| The
Day The Dinosaurs Died continued
Digging
for Eggs
In
1922, a convoy of automobiles was making its way across the
desert plains of Outer Mongolia. They stopped at the sudden
sight of spectacular cliffs that shot up from the desert floor.
The cars were filled with scientists sent by the American
Museum of Natural History. Part of the Central Asiatic Expeditions,
these men were engaged in a large natural history survey of
the Gobi Desert.
This 1922 American Museum Expedition made an electrifying
discovery of more than seventy unhatched dinosaur eggs! Also,
thousands of fragments of eggshells were discovered. This
in addition to skeletons that represent all stages of growth
from newly hatched baby dinosaurs to full grown adults. Since
then, Russian and Chinese workers have found more of the eight-inch-long
eggs.
So remarkable was this series of dinosaur eggs, that a few
of them even show traces of EMBRYONIC BONE! Most, however,
were completely filled with sand.
The
Puzzle of Fossil Eggs
Dinosaur
eggs have also been discovered in Mongolia, France, Montana,
and Brazil. In Portugal an egg was discovered in rocks classified
by geologists as Jurassic along with bones of dinosaurs. Others
have been unearthed in East Africa.
But how, you might ask, could FULLY PRESERVED dinosaur eggs
be discovered the world over? If you are puzzled by this,
so are the paleontologists.
“Some of the dinosaur eggs never hatched. What prevented
their development as they lay buried in their sandy crypts
is a PUZZLE, all we know is that no little dinosaurs came
out of the eggs…in a few of the Mongolian eggs…are
traces of fossilized embryonic bone, and indication
that development had at least gone on for some time before
the hatching of the eggs was INTERRUPTED” (Dinosaurs,
Edwin Colbert, pp. 216, 217).
What “interrupted” the hatching? The answer is very
revealing and explains how the dinosaurs were killed.
Conditions
of Burial
Briefly,
lets notice the conditions under which the dinosaur eggs of
Mongolia were preserved. One of the actual discoverers wrote
this interesting account.
“Our real thrill came on the second day, when George
Olsen reported…that he was sure he had found fossil eggs….
“These eggs were in a GREAT DEPOSIT FULL OF DINOSUAR
SKELETONS and containing, so far as we could discover, no
remains of other animals or of birds…the deposit was
unbelievably rich. Seventy-five skulls and skeletons were
discovered, SOME OF THEM ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. Obviously the
Flaming Cliffs were a region of great concentration of
dinosaurs during the breeding season” (On the Trial
of Ancient Man, Roy Chapman Andrews, pp. 228-231).
How does one explain all this--on the basis of slow evolutionary
burial over thousands of years?
One must account for several factors. First, there was a great
profusion of dinosaur bones here--as though another one
of those “local” catastrophes overwhelmed them.
The specimens were in a very fine state of preservation. The
words “absolutely perfect” were used of some of
the bones. The burial must have been fairly rapid.
Then there is the problem of dinosaur eggs. What stopped the
embryo from developing? A small sandstorm wouldn’t. The
large dinosaurs would not have been trapped in such a storm.
Yet, a catastrophic burial and accompanying temperature change
WOULD HALT the development of the embryo.
The only answer is obvious.
Remember, the author told us there was a “great concentration
of dinosaurs.” Catastrophes of various dimensions overwhelmed,
killed and buried the dinosaurs and the eggs. The embryos
ceased to develop, most of the eggs were smashed--but a few
being already buried in sand, survived. They survived as a
witness that a catastrophe indeed did occur in the region
of Mongolia as part of a worldwide pattern of violence and
destruction.
The
Remarkable Dinosaur Footprints
Another
intriguing type of dinosaur fossil--if we can call it that--is
the footprint.
Such tracks are worldwide in extent. They are found in western
North America and in New England. In the latter, the tracks
have been commercially quarried and sold to tourists.
Dinosaur tracks are also found in South America, especially
in Argentina. England also has them. And so has Basutoland,
down in the southern part of Africa. In this out-of-the-way
place, dinosaur tracks are quite abundant.
The dinosaur hunters have also found tracks in such diverse
places as Morocco, Portugal and Australia. Canada has not
been neglected either. Dinosaur footprints are also found
in British Columbia.
