Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. 2
Chapter 17 Appendix Part 4
Dinosaurs are not permitted to be found in more recent strata than the Mesozoic (even though there is evidence that they have lived at the same time that man has—see chapter 18, Ancient Man).
Circular reasoning is used to accomplish that objective: Dinosaur remains are required to be found only in "Mesozoic rocks," and, in turn, rocks are classified as "Mesozoic" if they contain dinosaur remains.
"On the basis of these field relations, the Gokwe Formation is significantly younger than the Starnberg Basalts of the Karroo System, but older than the Kalahari Beds. Thus it is younger than the early part of the Jurassic and older than the Mid-Tertiary. This is a wide bracket which by paleontological means may be narrowed considerably. The presence of remains of dinosaurs rules out any age later than the end of the Mesozoic." —*G. Bond and *IC Bromley, "Sediments with the Remains of Dinosaurs near Gokwe, Rhodesia, " in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, 8:320.
Here is how to ignore mammal tracks that have been found in Carboniferous strata, 100 million years before mammals were supposed to have evolved:
"Barkas considered it 'not improbable' that the former tracks were those of a 'small, broad, fourlegged mammal' . . they figure as foot prints of uncertain systematic character.. The tracks described by Barkas have received no subsequent attention [by the geologists]." —*W.A.J. Sarjeant, "History and Bibliography of the Study of Fossil Vertebrate Footprints in the British Isles," in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, 18:328, 330 (1974).
Another excellent way to do it is to give no explanation and hope others will forget about the matter:
"An impossible combination of fossils was reported in 1970 in Guryul Ravine, Kashmir. Permian brachiopods were found mixed with lower Triassic pelecypods. Since the one is supposed to have been extinct long before the other evolved, no explanation of the puzzle was offered." —Erech A. von Fangs, "Time Upside Down,"in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p. 18 ]Source: CRSQ, Vol. 7, No. 2, p. 122].
Horse tracks were found in Devonian strata, 300 million years before they "evolved":
"His illustration shows circular impressions with a raised central region, indeed rather like horse hoofmarks but quite unlike the footprints of any animal likely to have been in existence in the Devonian." —Op. cit., p. 325 [italics his].
An alternate solution is to not ignore the out-of-place fossil, but instead declare that it has been "reworked" or "downwashed." By reworking, the paleontologists mean that the out-of-place fossil worked its way out of older rock and traveled on up into younger strata. By downwashing, they mean that a fossil was washed down out of its proper strata to strata on a lower level. Yet both concepts are theoretical efforts to explain away the problem fossils. Please remember that we are speaking of solid rock. Fossils are supposes to have pushed up through solid rock to higher levels, or down through it to lower levels. Reworking and downwashing are used to explain a few fossils not in agreement with the theory; overthrusts are used to explain entire stratas composed of vast numbers of such fossils.
"Fossils frequently occur where they are not 'supposed' to. It is then claimed that either the fauna or flora have lived longer than previously known (simple extension of stratigraphic range) or that the fossil has been reworked. In 'reworking,' it is claimed that the fossil has been eroded away from a much older host rock and has thus been incorporated into a rock of more recent age. The reciprocal situation is 'downwash,' where it is claimed that an organism has been washed down into rock much older than the time it lived and has become fossilized . .
. "'Reworking' is very often (if not usually) not justified by any independent lines of evidence, such as state of preservation of the fossil. Claims of 'reworking' are bus invoked solely because of the 'improper' stratigraphic occurrence of the fossil. The numerous instances of fossils occurring in "wrong' strata is thus yet another line of evidence against the validity of the evolutionary-uniformitarian geological age system." —John Woodmorappe, "An Anthology of Matters Significant to Creationism and Diluviology: Report 2," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1982, p. 209.
Two scientists recognize that using such labels as "reworked" or "downwashed" to solve the problem—is only to add to it. Geologists and paleontologists need to stop running from the facts.
"To recognize such redistribution [fossils found in the wrong places] where it has occurred, and yet to invoke this explanation ["reworking," "rewashing," and "infiltration" from one strata to another] to account for unexpected extensions of the life range of a species presents a serious problem requiring much critical attention." —*M.N. Bramlett and *F.R. Sullivan, Coccolithophorids and Related Nannoplankton of the Early Tertiary in California (1981), p. 133.
*Veevers puzzles out loud over the problem before him. The difficulty is making the rocks and fossils fit the theory. Did the delicate spores move downward through the rock, or did the fossils pack their bones and move upward?
