Recent dinosaur
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
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.
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Paleontological Evidence
Pictographs
- Main Article: Dinosaur pictographs
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 [1][2] The Nile Mosaic of Palestrina, a second century piece of art, appears to be a piece of artwork that shows a dinosaur and man coexisting. [3]
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 Paluxy River where Dinosaur Valley State Park is located. In these cases, the dinosaur tracks are always going in straight trails indicating the animals were in flight from catastrophic conditions. 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.
In the former Soviet Union, scientists reported a layer of rock containing more than 2,000 dinosaur footprints alongside tracks resembling human footprints, although subsequent investigations have failed to verify the claims. [4]
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.
Dinosaurs in the Bible
- Main Article: Dinosaurs in the Bible
There are graphic descriptions of animals in the Bible that may be dinosaur and a Plesiosaur respectively. 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 may be a Kronosaurus.[5][6]
Recent History
- Main Article: Dragon
Tales of dragons, although dismissed as myth today, may recount sightings of dinosaurs. The World Book Encyclopedia states that: "The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles [dinosaurs] which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology." [7]
Living Dinosaurs
- Main Article: Living dinosaur
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.
Furthermore, 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.[8]
Mokele-mbembe
- Main Article: Mokele-mbembe
Mokele-mbembe is the name given to the creature rumored to exist in the Republic of Congo. There exists within the region a giant swamp land known as the Likouala Swamp. The region is roughly 55,000 square miles, the size of the state of New York. According to government reports, more than 80% of the area is unexplored.
Reported sightings suggest the creature mokele-mbembe, is similar to an apatosaurus. Its name, rendered in the Lingala language, means river-blocker.
Pterosaur
- Main Article: 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." [9] Such claims might be bolstered by the discovery of a pterosaur fossil in Queensland, Australia. [10]. 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.[11]
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.[12]
Related References
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See Also
- Dinosaurs
- Man and dinosaurs coexisted Response to Talk.Origins
- Dinosaur extinction