As is quite clear, dinosaur tracks are rather common occurrences
the world over. What many of these tracks seem to reveal is
even more intriguing. Are they giving us a glimpse of the
final moments in the lives of these great beasts--just before
they were extinguished by a worldwide catastrophe?
Tracks
Made in Water
Let’s begin with the tracks in the
Glen Rose Formation near the town of Glen Rose and Bandera,
Texas.
“These great tracks must have been made in shallow
water,” says Edwin Colbert, “for there are
no traces of tail marks, which means that the tail was floating
instead of dragging on the ground. Yet, the water was not
deep enough to have reached the bellies of the animals that
made them” (Dinosaurs, Edwin Colbert, pp. 187,
188).
Next, let us skip to the Connecticut Valley in New England.
The thousands of dinosaur tracks tell us a fascinating story.
They reveal the activity of the dinosaurs in that ominous
and distant past.
“Most of the tracks and trackways show us dinosaurs on
the move, either walking or running. Some of them
show that their makers came to sudden stops; some of them
show how they slipped in the mud.
“At least one set of tracks, of Anomoepus show
the dinosaur resting with all four feet and the belly on the
ground. Many of the footprints are SUPERIMPOSED UPON RIPPLE
MARKS, showing that the dinosaurs wandered across mud flats
following the retreat of shallow waters; perhaps tidal water
or perhaps high waters caused by heavy rainstorms” (Dinosaurs,
Edwin Colbert, pp. 185, 187).
An amazing story indeed!
What
It All Means
But what do we see here? Let’s add
more factual material.
“Most dinosaur footprints would SEEM to have been made
on mud flats, along the shores of lakes. The tracks are commonly
associated with RIPPLE MARKS AND RAINDROP IMPRESSIONS,
all preserved in stony immobility, yet in such vivid records
of water and storms of the distant past there are
seldom bony remains to be found” (Dinosaurs,
Edwin Colbert, pp. 181, 183).
“Most dinosaur footprints would SEEM to have been made
on mud flats, along the shores of lakes. The tracks are commonly
associated with RIPPLE MARKS AND RAINDROP IMPRESSIONS, all
preserved in stony immobility, yet in such vivid records of
water and storms of the distant past there are seldom
bony remains to be found” (Dinosaurs, Edwin
Colbert, pp. 181, 183).
Other footprints were made across surfaces broken into polygonal
shapes-indication of mud cracks made by HEAT. This heat--whatever
its source--would have baked the footprints into stony immobility.
And why aren’t tracks and bones found together? Could
intense heat have cremated the dinosaurs and preserved their
footprints? Or was it because the dinosaurs themselves were
FLOATED and carried by the same rising waters that preserved
their tracks?
Read the following! You be the judge.
Swimming
or Floating Away-Which?
Sets
of tracks often show several individuals of various sizes.
“Their tracks are deeply impressed and include drag-marks
of the heavy tails. The tracks of the smaller individuals
are shallower and show no tail drag-marks, as though the youngsters
were HALF-AFLOAT as the herd made its way through the shallows.
“Another set of tracks, of a single individual, start
off deeply impressed, as though the animal were UNSUPPORTED
by water, and became less and less well-marked.
“They are finally reduced to the MEREST SCRATCHES, at
greater intervals, in what was the bottom of the lake, showing
that a big sauropod had ambled into the water, which had supported
more and more of his weight as he got in deeper, until finally
he was cruising along in a leisurely manner”--or was
he FRANTICALLY STRUGGLING to touch bottom, as water rose higher
and higher?
And was this dinosaur--along with thousands--CARRIED AWAY
by the currents to far distant locations, to be buried in
one of the innumerable fossil graveyards around the world?
Someone might ask, “But how were the tracks preserved
in spite of the increasing waters?” The answer depends
on the area. One example is illustrated by footprints found
in Arizona.
Dinosaur
Footprints in Arizona
In
June, 1952, William Lee Stokes, well-known geologist was studying
uranium deposits in Apache County, Arizona. He discovered
a remarkable series of pterodactyl footprints in the Morrison
formation.
These tracks clearly reveal how the tracks were preserved.