"Are the Permian spores due to infiltration or are the Devonian fossils reworked into Permian deposits?" —*J.J. Veevers, "Early Phanerozoic Events on and alongside the Australasian-Antarctic Platform, " in Journal of the Geological Society of Australia, 23:203, 190-191 (1978).
*Muir frankly admits the extent of the difficulty:
"Palynological fossils of older ages are commonly encountered amidst younger assemblages." —*M.D. Muir, Reworking in Jurassic and Cretaceous Spore Assemblages (1987), p. 153. Italics added.
*Stanley says the fossil-experts should not be relying so heavily on reworking to solve the underlying problem:
"In any kind of ecologic study, false conclusions could be drawn, while the havoc reworking could play with stratigraphy is immense." —*E.A. Stanley, "The Occurrence and Distribution of Pollen and Spores in Marine Sediments," in Proceedings of the First International Conference On Planktonic Miaofosslls, Vol. 2 (1989), pp. 841-843.
The strata theory is used to decide which fossils have moved up or down out of their "proper strata":
"In many cases the contaminants are difficult to recognize and to demonstrate the source of their origin; however, the incompatible ages of the fossils and sequences of fossil ages are useful criteria in distinguishing mixed palynological deposit." —*LR. Wilson, "Recycling, Stratigraphic Leakage, and Faulty Techniques in Palynology," in Grana Palyndogica (1984), p. 427.
One paleontologist marvels at how easily delicate oocoolith fossils travel upward through solid rock, and do it without showing any signs of wear and tear:
"Yet another disadvantage to the stratigrapher is the ease with which oocooliths are reworked into younger sediments without showing outward signs of wear [in the process of being pushed from one rods errata up into another]." —*M.D. Brasier, Microfossils (1980), p. 47.
Every geologist knows that there were no conifer and flowering plant spores until higher in the geologic column. And yet they are found at the lowest levels! ,—
"In the past decade studies of plant spores have been made in the formations of the Grand Canyon. Spores of conifers were found in the Permian, Mississippian, Cambrian, and Precambrian, and pollen of flowering plants were ado found in the Precambrian. No evolutionary theorists can accommodate these findings." —Erech von Fange, "Time Upside Down," In Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p. 18.
Pollen produced by flowering plants has been found in Precambrian rocks. This is in total disagreement with evolutionary strata dating theory:
"The account referred to here was written on behalf of the Associacion Venezolana de Geologia, Minera y Petroleo, Apartado 4400, Chacao, Estada Miranda, Venezuela, and is vouched for by several members.
"Late in 1963, G.C.K. Dunsterville made an expedition 10 collect orchids around Cerro Vanamo, which is located at the westernmost point on the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana on the mountain known as Wanamu Head. He rested some shale-like beds at the base of a towering cliff of Roraima sandstone and collected samples for their possible paleontological interest.
"G. Fournier, palynologist of the Mene Grande Oil Company, processed the samples and recovered well preserved pollen and spores. Subsequently, L. Nissen and J.A. Sulek, palynologists d Campania Shell de Venezuela and Creole Petroleum Corporation, respectively, processed other pieces and recovered identical plant microfossils.
"British Guiana Geological Survey specialists had done radiometric testing of the Roraima formation; and, although the exact age determined in years was not stated, the formation was assigned a Precambrian, Proterozoic classification . . Did flowering plants live way back in the Precambrian, a billion years ago?" –"More Precambrian Pollen, " in Creation Research Society Quarterly, September 1974, p. 123. (Also see the complete article, pp. 122-123, for additional scientific confirmation of that find. CRSQ source: *R.M. Stainforth, "Occurrence of Pollen and Spores in the Roraima Formation in Venezuela and British Guiana," in Nature, 210 (5033):292294. Also see Clifford Burdick, "Microflora of the Grand Canyon," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, 3(1):38-50, for additional Precambrian pollen finds.)
A related problem to out-of-place fossils, is out-of-place petroleum and fossil wood:
"G14 analysis of oil from the Gulf of Mexico deposits resulted in an age measured in thousands of years—not millions [Immanuel Velikovsky, Earth in Upheaval (1955), p. 287].
"Data produced by the Petroleum Institute at Victoria, New Zealand, showed that petroleum deposits were formed 6-7,000 years ago. Textbook authors state that petroleum was formed about 300,000,000 years ago [CRSQ, 2(4):10]. .
"Fossil wood was found in an iron mine in Shefferville, Ontario, which was Precambrian deposit. Later the wood was described as coming from Late Cretaceous rubble, which made it about 100 million years old instead of more than 600 million years old. Two independent C-14 tests showed an age of about 4000 years [Journal of Geophysical Research, July 15,1868]." —Erech A. von Fange, `Time Upside Down," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, p. 18.
