Author Archive
Book Review –
Darwin’s Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished
Reviewed by Margaret Helder
A project which has produced a delightful read on Darwin’s life, views and impact, began many years ago when an undergraduate student, out of curiosity, dipped into a new volume in his university library. This volume was the first in a lengthy series from Cambridge University Press. These volumes contained the correspondence, both to and from, of Charles Darwin. Thus hooked on these communications, Robert Shedinger, who was majoring in a general arts degree, began a 40 years long research project on Charles Darwin’s thoughts and actions. Astonished by what he found, Robert Shedinger now shares the results of his research. His book, Darwin’s Bluff, can’t fail to interest everyone.
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Suppose you were to discover something new, maybe a piece of art, or a delicious dessert, a new book, a piece of furniture or even a building. One of the first things you might want to know is, who made it? It has been ever thus. Even ancient peoples noticed and made observations concerning what they saw around them. And they reflected on these issues. They studied the motions of the stars (and planets), the seasons and weather, and even plants and animals. For example, the prophet Isaiah wrote concerning God: “I made the earth and created man on it, it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.” Other ancient peoples attributed natural phenomoena to terrible pagan gods, never to the one true and benevolent God. For example in Psalm 96: 5-6 we read “For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”
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Now that the sixth edition of the Tour Guide to the Royall Tyrrell Museum has been published, readers have asked for some additional features. In response, we have produced a list of suggestions for ways to enhance one’s use of the guide. In addition, CSAA has prepared a custom map that identifies the location of certain specimens highlighted in the Tour Guide. As a result of recent changes to the floor plan in the museum, it is helpful to better understand how to find various displays. If you have already purchased tour guides, and wish for these new free features, simply let us know by email (books@create.ab.ca) or snail mail. From now on, those who purchase the Tour Guide, will automatically receive these two pages along with the booklet.
Paperback / $6.00 / 55 Pages
Shipping for one copy: $2.00
Our Required Response to the Awesome Creator!
Featuring: Dr. Kurt Wise, Director of Creation Research Center, Truett McConnell University, Cleveland, Georgia
Session 1 – Dinosaurs: Insight into Biblical History
Friday evening:
October 25, 2024, 8:00 p.m.
(excellent for youth and families)
Learn how dinosaurs’ designs teach us something about God’s nature, how the fossils of dinosaurs teach us about sin and its consequences in judgement, and the legends of dinosaurs teach us how people still need God’s love and salvation.
Book Review by Margaret Helder
Dr. Gordon Wilson has written a nice new book, Darwin’s Sandcastle, for Christians who are not scientists but who desire to be informed, but not burdened with details concerning science and origins. Such people understand that they need to keep mentally alert concerning their worldview. This means not shutting themselves off from important topics like the foundations of Christian doctrine and history. The objective of many Christians therefore is to share their worldview with others and not become bowled over by contrary views. While most people do not specialize in science, they can at least familiarize themselves with the basic issues.
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There is a reason why people walk down the street with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They want to find out the latest news! It is indeed true that everyone is curious and likes a good story, and especially the ending to a good story. Many stories however actually are never ending. They may start in a very simple fashion, but as time goes on, the details become more and more complicated.
Many stories or interpretations in science, for example, are like this. At first the idea is straightforward, but as more studies are conducted, the story becomes more difficult to follow. Consider, for example, Darwin’s proposals about evolution. He observed that individuals in a population of organisms differed in various small details. He then argued that those individuals which were better endowed, would be the ones to leave more offspring. This was the simple story that Darwin developed to explain evolution. There were many people who did not think that this scenario of changing proportions of traits in the population could explain the appearance of new body plans. The process might explain why there were more big or small individuals (or whatever) in the population, but it could not explain the appearance of new body plans (such as insect or fish) which require a lot of new information compared to that found in other kinds of creature. But no matter, Darwin’s scenario became the basis for evolution theory in the years to come.
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Paperback / $16.00 / 189 Pages / line drawings
In this recent book, written for the concerned Christian, Dr. Wilson seeks to discuss how God’s world works, our place in it, and how to assume leadership and dominion in the world. Written in friendly persuasive fashion, this book is enjoyable and inspirational.