“The track-bearing unit is a 2- to 4- inch thick stratum
of medium-grained, brownish gray sandstone…it is ripple
marked on the upper surface…
“From the position of the tracks…and the apparently
unsteady gait of the pterodactyl, it is inferred that the
creature was walking …in moist to very moist sand.
“Above the tracks is a thin stratum of mudstone which
covers and fills them. Evidently the conditions were such
that the water ROSE VERY SLIGHTLY and under relatively quiet
conditions deposited a mud layer which preserved the tracks
from destruction” (Journal of Paleontology,
Vol. 31, No. 5, September, 1957, “Pterodactyl Tracks
from the Morrison Formation,” William Lee Stokes, p.
952).
Back
to Connecticut
Richard
Swann Lull summarized the conditions under which the tracks
and trackways in New England were laid down.
This description reads like a scenario of DISASTER-in spite
of the fact that he would interpret fossils in an EVOLUTIONARY
context.
Here is a portion of his description:
“There were laid down in a gradually deepening trough
in the older rocks the GREAT ACCUMULATIONS OF GRAVELS, sands,
and clays, interbedded with vast lava sheets [source of intense
heat?], which constitute the sediments of the Newark systems….
“Of the organic remains, those of vegetable origin consist
of the impressions and casts of trunks of trees…being
of such size as to indicate a STREAM OF NO MEAN TRANSPORTING
POWER…here and there the vegetal remains were of sufficient
abundance to lead to the production of black bituminous shale
bands, formed during periods of accumulation of waters”
(Triassic Life of the Connecticut Valley, Richard
Swann Lull, p. 24).
Ancient Connecticut is clearly pictured as a disaster area!
The cataclysm of water and lava was of such a magnitude as
to literally erase life off the face of the old New
England landscape.
Face
to Face With Disasters
Everywhere
paleontologists look they are faced with this certainty-DISASTER
wiped out the dinosaurs. These disasters were worldwide. No
sector of this globe escaped the tragedy.
Neither is there evidence of transition from reptiles to mammals.
Then, where did the living things of this present age come
from?
How did mammals come into existence? What about plant life?
Modern fish? And man, himself?
The geological record reveals a profound break between the
reptilian life that was obliterated and the modern life of
today. The new forms of life on this planet-mammals, the insects,
the plants, the fishes, the birds, man--are different in most
respects from the old.
There is no evolutionary connection between the two. This
is proof positive that mammals did NOT EVOLVE from reptiles.
Between the two worlds is the geologic evidence that a worldwide
catastrophe of astronomical--of inexplicable magnitude--ravaged
our planet. But how--and WHY?…”
[Artwork courtesy of Joseph Michael Tucciarone]
(“The
Day the DINOSAURS DIED”, written by Paul Kroll
in the Plain Truth Magazine, January 1970. Copyright
©, the Worldwide Church of God, reprinted by
permission.)
WHAT
HAS BEEN LEARNED IN THE LAST THIRTY-TWO YEARS FROM THE WRITING
OF "THE DAY THE DINOSUARS DIED"?
[Artwork courtesy of Joseph Michael Tucciarone]
You will find the following quotes very
interesting.
"Extinction of the Dinosaurs
Time
of Event: End of Cretaceous period (65 million years ago)
Major Asteroid Impact Sites that are 65 Million
Years Old:
Chicxulub Crater
- Place: present day village of Chicxulub, northern shore
of Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
- Crater Size: approximately 180 kilometers wide
- Asteroid Diameter: approximately 10 kilometers [6.25 miles]
Shiva Crater
- Place: Arabian Sea off Bombay, western shore of India
- Crater Size: approximately 600 kilometers wide and 12
kilometers deep
- Asteroid Diameter: approximately 40 kilometers" [25 miles]
Above
quoted from Joseph Michael Tucciarone's website (http://members.aol.com/dinoplanet/joe.html
).
