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Btue areas above show wh1ch strata contain 1oss1ts of vanous creatures Turtle fossits. for example are found in MesozoiC
and Cenoz01c strata. but not In PateozoiC strata W1dlh ot blue areas 10d1cates relahve abundance of tosslls
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.,. ,.,..._ RECOIID provldes lnformatlon about when certa/n creatures exlsled. Dlnosaur fossils, for
exemple, ere on/y
found
In Mesozolc strata. Thus trHobltes. whlch became extlnct before the Mesozoic era.
ere
never
tound
wlth
dlnoaaur rema/ns. Similar/y, dlnosaur bones are mwer found wlth man and modem
mammala. Theae facts pose a dllemma for anyone who be/leves Noah's nood produced moat fosslls.
tremble under their feet. Then we
ascend a few inches in the series of
stra ta, and suddenly they are all
gone forever, and it is strangely
empty around us."
Edwin Colbert, the famed dino–
saur expert, writes: "The great ex–
tinction that wiped out all of the
dinosaurs ..
.
forms one of the major
/in
es
of demarcation
in the record of
the rocks, indicating in a ra ther
spectacular and certainly in a very
definite manner the end of a long
chapter of the complex story of life
through the ages."
Famous scient ist and schola r
George Gaylord Simpson has said:
"It
is as if the curtain were rung
down suddenly on a stage where all
the leading roles were taken by rep–
tiles, especially dinosaurs, in great
numbers and bewildering vari ety,
and rose again immedia tely to re–
vea! the same setting but an entirely
new cast,
a casr in which the dino–
saurs do not appear al al/,
other rep–
tiles a re mere supernumeraries, and
the leading parts are all played by
mammals of sorts barely hinted a t
in the preceding acts."
32
The fossil record is clear: The
strata containing dinosaurs are
found
below
strata containing mod–
ero mammals and man.
Fact # 3: Many dating methods
show dinosaurs lived millions of
years ago.
Natural radioactive clocks such as
the decay of uranium to lead, rubid–
ium to strontium, potassium to ar–
gon, and carbon to nitrogen attest to
the great antiquity of the earth.
Al!
of these methods show the earth and
many fossils, including dinosaurs,
are much older than 6,000 years.
Tree rings-which go back. in the
case of the bristlecone pine, over
8,200 years- also establish tha t the
earth is over 6,000 years old.
Many other dating methods yield
extremely old dates for both the
earth and dinosaur fossi ls. The new–
est dating method is the so-called
"protein dock." By measuring the
conversion of left-handed amino
acids to right-handed ones after an
organism dies, the protein dock also
establisbes that animals lived on
earth long before the supposed cre–
ation date ofthe Bible.
Of course, this is not to say that
a l! dates obtained by these various
methods are 100 percent accurate.
In fact, in sorne cases grossly in–
accurate results have been obtained.
But, taken as a whole, they provide
cogent evidence that the earth and
many life forms are much older
than 6,000 years.
Fact # 4: Both the Bible and the
stratigraphic record conflict with the
view that Noah's Flood killed the
dinosaurs.
Most fundamentalists believe that
al/
life dates from the creation week
of Genesis. According to this view.
al/
fossils must therefore have been
formcd
since the creation of man–
about 6,000 years ago. Thus many
fund amentalists call upon Noah's
F lood as t he mechanism which
killed off the dinosaurs and pro–
duced the fossils we now find .
But Genesis 6:19 dearly states
that
"of every living thing ofal/.ftesh,
two of every sort shalt thou bring
into the a rk, to keep them alive with
thee; they sha ll be male and fe–
mate."
Dinosaurs were land-dwelling,
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1977