Order Online
In recent years, people have become really interested in genetics. They ask questions like “Who were my ancestors? What can I learn about my family through our genes? What mix of nationalities do I have?” As the genomes of various species, including humans, have been mapped, scientists have reflected on many issues. One of those issues is molecular clocks.
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The objective of education, in general, is to equip upcoming generations to understand their place in society and how to contribute in a meaningful way to the well-being of that society. Christians go further. Each generation seeks to communicate with youngsters our relationship to God, and our relationship to people and the world in which we live. Christians therefore declare that an important part of our mandate as citizens and believers, is to make sure that we are informed about current events and issues such as science which can exert such a dramatic impact on society, especially today. Thus, we seek to acquiesce with, or speak out against, various important policies in government and society. Indeed, few issues today have fashioned the values of society as much as has scientific thinking and the philosophical implications thereof.
Read the rest of this entry »Paperback / $6.00 / 55 Pages
When you visit this museum, be sure to go armed with this booklet. It highlights interesting details and fascinating insights concerning the displays in the museum. All commentary in the booklet is from a creation-based perspective. The booklet comes with a map of major dinosaur exhibits and links to further discussion online of some topics like the geological column.
Shipping cost for one copy is only $2.
An entirely new feature is the use of the HeadStart online resource to provide more detailed discussion of some related and important issues such as origin of life arguments, and evolution related topics like the geological column, rock record, fossils (what are they?), Cambrian explosion, extinct Alberta creatures (mostly marine reptiles) and dinosaurs (a separate topic).
Naturally one can only absorb limited amounts of information as one proceeds through the museum. However, the guide also serves as a briefing source of further insights once one has left Drumheller.
Order Online
FEATURED BOOKS AND DVDS
Paperback / $6.00 / 55 Pages
Level: Introductory
A fossil is a record, preserved in rock, of a creature that lived in the past. The record may be the result of an organism’s activities, like a burrow or trackway, or of the organism itself like its shape, or all or part of the organism. Everybody realizes that fossils are not forming today. So, what was different in the past? These organisms were overwhelmed and buried in sediments (gravel, sand, loam or clay) that had been stripped by rushing water from land surfaces and were carried along in these energetic water currents. When the moving water slowed down, the sediments dropped out of suspension, burying creatures on surfaces lying below or which were also being carried along in the rushing torrents. In order to be preserved as a fossil, the trace of a living organism needs rapid permanent burial by sediments that soon turn to rock. So, the essence of fossilization is rapid permanent burial.
Trace Fossil
These are evidences of the past activities of organisms. Such traces could include footprints or trackways, burrows or animal droppings (coprolite). Scientists can figure out quite a lot about the lifestyle of an organism by examining such trace fossils. They can figure out for example how big the creature was, where it lived (or at least where the footprints were made) and whether the animal was moving quickly or slowly. Hints about these issues are possible if there are several footprints making a trackway and how deep in the sediment the prints are and how far apart the footprints are. And when it comes to animal droppings, scientists grind up the rock to find out what kinds of diet fragments are revealed in the excrement. [This is digested food that an animal eliminates from the body.]
There is one feature about trace fossils that is not immediately obvious. All these traces would normally disappear very quickly as a result of weathering. Anything exposed on a soil surface would soon disappear as the result of wind or rain or moving water. The footprints, burrows, animal droppings etc would have to be buried quickly by other sediments, filling in the cavities or surrounding potentially rotting material. Those infill sediments would soon need to be further buried and turned to rock before they themselves could be negatively affected by weathering. So, a trace fossil needs fast permanent burial.
Mineral Replacement
A common way for fossils to form is when a hard part of an organism (that does not decay quickly) gets buried and turned into rock. This happens especially to sea shells, bones and wood like tree trunks. Minerals from the sediment are carried by water into the hard remains of the creature. Eventually all the original components of the bone, or shell or wood are gone and only rock remains. Typically, the minerals in the object look quite different from the surrounding rock and they may actually preserve some of the internal structure of the object. Thus, we have petrified (turned to rock) dinosaur bones, petrified wood and petrified sea shells. This process may take a few years, but not thousands of years. Scientists can carry out experiments to see how long it takes to turn an object into rock. Some people even make money selling petrified modern objects like teddy bears! See footnote.