From the department of Paleontology, National Museum of Natural
History (http://www.nmnh.si.edu),
under Dinosaur Extinction we get this quote:
"The deep-sea core provides convincing support to the hypothesis
that an asteroid collision devastated terrestrial and marine
environments world-wide. It also shows a record of flourishing
marine life before the event, followed by mass extinction…"
"The impact blasted a 180 kilometer-wide (100 miles) crater
many kilometers deep into the earth. The heat of impact sent
a searing vapor cloud speeding northward which, within minutes,
set the North American continent aflame. This fireball and
the darkness that followed caused major plant extinctions
in North America. Environmental consequences led to global
extinction of many plants and animals, including the dinosaurs.
Lingering airborne debris is believed to have triggered darkness
and a decline in the global temperature, making Earth uninhabitable
not only for dinosaurs but also for many other plants and
animals..." (National Museum of Natural History).
"Dinosaur Extinction
Giant Meteor Impact
"Serendipity
Strikes:
Geologist Walter Alvarez had done postdoctoral research in
Italy, and was familiar with the Fish Clay sediments there.
Interested in determining the span of time over which the
clay sediments were deposited, he determined to analyze the
sediments for trace elements left by accumulation of cosmic
debris. This debris, coming in the form of micrometeorites
which fall from the sky at a relatively uniform and predictable
rate, contains unusual concentrations of certain platinum-group
rare-earths, notably iridium, which are otherwise very rare
in the Earth's crust. Alvarez collected samples of the Fish
Clay, as well as samples of the chalk above and below the
clay layer, at a location he knew of near Gubbio, Italy.
"Working with his Nobel-prize winning physicist father, Luis
Alvarez, at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory at the University
of California at Berkeley, he prepared the samples by dissolving
out the calcium skeletons [CaCO3] with acid. This left equal
concentrations of nearly pure clay for each sample. The samples
were then subjected to neutron-activation bombardment. Analysis
of the resulting neutron decay produced the expected iridium
decay signature. For samples taken from the chalk above and
below the clay layer, the measured iridium concentration was
around 0.3 parts per billion: about the expected concentration
for cosmic fallout. Iridium concentrations within the clay
layer itself, however measured as high as 10 parts per billion,
some 30 times higher than expected.
"The Alvarezes then analyzed samples from a famous site in
Denmark, known as Stevn's Klint, and found an iridium concentration
even higher than the Gubbio samples: 65 ppb., some 200 times
higher than expected. Other platinum-group rare earths known
to occur in cosmic debris were also found to be similarly
enriched. Similar "iridium spikes" have since been identified
all over the world, wherever K/T boundary sediments have been
identified."
"Catastrophic Evidence:
One could argue that the "iridium spike" represented a period
where the rate of clay deposition was drastically slowed,
allowing more time for cosmic debris to accumulate." i.e.
Certain paleontologists just didn't like where the evidence
was pointing. Let's continue. "To account for the measured
iridium concentrations, several million years would have had
to elapse [at the normal cosmic fallout rate]. But the
maximum time interval for accumulation of the clay layer was
already bounded by other constraints." I.e. the time allowed
for this clay deposit was as it appears, over a much shorter
period of time. Let's go on with the quotes.
"As the signature of rare-earths coincided with the concentration
of known stony meteorites, an extraterrestrial origin for
the iridium was postulated. Thus, in 1980, the Alvarez team
published in Science magazine: "Extraterrestrial causes for
Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions," wherein they proposed that
the impact of a giant meteor or asteroid, on the order of
10km in diameter, had caused the demise of the dinosaurs.
"Additional evidence of a meteor impact was also discovered,
in the form of 'microtektites,' small, spherical particles
of molten ejecta with a distinctive fracture pattern. Microtektites
are normally associated only with the most violent explosions,
such as occur when a giant meteor strikes the Earth. Microtektites
have been found at many, but not all, of the boundary clay
deposits in various parts of the world." Wouldn't this point
to perhaps even more than one giant meteor striking Earth?
Keep that in mind as we view the evidence.
"Supporting Arguments:
The Giant Meteor Impact theory meets many of the criteria
for a successful extinction theory, and its incredible
popularity among the scientific community attests to its success.
It satisfactorily explains the K/T mass extinction event,
including why some species were extirpated while others survived…"
Others survived? What criteria are they using to postulate
that others survived? Simply this. If say a certain small
mammal or lizard was found in Cretaceous fossil form that
is similar to one found in today's living world, they
assume this species survived. But
there is no connective chain of fossil evidence in the rocks
of such surviving species from the Cretaceous to the present
flora and fauna we see around us today. If there
were such evidence of an unbroken chain I'd like to see it.