14 - PROBLEMS WITH POLLEN AND SPORES
The study of fossil spores and pollen has become a full-fledged scientific study in the last several decades. It is now known as the science of palynology. But, as with every other field entered upon, the results of this research have not been helpful to the cause of evolution. Evidence has been produced which runs counter to evolutionary theory, for it places the pollen and spores of trees as existing over 200 million years before the existence of any parent trees!
There should only be algae in the Cambrian.
"One can usually find statements in texts implying that the Cambrian plants are the simplest possible—namely, all algae [and only algae], or that the whole life of the Cambrian is marine [only sea life]. Museum displays give the same message in their beautiful but imaginative reconstruction of Cambrian life.
"But within the last 15 years, spores of vascular plants have been discovered in the Lower Cambrian of Kunda in Estonia; the Pre-Baltique of the USSR; the Upper Cambrian of Kashmir, and the Salt Range of India. Such reports were usually met with skepticism and suspicions of contamination.
"However, in 1953 Krychtofowitch reported the discovery of lycopodiaceous shoots in the Cambrian of East-Siberia. In addition, various workers report the findings of small fragments of tracheids which show simple and bordered pits." —William Rusch, "The Revelation of Palynology," in WE. Lammerts (ed.), Why Not Creation? (1970), p. 180.
Born before mama and papa.
"Pollen from Angiosperm and Gymnosperm trees has been found in 'Pre-Cambrian' rocks. This would place, according to evolutionary ideas, the reproductive pollen hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of the mother treed Some spores are stained with red oxide from the surrounding rocks, thus proving they are not from present-day contamination. The evolutionists, Lederq and Axelrod, have found spores and fragments of woody plants representing dozens of genera (Axelrod found 60 genera) in `Cambrian' rocks. Woody plants supposedly did not arrive on the evolutionary scene until over 200 million years after the 'Cambrian.' " —R.L Wysong, Creation-Evolution Controversy (1978), p. 370.
Pollen in the Precambrian.
"Late in 1963, G.C.K Dunsterville made an expedition to collect orchids around Cerro Venamo, at the westernmost point on the frontier between Venezuela and British Guiana (where this mountain is known as Wenamu Head). He noted some shale-like beds at the base of a towering cliff of Roraima sandstone and collected samples for their possible paleontological interest.
"G. Fournier, palynologist at the Mene Grande Oil Company, processed the samples and recovered well-preserved pollen and spores. Subsequently, L. Nijssen and J.A. Bulck, palynologists of Compania Shell of Venezuela and Creole Petroleum Corporation, respectively, processed other pieces and recovered identical plant microfossils.
"This discovery of pollen and spores in a formation of supposed Precambrian age was so remarkable that a reconnaissance expedition of qualified geologists was organized to verify the facts of the case. The facts were confirmed by the expedition." —*R.M. Stainforth, ..Occurrence of Pollen and Spores in the Roraima Formation of Venezuela and British Guiana," Nature, 210:292 (1988).
John Woodmorappe, in a report of his research into misplaced fossils of various kinds, discusses—and lists—his collection of over 238 instances in which fossils, including pollen and spores, have been found in levels where the strata theory says they are not supposed to be. He mentions the attempts of two evolutionists to explain the problem away, but in the process admitting that it is widespread.
"The occurrence of Carboniferous spores in Jurassic [deposits] is so common all over Europe that the author, Windle, proposed that it must have a unified continent-wide explanation. He suggested that it does not mean that hidden remnants of Carboniferous floras survived into the Jurassic, but that continent-wide orogenesis during Jurassic times in Europe caused much Carboniferous strata to be eroded away in Jurassic times . .
"[Stanley said:] 'These secondary grains [pollen grains which must have been "reworked" into lower strata, and therefore surely could not be original in those lower strata where they were found] usually are present in larger numbers in both marine and non-marine sediments than most workers would like to admit.' " —Creation Research Society Quarterly, 18:201 (1982).
15 - PROBLEMS WITH SKIPPING
All will agree that a cardinal rule of life is that you cannot skip your grandparents. It would go something like this: Your great-great grandparents had children—your great grandparents. But they never had any children, so you have no grandparents. But then along came your parents—but they did not have any parents of their own! They just sort of appeared out of nowhere.
Well now, that sounds like something for a science fiction story. But it is just another everyday occurrence for the fossil hunters.
For that is what it is: science fiction; commonly called the "Geologic Column Theory," and the keystone proof of evolution.
As the theory goes, for 70 million years, while millions of other creatures were regularly being fossilized, the insects weren't! They just were not there for 70 million years! They were there before then, and they were there after then, but they decided to stop reproducing for 70 million years.
