianbook.com/living-fossils-volume-2-evolution-experiment/carl-werner/9780892216918/pd/216918?event=ESRCG)
(Image - https://g.christianbook.com/g/slideshow/2/216918/main/216918_1_ftc.jpg)
Dr. Carl Werner reviewed thousands of fossils from the dinosaur era, and compared them to the animals and plants of today with the view that while some animals (like dinosaurs and flying reptiles) have gone extinct, others have remained substantially the same for thousands of years.
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - DVD Clip (3:17)
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlxqsUO42Ek)
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/Education/living_fossils.html)
• Dr. Carl Werner - Living Fossils - Excerpt
(Source: http://www.creationstudies.org/htdocs/Director's_letters/CSI-Director's-Letter-06-11.pdf)
• Dating Fossils and Rocks (DVD)
(Source: https://answersingenesis.org/store/product/dating-fossils-and-rocks/?sku=30-9-118)
SKU: 30-9-118, Answers in Genesis, PO Box 510, Hebron, KY 41048, 800.778.3390
• Illustra Media - Darwin’s Dilemma (DVD)
(Source: http://www.christianbook.com/darwins-dilemma/pd/063094?event=ESRCN)
CBD Stock No: WW063094, Christian Book Distributors (CBD), 140 Summit St., Peabody, MA 01960, 800-247-4784
• Untold Secrets of Planet Earth - Fossils (Book)
(Source: http://usstore.creation.com/catalog/untold-secrets-fossils-p-1980.html)
Product Code: 10-2-644, Creation Ministries International
PO Box 350, Powder Springs, GA 30127, (800) 6161-CMI
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