"Nuclear
Winter"-- How Long Did It Last?
"…A
predicted consequence of a giant meteor impact is that immense
quantities of dust and aerosols would be thrown up into the
atmosphere, darkening the sky for many months, blocking out
the Sun and causing something like the "Nuclear Winter" scenario
predicted as the aftermath of an all-out nuclear war.
"Several months of darkness would wreak havoc on the photosynthesizing
nannoplankton, many of which have only a one month or less
life span…" ("Dinosaur Giant Meteor Impact", prepared
by Donald L. Blanchard, for the Morrison Natural History Museum).
But what if the sun-blocking cloud layer were much greater,
and remained for much longer, all caused by volcanic eruptions
on the Indian continent which took place at this same time,
more than likely triggered by the other major asteroid to
hit the earth, over in the Bay of Bombay--a 40-kilometer-wide
global-killer, creating the giant Shiva Crater, "Crater Size:
approximately 600 kilometers long, 450 kilometers wide and
12 kilometers deep" (Joseph Michael Tucciarone, , http://members.aol.com/dinoplanet/joe.html
). Is there any indication that such a massive
eruption of volcanic activity took place? And if so, for how
long? Again, let's see what Donald L. Blanchard
says about what occurred. "Now it is known that
for about half a million years, spanning the Cretaceous/Tertiary
boundary, ONE OF THE BIGGEST VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS OF ALL TIME
WAS GOING ON, FORMING THE DECCAN TRAPS OF WESTERN INDIA"
(ibid. Donald L. Blanchard). So it looks like the
smoking gun is the asteroid that created the Shiva Crater
in the Bay of Bombay and set off half a million years of volcanic
activity, which would have significantly lengthened the "Nuclear
Winter" created by the asteroid impacts. Let us continue with
Donald Blanchard's article.
…"Collapse of the ocean's algae communities would similarly
devastate the zooplankton, and all the animals that feed on
them. This would lead to a complete collapse of the oceanic
food chain, leading to the demise of such diverse groups as
the ammonites and the mosasaurs and plesiosaurs.
"On land, a protracted period of darkness would halt new production
of plant growth, leading to the starvation of large herbivores
that fed on them. Smaller animals such as the early mammals
could probably hibernate through the dark period. Land plants,
however, could regenerate from roots and/or seeds after the
dust had cleared and normal daylight was restored (Donald
L. Blanchard)." Oh really? We have half a million years of
major volcanic activity taking place on the Indian continent
following two major meteor impacts, continually filling the
skies with heavy volcanic ash. I think some evidence is being
ignored here.
They
Are All Looking At the Same Evidence,
But Are Paleontologists and Scientists in Agreement???
"The
Meteor Impact theory also fails to explain the perceived gradual
die-off of foraminiferans and dinosaurs. It postulates a very
sudden die-off, striking down whole lineages of organisms
in their prime…" Isn't that what we've just witnessed
throughout the evidence provided by the article "The Day
the Dinosaurs Died"? Let's continue. "…Most
paleontologists reject this claim. While most of the scientific
community heartily embraces the theory, the majority of paleontologists
reject it. Many paleontologists are willing to believe
that a meteor impact could have occurred, but don't
accept that it caused the extinctions. It could, they maintain,
have been the last straw that finished off an already dying
breed. Many question that a meteor impact ever occurred at
all." We just read the latest evidence from a deep-core drilling
expedition in the sea off the Yucatan Peninsula proving that
a massive 10 kilometer asteroid hit. It is also very interesting
that the paleontologist community rejects the massive die-off
of all life on the planet, and yet the scientific community
is willing to accept the evidence. Which community stands
to lose more? That's my question. Scientists, especially some
of your great physicists, are free, albeit quietly, to believe
in God as the designer and creator of the universe. Einstein
made no bones about it. Stephen Hawking mentions God more
in his famous book "A Brief History of Time" than he ever
does the theory of evolution. But the very careers of paleontologists
are intrinsically wrapped around the theory of evolution.