Molds and Casts
Some soft creatures were buried very suddenly so that their shape was preserved by the surrounding sediment. The sediments harden into rock as the interior creature decays away. Sometimes the shape is all that is preserved. For example, something like a jellyfish may have been trapped by sediments. The jellyfish decays, leaving an impression in the rock of its outside contours. Eventually more minerals may fill in the cavity so that we have the original shape of the creature (mold) and the preserved interior cavity (cast). Nothing is left of the original animal. Any creature as soft as a jellyfish, obviously has to be extremely quickly buried if anything is to be preserved.
Compression
Sometimes the hardened skin of an organism like an insect or shrimp may not decay immediately but it is rapidly buried and flattened. Suppose we find a fossil of such an organism. Obviously, we do not have insect carcasses or shrimp carcasses piling up anywhere today. They are quickly eaten or decay. Again, what is needed to form such a fossil is rapid permanent burial.
Skeletons with bones still connected
One of the most interesting kinds of fossils are articulated skeletons. That means that the bones of a creature were still attached to each other as they were in life when rapid burial occurred. In life, bones are connected to each other by tendons. These parts decay very quickly after a creature dies and the bones then fall apart and are scattered. Soon the bones disappear too. That means an articulated skeleton was permanently buried very quickly before decay could take place. The smaller the bone, and the smaller the creature, the more amazing is the situation in which we find an articulated skeleton.
In the Royal Tyrrell Museum, for example, in the Theropod Pavilion, a skeleton of Gorgosaurus libratus (adinosaur) is displayed. Almost the entire skeleton is present, right down to the last bone, only one half centimeter long, at the tip of the tail. That means that this carcass had to be very rapidly and permanently buried before even very early stages of decay could set in! Permanently buried means that it was buried deeply enough so that nothing could later remove those sediments and expose the body. Gorgosaurus was much like Albertosaurus. With a creature that large, a lot of sediment must have been involved to permanently bury it!Articulated skeletons therefore mean that the creature was very rapidly and permanently buried!
Bone Beds
Lastly sometimes we find collections of individual bones all smashed and collected together, buried in sediments deposited from rushing water currents. These bone beds may reveal a collection of different kinds of animal, or they may represent a whole herd of creatures including specimens of all ages. In cases where a whole herd of one species is involved, it is evident that a sudden catastrophe overtook these animals. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, for example, the bones of thousands of Centrosaurus dinosaurs were deposited in a bone bed that extends for about 8 km. Some bone beds like the one at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Pachyrhinosaurus) are so concentrated that there are about 150 bones per square meter. These animals were huge and heavy, about 7 m long (like a bus) and 3 m (10 ft) tall. This is taller than the ceiling in a normal room. Think about the powerful water currents that would be required to tip these huge animals over, drown them and smash the bones together.
Fossil Summary
To preserve an object in rock, we need sudden permanent burial in sediments that are usually carried along by powerful water currents. Volcanoes and landslides can suddenly and permanently bury some creatures, but these disasters are not anywhere near so widespread in their effects as rushing water currents. Catastrophic flooding on a scale far greater than we ever see today, was involved.
Footnote: There is an article on fast fossilization (24 hours) on the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/how-are-fossils-formed/fossils-in-just-24-hours/). This is in reference to a study carried out by supporters of evolution who nevertheless were able to produce convincing looking fossils in 24 hours. This article is at https://newatlas.com/lab-made-fossils/55619/.
Book reference: Gary and Mary Parker. The Fossil Book. Master Books. 77 pp.
Related Resources
Order Online
Paperback / $12.00 / 295 Pages / line drawings
Level: Introductory
A fossil is a record, preserved in rock, of a creature that lived in the past. The record may be the result of an organism’s activities, like a burrow or trackway, or of the organism itself like its shape, or all or part of the organism. Everybody realizes that fossils are not forming today. So, what was different in the past? These organisms were overwhelmed and buried in sediments (gravel, sand, loam or clay) that had been stripped by rushing water from land surfaces and were carried along in these energetic water currents. When the moving water slowed down, the sediments dropped out of suspension, burying creatures on surfaces lying below or which were also being carried along in the rushing torrents. In order to be preserved as a fossil, the trace of a living organism needs rapid permanent burial by sediments that soon turn to rock. So, the essence of fossilization is rapid permanent burial.