"We know that insects have been around for at least 300 million years. But during the Cretaceous period [beginning 70 million years ago], their fossil record is all but absent. Conditions for their fossil preservation just happened to be virtually nonexistent for an enormous block of time." —*David Raup, quoted in *'Arthur Fisher, "The World's Great Dyings, " in Mosaic, 12:2, March/April 1989.
Oh, but someone will say, "We haven't found enough fossils; if we find enough, the insects will be there." Earlier in this chapter we quoted statements by scientists, to the effect that millions of fossils have been collected and analyzed. There is no lack of fossils!
The next time you see an amphibian, feel sorry for him. He may be one of those who has not only lost his genealogy, but his parents too! There are approximately 34 genera and 16 species of living Apoda, which is in the class Amphibia, which are the amphibians (frogs, toads, and salamanders). Yet NOT ONE of them can find its parents!
"For instance, concerning certain modern amphibians, Carroll wrote: 'There are approximately 34 genera and 160 species of living Apoda. None has a fossil record. A single vertebra from the Upper Paleocene of Brazil is the only known fossil." —John Woodmorappe, "Diluviological Treatise on the Stratigraphic Separation of Fossils," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, 20:133 (1983).
Price was one of the first to tell the public about this ancestral tragedy.
"There is a fossil world and there is a modern living world, the two resembling one another in various details as well as in a general way; but to get the ancestral representatives of many modern types,—for example, an unknown number of invertebrates, with other forms of animals and plants,—we must go dear back to the Mesozoic or the Paleozoic rocks, for they are not found in any of the `more recent' deposits." —George Macready Price, Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism (1928), p. 198.
Most everybody has heard of the Coelacanth fish. This is the famous "fossil fish" that has not existed for millions of years—until it was found very alive and well in the Indian Ocean.
"Finally, you may recall the coelacanth or lobe-finned fish, latimeria, which belongs to a group that was thought to have become extinct in the Devonian period [345 million years ago!]. From the Devonian to the present day, not a single fossil of this form has been found in any rock. But by the end of 1958, nine had been found alive in the ocean off the island of Madagascar." —Evan Shute, Flaws in the Theory of Evolution (1981), P. 190.
Another little orphan is the shrimp, Anaspides. He not only lost his grandparents, but all his great-greats also—going back millions of years. How did he survive all those ages? Well, really he didn't. And, yet, I guess he did. Do you really have to have parents in order to be alive?
"It was evidently a dominant form of shrimp at the time the coal measures were being deposited, but it is not met with in more recent deposits, and we have no due to its history between the time that it peopled the Carboniferous seas [280 million years ago] and the present day when it survives in a few tarns and streams on isolated mountains of Tasmania." —*Geoffrey Smith, quoted in G.M. Price, Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism (1926), p. 196.
Price summarizes part of the pathetic problem. So many children without grandparents, but lots of ancestors before them—if you care to skip across a gap of millions of years.
"But this jump from the `Eocene period' to the present is nothing compared with the secular acrobatics of some of the fishes and especially of the invertebrates.
"The living Heterodonts, or Bullhead Sharks, of which there are four species found in the seas between Japan and Australia, seem to disappear with the Cretaceous [70 million years ago], skipping the whole Tertiary epoch ]70 million down to 2 million years ago], as do also a tribe of modern barnacles which, as Darwin says, 'coat the rocks all over the worlds in infinite numbers.'
"The dipnoans, or lungfishes (having lungs as well as gills, such as the Ceratodus and Lepid osiren), which are represented by several living species in Australia and South Africa, are the remains of a tribe found in whole shoals in the Carboniferous, Triassic, and Jurassic rocks [before 135 million years ago], but not, so far as I know, in any of the subsequent rocks until the modern. The living Ceratodus was only discovered in 1870, and was regarded as a marvel of 'persistence.' On a pinch, as when his native streams dry up, this curious follow can get along all right without water, breathing air by his lungs like a land animal. If, in the meantime [between the Jurassic, 135 million years ago, and now] he was off on a trip to the moon, he must have 'persisted' a few million years without either.
"But his cousin, the Polypferus of the Upper Nile, has a still more amazing record, for he has actually skipped all the formations from the Devonian [345 million years ago] down to the modern; while the limuloids, or sea scorpions, have jumped from the Carboniferous [280 million years ago] down.
