http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=2672
Dinosaur Fossils and a Flood
| by | Kyle Butt, M.Div. |
In a recent LiveScience article, Robin Lloyd detailed a new fossil discovery in the well-known Hell Creek Formation in Montana. The discovery of three juvenile Triceratops dinosaurs, fossilized together in the same bone bed, was a surprise to the scientific community. Until the find, scientists believed that Triceratops was a loner that did not group together with its own kind. In fact, Triceratops fossils have been found in large fossil beds with other dinosaurs, but not with other Triceratops fossils (Lloyd, 2009). The recent find of three juvenile Triceratops together has led to speculation that the young dinosaurs may have traveled in packs or gangs, but may have become more solitary as they matured.
While speculation about the dinosaurs’ past behavior is interesting, there is something more significant in the recent article. In the first sentence, Lloyd wrote: “Three juvenile Triceratops, a species thought to be solitary, died together in a flood...” (2009, emp. added). As with most other fossil finds, we are informed that the cause of death and fossilization for these specimens was a flood. Lloyd further noted: “It looks like at least three juveniles died there at same [sic] time as a result of flooding, common in this location laced at the time with flood plains and river channels” (2009).
The fact that most dinosaur fossils are explained by a flood fits perfectly with the biblical account of Noah’s Flood and its destructive force. And while the scientific community is quick to label the floods that caused dinosaur fossilization as “local,” “regional,” “common in this location,” or “area flash flooding,” the reality cannot be denied that the global Flood described in the book of Genesis remains the best explanation for the massive fossil graveyards that pepper the globe (see Butt and Lyons, 2008).
REFERENCES
Lloyd, Robin (2009), “Gang of Juvenile Dinosaurs Discovered,” LiveScience, [On-line], URL: http://www.livescience.com/animals/090324-social-triceratops.html.