Trace Fossil
These are evidences of the past activities of organisms. Such traces could include footprints or trackways, burrows or animal droppings (coprolite). Scientists can figure out quite a lot about the lifestyle of an organism by examining such trace fossils. They can figure out for example how big the creature was, where it lived (or at least where the footprints were made) and whether the animal was moving quickly or slowly. Hints about these issues are possible if there are several footprints making a trackway and how deep in the sediment the prints are and how far apart the footprints are. And when it comes to animal droppings, scientists grind up the rock to find out what kinds of diet fragments are revealed in the excrement. [This is digested food that an animal eliminates from the body.]
There is one feature about trace fossils that is not immediately obvious. All these traces would normally disappear very quickly as a result of weathering. Anything exposed on a soil surface would soon disappear as the result of wind or rain or moving water. The footprints, burrows, animal droppings etc would have to be buried quickly by other sediments, filling in the cavities or surrounding potentially rotting material. Those infill sediments would soon need to be further buried and turned to rock before they themselves could be negatively affected by weathering. So, a trace fossil needs fast permanent burial.
Mineral Replacement
A common way for fossils to form is when a hard part of an organism (that does not decay quickly) gets buried and turned into rock. This happens especially to sea shells, bones and wood like tree trunks. Minerals from the sediment are carried by water into the hard remains of the creature. Eventually all the original components of the bone, or shell or wood are gone and only rock remains. Typically, the minerals in the object look quite different from the surrounding rock and they may actually preserve some of the internal structure of the object. Thus, we have petrified (turned to rock) dinosaur bones, petrified wood and petrified sea shells. This process may take a few years, but not thousands of years. Scientists can carry out experiments to see how long it takes to turn an object into rock. Some people even make money selling petrified modern objects like teddy bears! See footnote.
Molds and Casts
Some soft creatures were buried very suddenly so that their shape was preserved by the surrounding sediment. The sediments harden into rock as the interior creature decays away. Sometimes the shape is all that is preserved. For example, something like a jellyfish may have been trapped by sediments. The jellyfish decays, leaving an impression in the rock of its outside contours. Eventually more minerals may fill in the cavity so that we have the original shape of the creature (mold) and the preserved interior cavity (cast). Nothing is left of the original animal. Any creature as soft as a jellyfish, obviously has to be extremely quickly buried if anything is to be preserved.
Compression
Sometimes the hardened skin of an organism like an insect or shrimp may not decay immediately but it is rapidly buried and flattened. Suppose we find a fossil of such an organism. Obviously, we do not have insect carcasses or shrimp carcasses piling up anywhere today. They are quickly eaten or decay. Again, what is needed to form such a fossil is rapid permanent burial.
Skeletons with bones still connected
One of the most interesting kinds of fossils are articulated skeletons. That means that the bones of a creature were still attached to each other as they were in life when rapid burial occurred. In life, bones are connected to each other by tendons. These parts decay very quickly after a creature dies and the bones then fall apart and are scattered. Soon the bones disappear too. That means an articulated skeleton was permanently buried very quickly before decay could take place. The smaller the bone, and the smaller the creature, the more amazing is the situation in which we find an articulated skeleton.
In the Royal Tyrrell Museum, for example, in the Theropod Pavilion, a skeleton of Gorgosaurus libratus (adinosaur) is displayed. Almost the entire skeleton is present, right down to the last bone, only one half centimeter long, at the tip of the tail. That means that this carcass had to be very rapidly and permanently buried before even very early stages of decay could set in! Permanently buried means that it was buried deeply enough so that nothing could later remove those sediments and expose the body. Gorgosaurus was much like Albertosaurus. With a creature that large, a lot of sediment must have been involved to permanently bury it!Articulated skeletons therefore mean that the creature was very rapidly and permanently buried!
Bone Beds
Lastly sometimes we find collections of individual bones all smashed and collected together, buried in sediments deposited from rushing water currents. These bone beds may reveal a collection of different kinds of animal, or they may represent a whole herd of creatures including specimens of all ages. In cases where a whole herd of one species is involved, it is evident that a sudden catastrophe overtook these animals. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, for example, the bones of thousands of Centrosaurus dinosaurs were deposited in a bone bed that extends for about 8 km. Some bone beds like the one at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Pachyrhinosaurus) are so concentrated that there are about 150 bones per square meter. These animals were huge and heavy, about 7 m long (like a bus) and 3 m (10 ft) tall. This is taller than the ceiling in a normal room. Think about the powerful water currents that would be required to tip these huge animals over, drown them and smash the bones together.