"The mollusks and the brachiopods would afford us examples too numerous to mention. How is it possible that these numerous families disappear suddenly and completely with the Mesozoic [70 million years ago] or even the 'early' Paleozoic [225 million tears ago], and are not found in any 'later' deposits, though alive now in our modern world? Parts of Europe and America, we are told, have been down under the sea and up again a dozen times since then; why should we not expect to find abundant remains of these 'persistent' types in the Mesozoic and Ternaries? Surely these feats of time—acrobatics show the folly of arranging contemporaneous, taxonomic groups in a single file and giving to each a time-value." —G.M. Price, Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism (1926).
Price's point in that last sentence is that all the strata was laid down at about the same time, not millions of years apart. If laid down at about the same time, it would be easy to see how a species might be in one strata and not in another. Price quotes a list by *Dana of snails, scorpions, and other benighted creatures who, awhile back, never had any parents.
"Here is a curious list of instances of skipping, as given by Dana:
" 'A few land snails are found in the Carboniferous, but no land snails have been recognized from the Permian, Triassic, or Jurassic Formations. In the Cretaceous they reappear, and from that time the series is substantially continuous.
"'A few scorpions are found in the Upper Silurian; none have been recognized from the Devonian; but in the Carboniferous both scorpions and spiders occur. Both these groups appear to be missing form the Permian and from the whole series of Mesozoic strata. They reappear in the Tertiary.
"'Amphibians of the order Labyrinthodonts appear in the Subcarboniferous (a, probably, in the Devonian), and continue through the Triassic, possibly into the beginning of the Jurassic. The class of amphibians then remains unrepresented until a salamander appears in the Lower Cretaceous.' " —George M. Price, Evolutionary Geology and the New Catastrophism (1926).
16- LIVING FOSSILS
The dodo was a flightless bird which lived on the Mascarene Islands of the Indian Ocean until the end of the 18th century. it had a large head, heavy hooked bill, and a short tail of curly feathers. It weighed about 40.50 pounds. What if 1 told you that I had one alive in my backyard? You surely would laugh at me. Since the bird has been gone for nearly 200 years, how could someone have one alive in his back. yard?
Really now, is that anywhere near as unusual as a fish that has been dead for 70 million years, which is alive today? or a dinosaur which stopped living 100 million years ago also alive today? Neither of those "living fossils" can be explained by evolutionary theory, yet both are easily understood !n relation to the facts about the Genesis Flood.
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THE COELACANTH
Here is the story of how they found the fish that had been dead for 70 thousand millenniums:
According to evolutionary theory, the coelacanth swam around happily in the ocean 450 million to 70 million years ago—and then suddenly died off. It became an extinct fish. In fact, it became so "extinct," that evolutionists dated certain rock strata by it. It was an "index fossil"—until it was found alive in the 20th century!
On December 22,1938, a fishing boat shot her trawl off the mouth of the Chalumna River, west of East London, in South Africa. It was not the usual place for trawlers to fish, and on this occasion the ship was 3 miles [4.8 km] offshore and its long drag net (trawl) dragged the seabed for several hours. It came up with 3 tons [2.7 mt] of fish, which were emptied on the deck in the usual way. Half an hour later, the trawlermen came to the last fish. There it was on the deck: 5 feet [15 dm] long, 120 pounds [54 kg], blue, and with unusual scales. They had never seen anything like it before. It lived for 4 hours.
The skipper of the trawler, Captain Goosen, realized he had something unusual, and quickly docked the trawler and sent the fish to Miss M. Courtenay-Latimer, curator of the East London Museum. This was a very small museum, and the curator recognized it as something special, but exactly what, she had no idea. Quickly, she wrote to J.L.B. Smith, a university professor living in Grahamstown, 400 miles [653 km] away. But it was now Christmas Eve, and the letter was delayed several days by the Christmas rush mail. Arriving at the museum, Smith examined the fish, which by now was in poor condition. Smith recognized it for what it was, and the news traveled around the world. A coelacanth had been found! It was given the scientific name, Latimeria chalumnae, in honor of Miss Courtenay-Latimer. This first coelacanth had been caught off the Natal provines, and boats were sent out to find more, but no more were to be found. Years passed.
Facts which made the coelacanth so remarkable were these: It had not been "alive" for "70 million years;" it had been used as an "index fossil" to date rock strata; it was the fish that the experts had earlier decided had been the one which first crawled out of the water—and changed into a land animal! This last idea came from its lobed fins, which had the appearance almost of arms.
Paleontologists tried to make the best of the situation. They theorized that the swim bladder of the coelacanth probably changed into a lung when it crawled out on the land and became a land animal. But they could not tell from the first specimen caught. It had been gutted in the hope of better preserving it.