After thirty-two years they still don't want to accept the
evidence. Let's go on.
The
Magnitude of the K/T Extinction
Continuing
in another article written for the Morrison Natural History
Museum, Donald L. Blanchard has this to say about the magnitude
of the K/T extinction. "Perhaps the most dramatic extinctions
in the sea were among the nannoplankton, minute calcium-secreting
algae, and the foraminiferans, calcium-secreting protozoans."
How dramatic was this extinction, anyway? "…Their abandoned
shells piled up in immense thickness to form the great chalk
cliffs that give the Cretaceous Period its name ('Cretaceous'
comes from the Latin word for 'chalk.')." Ever hear of or
see the White Cliffs of Dover, towering over the seacoast
of England? "…Marine sediments during the Cretaceous
Period were composed almost entirely of this chalk, with only
a small percentage of clay particles. Sediments deposited
immediately after the K/T boundary is dominated by clay particles,
with only 20 to 40 % being chalk. This clay layer, known as
the "Fish Clay" in Europe, is widely accepted worldwide as
the boundary between Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments…"
How bad was the die-off? "…this represents approximately
a 97% reduction in the abundance of marine calcareous algae."
97 percent, 100 percent, what's the difference? These
nannoplanton and protozoans made up the giant carbon-dioxide
scrubber for the planet. Carbon dioxide is readily absorbed
by water, the oceans. These photosynthesizing plankton took
in carbon dioxide and combined it with the element Calcium
to make their tiny skeletons of CaCO3, or Calcium Carbonate,
basically what chalk is made of. As these plankton gradually
die off the excess CO2 in the air is safely locked away in
the sea-floor. Pore vinegar on chalk and it bubbles and foams.
That is CO2 being released, leaving pure Calcium. Deadly levels
of CO2 would accumulate as a result of 97 percent of these
organisms dying off, soon making it 100 percent as deadly
levels of HCO3 acid built up in the seas. This is all basic
High School chemistry. No plants on land photosynthesizing
for a long period and all the CO2 absorbing plankton dead.
Deadly levels of CO2 in the atmosphere from the fires raging
and volcanoes which were erupting for over a half million
years. Other deadly gases constantly being released by these
volcanoes, such as sulfuric acid, all being absorbed by the
oceans as well. Doesn't that sound like a dead planet to you?
Let's continue with these quotes about the magnitude of the
K/T Extinction. "Dinosaurs were the undisputed rulers of life
on land, right up to the catastrophic K/T event, but they
were not the only creatures to suffer. Although fossil birds
are rare during the Cretaceous (due more to scarcity of preservation
than to a lack of abundance), there were apparently several
distinct lineages of Cretaceous birds, only one of which survived
the extinction event, to give rise to the birds of today.
However, many species within that one lineage survived, as
many of the modern bird orders were represented prior to the
close of the Cretaceous." Many species within that one lineage
survived…to give rise to the birds of today"??? We all
know from DNA, that through the survival of one species, other
species cannot develop. DNA coding is a precise thing and
does not allow one species to become another. There is also
a huge assumption being made here. It is this. They assume
because a particular mammal or bird fossil is found in the
record of the Cretaceous rock, and it matches or is similar
to ones of today, that that particular species somehow
survived and evolved into all the species we see around
us today. But for that to have occurred and be provable, we
would have to see an unbroken chain of evolutionary development
of each species in the fossil record of the rocks. Such a
record does not exist. It is totally lacking. Yet they persist,
as this statement indicates: "Many species of mammals also
survived, as many mammalian orders have Cretaceous representatives.
Cretaceous mammals, however, tended to be quite small, and
probably were predominantly nocturnal…"
What
About the Aquilapollenite Plant Species?
"At the end of the Cretaceous Period in this
region, above the Aquilapollenites sediments and the inevitable
clay layer is found a layer of coal, which represents the
remains of fauna made up almost exclusively of ferns [dinosaur
food]. After the coal layer, angiosperms return to the scene,
but this time a different assemblage of species is found"
(Donald L. Blanchard, on behalf of the Morrison Natural History
Museum). No connective fossil record from one to the
other is found, just "a different assemblage of species is
found."
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