Fossil Summary
To preserve an object in rock, we need sudden permanent burial in sediments that are usually carried along by powerful water currents. Volcanoes and landslides can suddenly and permanently bury some creatures, but these disasters are not anywhere near so widespread in their effects as rushing water currents. Catastrophic flooding on a scale far greater than we ever see today, was involved.
Footnote: There is an article on fast fossilization (24 hours) on the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/how-are-fossils-formed/fossils-in-just-24-hours/). This is in reference to a study carried out by supporters of evolution who nevertheless were able to produce convincing looking fossils in 24 hours. This article is at https://newatlas.com/lab-made-fossils/55619/.
Book reference: Gary and Mary Parker. The Fossil Book. Master Books. 77 pp.
Related Resources
Order Online
Paperback / $6.00 / 59 Pages / Full colour
Level: Introductory
A fossil is a record, preserved in rock, of a creature that lived in the past. The record may be the result of an organism’s activities, like a burrow or trackway, or of the organism itself like its shape, or all or part of the organism. Everybody realizes that fossils are not forming today. So, what was different in the past? These organisms were overwhelmed and buried in sediments (gravel, sand, loam or clay) that had been stripped by rushing water from land surfaces and were carried along in these energetic water currents. When the moving water slowed down, the sediments dropped out of suspension, burying creatures on surfaces lying below or which were also being carried along in the rushing torrents. In order to be preserved as a fossil, the trace of a living organism needs rapid permanent burial by sediments that soon turn to rock. So, the essence of fossilization is rapid permanent burial.
Trace Fossil
These are evidences of the past activities of organisms. Such traces could include footprints or trackways, burrows or animal droppings (coprolite). Scientists can figure out quite a lot about the lifestyle of an organism by examining such trace fossils. They can figure out for example how big the creature was, where it lived (or at least where the footprints were made) and whether the animal was moving quickly or slowly. Hints about these issues are possible if there are several footprints making a trackway and how deep in the sediment the prints are and how far apart the footprints are. And when it comes to animal droppings, scientists grind up the rock to find out what kinds of diet fragments are revealed in the excrement. [This is digested food that an animal eliminates from the body.]
There is one feature about trace fossils that is not immediately obvious. All these traces would normally disappear very quickly as a result of weathering. Anything exposed on a soil surface would soon disappear as the result of wind or rain or moving water. The footprints, burrows, animal droppings etc would have to be buried quickly by other sediments, filling in the cavities or surrounding potentially rotting material. Those infill sediments would soon need to be further buried and turned to rock before they themselves could be negatively affected by weathering. So, a trace fossil needs fast permanent burial.
Mineral Replacement
A common way for fossils to form is when a hard part of an organism (that does not decay quickly) gets buried and turned into rock. This happens especially to sea shells, bones and wood like tree trunks. Minerals from the sediment are carried by water into the hard remains of the creature. Eventually all the original components of the bone, or shell or wood are gone and only rock remains. Typically, the minerals in the object look quite different from the surrounding rock and they may actually preserve some of the internal structure of the object. Thus, we have petrified (turned to rock) dinosaur bones, petrified wood and petrified sea shells. This process may take a few years, but not thousands of years. Scientists can carry out experiments to see how long it takes to turn an object into rock. Some people even make money selling petrified modern objects like teddy bears! See footnote.
Molds and Casts
Some soft creatures were buried very suddenly so that their shape was preserved by the surrounding sediment. The sediments harden into rock as the interior creature decays away. Sometimes the shape is all that is preserved. For example, something like a jellyfish may have been trapped by sediments. The jellyfish decays, leaving an impression in the rock of its outside contours. Eventually more minerals may fill in the cavity so that we have the original shape of the creature (mold) and the preserved interior cavity (cast). Nothing is left of the original animal. Any creature as soft as a jellyfish, obviously has to be extremely quickly buried if anything is to be preserved.