Smith immediately had notices printed in three languages and distributed throughout southern and eastern African nations, offering a 100 lb. reward for the first two specimens caught. These notices were circulated for 14 years, in a desperate hope that at least one more specimen would be found, so scientists could examine that swim bladder—and show that it could have changed into a lung.
Then it happened! On December 20, 1952, a fisherman, Ahmed Hussein, landed a 5 ft [15 dm], 100-Ib [45 kg] fish with a hook and line, from 65 ft [20 m] of water off the Comores Islands, west of Madagascar. The fisherman had seen one of those handbills of Smith, and immediately sent word of the catch. Immediately Smith flew to the Comores in a South African Air Force Dakota, placed at his disposal by the then Prime Minister, Dr. Malan.
This specimen was fresh, and was carefully examined and then dissected. But their hopes were dashed: When the swim bladder of this fresh new coelacanth was examined, it was found to be slender and filled with fat. It could never function as a lung, and certainly not as a hydrostatic organ.
Madagascar, including the Comores, was then under French administration, and French scientists now took up the search. A third specimen was caught in September 1953, a fourth on January 28, 1954, and a fifth only 3 days later on January 31. Since then others—totaling a dozen—have been caught. Several of them have survived a few hours and been observed swimming around in aquaria. But, since the coelacanth is a deep-water fish and cannot survive the decompression and exposure to warmer waters, it always dies.
PLESIOSAUR
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Scientists have wondered for decades whether an "extinct" dinosaur would ever be found alive. Then, in April 1977, a Japanese fishing vessel caught a 4,000 pound [1,814 kg] creature in its nets off the east coast of New Zealand. By the time they had hauled in the net it was already dead from decompression. It was such a strange appearing object, that the quick-thinking captain had it photographed, measured, and sketched. Fortunately, a qualified zoologist was on board, and he carried out the emergency research analysis as carefully as possible. In addition, flipper samples were preserved for later tissue analysis. In every respect, this was a plesiosaur, or sea-dwelling dinosaur! Yet it was supposed to have died 100 million years ago!
Later tissue analysis confirmed that it was not a fish, and the measurements, together with the lack of a dorsal fin, revealed it could not have been a basking shark—or any other "modern" sea-dwelling creature! However, Western scientists did not like to think that plesiosaurs were still alive also! So they rejected it as being nothing more than a sea lion or a shark. But the Japanese scientists were convinced it was indeed a plesiosaur. This plesiosaur was 10 meters [33 ft] in length.
There was an almost total news blackout of this discovery in the West, even though the museums and the National Geographic Society were fully informed of the catch and findings. The few mentions (New York Times, July 24,1977; Nature, July 28, 1977, etc.) discarded it as nothing more than a fish or some type of seal.
But the Japanese were jubilant. Their media discussed this dinosaur discovery, said to have been extinct for 100 million years. That year, the Japanese government celebrated one hundred years of scientific achievement with a National Science Exhibition, and they chose the plesiosaur as their discovery of the year for the celebration emblem. The plesiosaur was even portrayed on the commemorative stamp honoring the centennial.
CONCLUSION
Actually, there are many "living fossils" alive today. Every creature found in fossil form which is alive today is actually something of a living fossil—for it is identical to what it looked like "millions of years ago." For example, consider the bat. There has been no change in the bat since the first bat found in the deepest strata.
Then there are those other "living fossils," which have been "dead for millions of years," and only recently have been found alive. This would include the Okapi (formerly known as Paleotragus), the coelacanth, and the plesiosaur.
According to evolutionary theory, each of them stopped living, were buried in very ancient strata, and slowly over millions of years, more strata was piled on top of them. According to fossil evidence, they did not exist for millions of years—and now they have suddenly come back to life! It cannot be true! Well, there is no problem with the evidence; the problem is with the theory.
Although such facts disagree with evolutionary theory, they easily conform with the Genesis Flood. Both the coelacanth and the plesiosaur were deep-water creatures. Because of this, they were buried by the Flood waters before some later creatures were covered. But some specimens in the ocean survived the roiling Flood waters, and their descendants are to be found today, although not frequently spin since they live in deep water. The Okapi, a land animal, was buried somewhat
17 - ROCKS NOT NOW BEING MADE
There are many technical problems dealing with sedimentary strata that simply do not agree with the standard evolutionary theory. One of these is the fact that, aside from volcanic rock, most types of rocks are not being formed today. This includes sedimentary strata, as well as a host of other geologic formations. Yet that fact violates the rule of uniformitarianism, which is considered an important basis of Darwinian evolution. The past must be like the present—in order to assume long apes of time for evolution to have occurred.
