Recent dinosaur



Most young earth creationists believe that dinosaurs coexisted with mankind on Earth and lived recently. Biblical support for this perspectives is drawn from the Genesis 1 where it states that all land animals were created on the sixth day of creation along with humans. It is furthermore presumed they were still alive at the time of the global flood and taken on board Noah's ark.

There is much evidence that dinosaurs existed very recently and coexisted with mankind. Prehistoric cave paintings and carvings have been found illustrating first-hand knowledge of these creatures by early humans. Dinosaur tracks have been found alongside human tracks. Dinosaur bones have also been found that are unfossilized, with soft tissues still present, indicating recent burial.

Recent History

 * Main Article: Dragon

Ancient legends of dragons or giant serpents are often dismissed as myth today, many of these stories may have a historical basis in sightings of recent dinosaurs. Ancient countries, such as England, China, Scandinavia, France, India, Egypt, and Arabia each recount numerous dragons of a variety of types. There are, in fact, nearly 200 such places in Britain where dragon sightings have been reported throughout history. In his book After the Flood, Bill Cooper lists eighty-one locations in the British Isles alone. Multiple terrestrial, flying, and sea dragons were described by these cultures and known by various names. Many of these creatures were predatory to livestock or threatening to other industries and therefore often target by hunters and killed.



Ancient Depictions

 * Main Article: Ancient dinosaur depictions

An expedition which included Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology with the United States National Museum, examined an ancient pictograph that pointed to dinosaurs and man existing.

The of Palestrina, a second century piece of art, appears to be a piece of artwork that shows a dinosaur and man coexisting.

Various depictions around the world include one from Mesopotamia nearly 3000 years old of two animals that look like sauropods intertwining their necks like giraffes

Biblical references

 * Main Article: Dinosaurs in the Bible

There are graphic descriptions of animals in the Bible that may be dinosaur. Behemoth is described as an immense land animal, which is believed by some to be a Sauropod. Leviathan, on the other hand, is portrayed as a terrifying fire-breathing sea monster that some have suggested may be a Kronosaurus. However, more recently the SuperCroc (Sarcosuchus) has been put forth as the most likely candidate for the Leviathan.

Tracks

 * Main Article: Dinosaur tracks

Within North America, there are several track sites with more than 100 dinosaur tracks, such as Dinosaur State Park and the Dinosaur Valley State Park. In these cases, the dinosaur tracks are frequently going in straight trails. A possible explanation might be that the animals were in flight during the flood of Noah. At the Red Fleet Megatrack Site in Utah, the dinosaur tracks predominantly go in a North East direction. This characteristic of dinosaur tracks has been interpreted as dinosaurs moving in herds, however even herds have meanderings in their trails.

Unfossilized Remains

 * Main Article: Unfossilized dinosaur bones

Unfossilized (or unmineralized) dinosaur bones have been found at various locations in Canada and Northern Alaska. Unfossilized or carbonized wood has also been found at various other locations in strata associated with dinosaurs, or even (supposedly) "older" strata. Both the dinosaur bones and woody materials have undergone Carbon-14 dating, and the dates obtained are between 9,800 and 50,000 years.

Living Dinosaurs

 * Main Article: Living dinosaur

Numerous people have reported seeing dinosaur-sized creature, including 1,000 people in two sightings around Sayram Lake in Xinjiang, according to the Chinese publication, China Today.

Mokele-mbembe

 * Main Article: Mokele-mbembe

Mokèlé-mbèmbé is the name given to the creature rumored to be a living dinosaur similar to an apatosaurus. Sightings within central Africa have been been reported for more than two centuries by native fishermen, missionaries, and explorers. The animal is said to be herbivore about the size of a hippopotamus or elephant, and mainly aquatic, coming onto shore to search for food. It has a short (squat) body, a long neck and clawed feet. Its name, rendered in the Lingala language, means "Name means::blocker of rivers".

Numerous expeditions have been conducted to search for solid evidence, many within the Congo River basin of Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Cameroon. Within the basin exists the largest swamp in the world (the Likouala Swamp) which is roughly 55,000 square miles, larger than the entire US state of Florida. According to government reports, the area is more than 80% unexplored, and has therefore been the focus of several cryptozoologists.

William Gibbons, a creationist who has been on four expeditions to search for Mokele-mbembe states: Perhaps the most exciting prospect for the world of creation science is the possibility that dinosaurs may still be living in the remote jungles of the world. Evolution and its accompanying necessity of long ages of evolutionary development would be hard pressed to accommodate a living dinosaur.

Pterosaur

 * Main Article: Living pterosaur

According to a 2006 press release, "Intermittent expeditions on Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, from 1994 through 2004, resulted in the compilation of eyewitness testimonies that substantiated a hypothesis that pterosaurs may not be extinct." Such claims might be bolstered by the discovery of a pterosaur fossil in Queensland, Australia. Palaeontologist Alex Cook made the discovery in 2004, and called it one of the "most exquisitely preserved" specimens in the world. Queensland is just south of the New Guinea area.

In 2005, a nearly-inaccessible region of the island of New Guinea, the Foja Mountains was the object of a scientific expedition in which scientists documented dozens of new species that were unafraid of humans, and were previously unknown to scientists.

Late in 2006, in a remote mountainous area of Papua New Guinea, a creationist explorer, Paul Nation, recorded 17 seconds of digital video of what investigators believe is evidence for the bioluminescence of creatures called "indava" and "ropen." They also believe that these are Rhamphorhynchoid (long-tailed) pterosaurs. Early in March, 2007, a physicist completed his report on his findings on this video footage: The lights were not produced through a hoax and they were not of any campfire, airplane lights, or meteors. They were also shown to not be from camera artifacts.

Modern Reptiles

 * Main Article: Reptile

It should be considered probable that many modern reptiles are distant relatives of larger varieties found in the fossil record. There are many theories as to why these animals would exist in much smaller forms today.

Shorter Lifespan: According to the Biblical chronology, human life expectancy declined dramatically after the flood to about 1/10th of what it was originally. Since reptiles grow throughout their life, their smaller body size may be simply due to a decline in longevity. Perhaps since the flood reptiles never again grew to the immense sizes found in the fossil record.

Selection for Small Body Size: The removal of specific traits from a population is classic selective pressure. The tendency of humans to automatically kill large reptiles would have placed them under intense natural selection for smaller sizes. Selective pressure against large sizes will naturally remove this ability from the gene pool.

When we consider the range of variability available to other animals, it is not hard to imagine the immense sizes that reptiles might reach given their exceptional ability for growth. Although many dinosaurs are indeed extinct, it is certain that if allowed to live as they did before the flood, modern reptiles might reach much larger sizes and more closely resemble their ancestors found in the fossil record.