Compression
Sometimes the hardened skin of an organism like an insect or shrimp may not decay immediately but it is rapidly buried and flattened. Suppose we find a fossil of such an organism. Obviously, we do not have insect carcasses or shrimp carcasses piling up anywhere today. They are quickly eaten or decay. Again, what is needed to form such a fossil is rapid permanent burial.
Skeletons with bones still connected
One of the most interesting kinds of fossils are articulated skeletons. That means that the bones of a creature were still attached to each other as they were in life when rapid burial occurred. In life, bones are connected to each other by tendons. These parts decay very quickly after a creature dies and the bones then fall apart and are scattered. Soon the bones disappear too. That means an articulated skeleton was permanently buried very quickly before decay could take place. The smaller the bone, and the smaller the creature, the more amazing is the situation in which we find an articulated skeleton.
In the Royal Tyrrell Museum, for example, in the Theropod Pavilion, a skeleton of Gorgosaurus libratus (adinosaur) is displayed. Almost the entire skeleton is present, right down to the last bone, only one half centimeter long, at the tip of the tail. That means that this carcass had to be very rapidly and permanently buried before even very early stages of decay could set in! Permanently buried means that it was buried deeply enough so that nothing could later remove those sediments and expose the body. Gorgosaurus was much like Albertosaurus. With a creature that large, a lot of sediment must have been involved to permanently bury it!Articulated skeletons therefore mean that the creature was very rapidly and permanently buried!
Bone Beds
Lastly sometimes we find collections of individual bones all smashed and collected together, buried in sediments deposited from rushing water currents. These bone beds may reveal a collection of different kinds of animal, or they may represent a whole herd of creatures including specimens of all ages. In cases where a whole herd of one species is involved, it is evident that a sudden catastrophe overtook these animals. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, for example, the bones of thousands of Centrosaurus dinosaurs were deposited in a bone bed that extends for about 8 km. Some bone beds like the one at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Pachyrhinosaurus) are so concentrated that there are about 150 bones per square meter. These animals were huge and heavy, about 7 m long (like a bus) and 3 m (10 ft) tall. This is taller than the ceiling in a normal room. Think about the powerful water currents that would be required to tip these huge animals over, drown them and smash the bones together.
Fossil Summary
To preserve an object in rock, we need sudden permanent burial in sediments that are usually carried along by powerful water currents. Volcanoes and landslides can suddenly and permanently bury some creatures, but these disasters are not anywhere near so widespread in their effects as rushing water currents. Catastrophic flooding on a scale far greater than we ever see today, was involved.
Footnote: There is an article on fast fossilization (24 hours) on the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/how-are-fossils-formed/fossils-in-just-24-hours/). This is in reference to a study carried out by supporters of evolution who nevertheless were able to produce convincing looking fossils in 24 hours. This article is at https://newatlas.com/lab-made-fossils/55619/.
Book reference: Gary and Mary Parker. The Fossil Book. Master Books. 77 pp.
Related Resources
Order Online
Paperback / $10.00 / 138 Pages / full colour
Level: Introductory
A fossil is a record, preserved in rock, of a creature that lived in the past. The record may be the result of an organism’s activities, like a burrow or trackway, or of the organism itself like its shape, or all or part of the organism. Everybody realizes that fossils are not forming today. So, what was different in the past? These organisms were overwhelmed and buried in sediments (gravel, sand, loam or clay) that had been stripped by rushing water from land surfaces and were carried along in these energetic water currents. When the moving water slowed down, the sediments dropped out of suspension, burying creatures on surfaces lying below or which were also being carried along in the rushing torrents. In order to be preserved as a fossil, the trace of a living organism needs rapid permanent burial by sediments that soon turn to rock. So, the essence of fossilization is rapid permanent burial.
Trace Fossil
These are evidences of the past activities of organisms. Such traces could include footprints or trackways, burrows or animal droppings (coprolite). Scientists can figure out quite a lot about the lifestyle of an organism by examining such trace fossils. They can figure out for example how big the creature was, where it lived (or at least where the footprints were made) and whether the animal was moving quickly or slowly. Hints about these issues are possible if there are several footprints making a trackway and how deep in the sediment the prints are and how far apart the footprints are. And when it comes to animal droppings, scientists grind up the rock to find out what kinds of diet fragments are revealed in the excrement. [This is digested food that an animal eliminates from the body.]