Stone of calcium magnesium carbonate is not forming today. Why then are there enormous quantities of it in places, such as the Dolomites of northern Spain? If it is not forming today, how could it have formed in the past?
"Although dolostone is by no means uncommon among the sedimentary rocks of the geologic record, its origin is still uncertain. Probably the chief reason for this uncertainty is that, unlike the other types of sediments, it is nowhere known to be forming today, and therefore the present is not to us as a key to the past." —*C.O. Dunbar and *John Rodgers, Principles of Stratigraphy (1957), p. 237.
Similar questions could be raised about other types of rocks—plus such things as salt deposits, diamond tubes, and many other geologic formations. They are not forming today; something unusual must have earlier occurred to bring about their formation.
"We find certain rods types in the geologic column that are not being seen to form, at least in quantity, anywhere on earth today. Where can granite be observed forming? Where can dolomite or siliceous iron formations be seen to form in quantity? Yet we have thousands of cubic miles of these rock types in the crust of the earth. The Paleozoic Era was marked by carbonate rock deposition, yet carbonate types are quite subordinate in modern sequences of sediments. Hen (1968) attributes the formation of anorthosite to the 'anorthosite event,' which was possibly a great cataclysm in the Precambrian history of the earth." —*Edgar B. Heylmun, "Should We Teach Uniformitarianism?" Journal of Geological Education, Vol. 19, January 1971, p. 38.
18 - MIXED-UP STRATA AND OVERTHRUSTS
Not only are the fossils not in their right locations, the strata are mixed up also—and to a massive degree. We will now turn our attention to mixed-up strata, and to that great geologic headache: overthrusts.
In order to protect the beloved fossil/strata theory, geologists are even willing to believe that massive layers of rock strata turned upside down:
" We may even demonstrate that strata have turned completely upside down if we can show that fossils in what are the uppermost layers ought property to lie underneath those in the beds below them." —*A. Geikie, Textbook of Geology (1903), p. 387.
"The strata could scarcely be supposed to have bean really inverted, save for the evidence as to their true order of succession supplied by their included fossils." —*Archibald Geikie, Textbook of Geology (1903), p. 678.
It is seemingly impossible, but true, that strata of "all ages" are found lying at the very bottom level, just above granite foundation rock:
"Lying on the crystalline basement are found from place to place not merely Cambrian, but rocks of all ages." —*E. Spieker, "Mountain Building Chronology and Nature of Geologic Time Scale," in Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 40 (1956), p. 1805.
Here is a statement from a 19th century instructional book in geology; yet the same thing is being taught today: "Ignore the evidence and stick with the theory." But is it scientific to do that?
"It may even be said that in any case where there appears to be a clear and decisive discordance between the physical and the paleontological evidence as to the age of a given series of beds, it is the former that is to be distrusted rather than the latter." —*H. Alleyne Nicholson, Ancient Life History of the Earth (1875), p. 40.
If enough fossils are found in a place where the theory says they cannot be, then the strata they are in is called an "overthrust. " (In contrast, if only a few are found in the wrong strata, they are said to have "reworked" or "downwashed" into other levels.)
"Certain fossils are found only in particular strata, and these latter are composed only of certain specific types of rock. These characteristic fossils are called 'indicator [index] fossils' and, as this term implies, they act as pointers to a particular period of geologic time. It will be seen from this that if fossils A and B are found only in beds of, say, Carboniferous age, should they turn up in combination with Permian rocks which date from a much later period, one must draw the conclusion that movements of the earth's crust have thrown these earlier beds up. The intrusion of Carboniferous fossils A and B among C and D which are found only in Permian strata is therefore a definite indicator of earth movements at sometime or other." —*J.O.I. Spoczynska, Fossils. A Study in Evolution (1971), pp. 13-14.
Describing the thrust faults of Scotland, *Geikie makes this revealing comment:
"Had these sections been planned for the purpose of deception they could not have been more skillfully devised . . and no one coming first to this ground would suspect that what appears to be a normal stratigraphical sequence is not really so." —*Sir Archibald Geike, Textbook of Geology (1903).
* Lotsy deplores the farce of what is taking place in geology:
"Reconstruction of what has happened in the past is no science, but a product of fantastic speculation." —*Dr. Lotsy, Nature, October 1922, p. 18.
Discussing the Lewis Fault in Montana and Alberta, Canada, we are told this:
"At least 10,000 square miles in extent and perhaps twice this size, but with old Paleozoic and Algonkian rocks on top, resting in apparent conformity on Cretaceous beds! That is, the 'older' rocks are on top, and the 'younger' are below, but with every physical appearance of having been laid down in the order. In other words, the rocks are wrong or the theory is wrong; but the contact line, as observed in so many widely scattered localities, is so perfectly natural, so highly 'deceptive,' that no one would possibly think of there being anything wrong, if it were not for the fossils found in ["wrong places" in the] various formations." —George McCready Price, Report on Evolution (1971), p. 57.
