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]

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."