There is one feature about trace fossils that is not immediately obvious. All these traces would normally disappear very quickly as a result of weathering. Anything exposed on a soil surface would soon disappear as the result of wind or rain or moving water. The footprints, burrows, animal droppings etc would have to be buried quickly by other sediments, filling in the cavities or surrounding potentially rotting material. Those infill sediments would soon need to be further buried and turned to rock before they themselves could be negatively affected by weathering. So, a trace fossil needs fast permanent burial.
Mineral Replacement
A common way for fossils to form is when a hard part of an organism (that does not decay quickly) gets buried and turned into rock. This happens especially to sea shells, bones and wood like tree trunks. Minerals from the sediment are carried by water into the hard remains of the creature. Eventually all the original components of the bone, or shell or wood are gone and only rock remains. Typically, the minerals in the object look quite different from the surrounding rock and they may actually preserve some of the internal structure of the object. Thus, we have petrified (turned to rock) dinosaur bones, petrified wood and petrified sea shells. This process may take a few years, but not thousands of years. Scientists can carry out experiments to see how long it takes to turn an object into rock. Some people even make money selling petrified modern objects like teddy bears! See footnote.
Molds and Casts
Some soft creatures were buried very suddenly so that their shape was preserved by the surrounding sediment. The sediments harden into rock as the interior creature decays away. Sometimes the shape is all that is preserved. For example, something like a jellyfish may have been trapped by sediments. The jellyfish decays, leaving an impression in the rock of its outside contours. Eventually more minerals may fill in the cavity so that we have the original shape of the creature (mold) and the preserved interior cavity (cast). Nothing is left of the original animal. Any creature as soft as a jellyfish, obviously has to be extremely quickly buried if anything is to be preserved.
Compression
Sometimes the hardened skin of an organism like an insect or shrimp may not decay immediately but it is rapidly buried and flattened. Suppose we find a fossil of such an organism. Obviously, we do not have insect carcasses or shrimp carcasses piling up anywhere today. They are quickly eaten or decay. Again, what is needed to form such a fossil is rapid permanent burial.
Skeletons with bones still connected
One of the most interesting kinds of fossils are articulated skeletons. That means that the bones of a creature were still attached to each other as they were in life when rapid burial occurred. In life, bones are connected to each other by tendons. These parts decay very quickly after a creature dies and the bones then fall apart and are scattered. Soon the bones disappear too. That means an articulated skeleton was permanently buried very quickly before decay could take place. The smaller the bone, and the smaller the creature, the more amazing is the situation in which we find an articulated skeleton.
In the Royal Tyrrell Museum, for example, in the Theropod Pavilion, a skeleton of Gorgosaurus libratus (adinosaur) is displayed. Almost the entire skeleton is present, right down to the last bone, only one half centimeter long, at the tip of the tail. That means that this carcass had to be very rapidly and permanently buried before even very early stages of decay could set in! Permanently buried means that it was buried deeply enough so that nothing could later remove those sediments and expose the body. Gorgosaurus was much like Albertosaurus. With a creature that large, a lot of sediment must have been involved to permanently bury it!Articulated skeletons therefore mean that the creature was very rapidly and permanently buried!
Bone Beds
Lastly sometimes we find collections of individual bones all smashed and collected together, buried in sediments deposited from rushing water currents. These bone beds may reveal a collection of different kinds of animal, or they may represent a whole herd of creatures including specimens of all ages. In cases where a whole herd of one species is involved, it is evident that a sudden catastrophe overtook these animals. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, for example, the bones of thousands of Centrosaurus dinosaurs were deposited in a bone bed that extends for about 8 km. Some bone beds like the one at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Pachyrhinosaurus) are so concentrated that there are about 150 bones per square meter. These animals were huge and heavy, about 7 m long (like a bus) and 3 m (10 ft) tall. This is taller than the ceiling in a normal room. Think about the powerful water currents that would be required to tip these huge animals over, drown them and smash the bones together.
Fossil Summary
To preserve an object in rock, we need sudden permanent burial in sediments that are usually carried along by powerful water currents. Volcanoes and landslides can suddenly and permanently bury some creatures, but these disasters are not anywhere near so widespread in their effects as rushing water currents. Catastrophic flooding on a scale far greater than we ever see today, was involved.