Commenting on the geological confusion caused by evolutionary theory, Price adds this thought:
"I have learned that man is not a rational creature. Even professors of geology and biology do not seem to be any more governed by cold logic and objective facts than other people . . Perhaps 99 percent of all the serious blunders of scientists have been due to faulty reasoning, rather than faulty observation." —George McCready Price, Report on Evolution (1971), p. 11, 19.
Von Fange calls to mind some of the "geological mysteries" which so confound scientists in their attempt to wrestle the rocks into a position in agreement with their 150-year-old theory:
"Another mystery is found in the Franklin Mountains near El Paso, Texas, at a location known as West Crazy Cat Canyon. Here massive Upper Ordovician limestones are found lying immediately on top of an Upper Cretaceous formation. A geologist who conducted a tour there a few years ago explained that no actual physical evidence of an overthrust had yet been discovered, but since the fossils were completely out of order, geologists assumed an overthrust . . .
"Another famous location is the Glarus Overthrust near Schwanden, Switzerland. Instead of the textbook order of Permian, Jurassic, and Eocene, a 21 -mile overthrust is assumed because the order of formations is Eocene at the bottom, Jurassic next and Permian on top. A so-called gouge layer shows no striations, and irregularities at the bottom of each formation have not even been wan away. Again the fossils are in the wrong places.
"In the Empire Mountains in Southern Arizona, Permian limestone rests on top of Cretaceous. The contact resembles gear meshing. There could have been no sliding without the projections of.the lower formation being ground off. Yet it is called an overthrust." —Erech von Fange, "Time Upside Down," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, June 1974, pp. 15-18.
Can you imagine a strata occurring, other strata below it,—and then that same strata appearing a second time farther down! Such an occurrence works havoc with the theory.
"Two of the most notable examples of repetition of similar strata occur in the Highlands of Scotland and in the Alps. At least these regions have attracted more publicity on account of long-drawn-out geological controversy centering in these two regions. Not only have there been repetitions of the strata, judged from a lithological standpoint, but the fossils have also been repeated; and this violates a ordinal principle of paleontology. Five repetitions have been recorded in Scotland and six in the Alps. This presented a real challenge to orthodox geology." —W.E. Lammerts, Scientific Studies in Special Creation, (1971), p. 128.
*Schindewolf admits that the rocks do not zone themselves into nice agreement with the geologic time charts. In fact, he adds, there are many instances in which they totally disagree with the charts!
"The sedimentary rocks by themselves, however, do not yield any specific time marks, setting aside the old law of superposition, which can provide relative age indicators only in a restricted manner, and which is unfit for age correlations. Moreover, it may be misleading in some cases: the beds in a section may be overturned or, owing to a hidden thrust plane [overthrust], older beds may over lie younger ones." —*Schindewolf, "Comments on Some Stratigraphic Terms, "in American Journal of Science, (Vol. 255, June, 1957), p. 394.
One geology professor wondered aloud to his class how overthrusts could possibly have occurred:
"I can still hear Professor Leith, structural geologist at the University of Wisconsin remark, 'One wonders what giant lubricator enabled the great mass to be translated forward many miles with no nonconformity or brecciation?' " –W.E. Lammerts, Scientific Studies in Special Creation, (1971), p. 129.
A scientist explains why overthrusts are physically impossible:
"Small-scale thrusts have long been observed; it was therefore reasoned, why would not the same principle apply to larger ones? This type of logic may apply to many things, but in other applications there are limiting factors. For instance, in fissionable elements there is a critical size, beyond which there is danger or even certainty of an explosion. The principle applies also to thrust blocks, the larger and longer, the greater the stress of compression required to move it. Soon this stress exceeds the crushing strength of the rock, and instead of movement we get shearing or crushing. This relieves the pent up crustal stresses, and no forward translation of the block would take place.
"Another illustration would be a freight train. In spite of the number of engines, there would be a theoretical limit to the number of loaded cars that could be pulled because the weakest coupling would break
"This is a vital point that should always be kept in mind when we read about how a certain thrust block was propelled a certain distance: are they talking about some thrust where physical evidences of movement can be observed, such as a gorge layer or slicken sides, or are they talking about an assumed thrust where the only evidence of a thrust is not physical but theoretical, based on fossil evidence alone?" —WE. Lammerts, Scientific Studies in Special Creation. (1971) p. 130-131.
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