Footnote: There is an article on fast fossilization (24 hours) on the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/how-are-fossils-formed/fossils-in-just-24-hours/). This is in reference to a study carried out by supporters of evolution who nevertheless were able to produce convincing looking fossils in 24 hours. This article is at https://newatlas.com/lab-made-fossils/55619/.
Book reference: Gary and Mary Parker. The Fossil Book. Master Books. 77 pp.
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A fossil is a record, preserved in rock, of a creature that lived in the past. The record may be the result of an organism’s activities, like a burrow or trackway, or of the organism itself like its shape, or all or part of the organism. Everybody realizes that fossils are not forming today. So, what was different in the past? These organisms were overwhelmed and buried in sediments (gravel, sand, loam or clay) that had been stripped by rushing water from land surfaces and were carried along in these energetic water currents. When the moving water slowed down, the sediments dropped out of suspension, burying creatures on surfaces lying below or which were also being carried along in the rushing torrents. In order to be preserved as a fossil, the trace of a living organism needs rapid permanent burial by sediments that soon turn to rock. So, the essence of fossilization is rapid permanent burial.
Trace Fossil
These are evidences of the past activities of organisms. Such traces could include footprints or trackways, burrows or animal droppings (coprolite). Scientists can figure out quite a lot about the lifestyle of an organism by examining such trace fossils. They can figure out for example how big the creature was, where it lived (or at least where the footprints were made) and whether the animal was moving quickly or slowly. Hints about these issues are possible if there are several footprints making a trackway and how deep in the sediment the prints are and how far apart the footprints are. And when it comes to animal droppings, scientists grind up the rock to find out what kinds of diet fragments are revealed in the excrement. [This is digested food that an animal eliminates from the body.]
There is one feature about trace fossils that is not immediately obvious. All these traces would normally disappear very quickly as a result of weathering. Anything exposed on a soil surface would soon disappear as the result of wind or rain or moving water. The footprints, burrows, animal droppings etc would have to be buried quickly by other sediments, filling in the cavities or surrounding potentially rotting material. Those infill sediments would soon need to be further buried and turned to rock before they themselves could be negatively affected by weathering. So, a trace fossil needs fast permanent burial.
Mineral Replacement
A common way for fossils to form is when a hard part of an organism (that does not decay quickly) gets buried and turned into rock. This happens especially to sea shells, bones and wood like tree trunks. Minerals from the sediment are carried by water into the hard remains of the creature. Eventually all the original components of the bone, or shell or wood are gone and only rock remains. Typically, the minerals in the object look quite different from the surrounding rock and they may actually preserve some of the internal structure of the object. Thus, we have petrified (turned to rock) dinosaur bones, petrified wood and petrified sea shells. This process may take a few years, but not thousands of years. Scientists can carry out experiments to see how long it takes to turn an object into rock. Some people even make money selling petrified modern objects like teddy bears! See footnote.
Molds and Casts
Some soft creatures were buried very suddenly so that their shape was preserved by the surrounding sediment. The sediments harden into rock as the interior creature decays away. Sometimes the shape is all that is preserved. For example, something like a jellyfish may have been trapped by sediments. The jellyfish decays, leaving an impression in the rock of its outside contours. Eventually more minerals may fill in the cavity so that we have the original shape of the creature (mold) and the preserved interior cavity (cast). Nothing is left of the original animal. Any creature as soft as a jellyfish, obviously has to be extremely quickly buried if anything is to be preserved.
Compression
Sometimes the hardened skin of an organism like an insect or shrimp may not decay immediately but it is rapidly buried and flattened. Suppose we find a fossil of such an organism. Obviously, we do not have insect carcasses or shrimp carcasses piling up anywhere today. They are quickly eaten or decay. Again, what is needed to form such a fossil is rapid permanent burial.
Skeletons with bones still connected
One of the most interesting kinds of fossils are articulated skeletons. That means that the bones of a creature were still attached to each other as they were in life when rapid burial occurred. In life, bones are connected to each other by tendons. These parts decay very quickly after a creature dies and the bones then fall apart and are scattered. Soon the bones disappear too. That means an articulated skeleton was permanently buried very quickly before decay could take place. The smaller the bone, and the smaller the creature, the more amazing is the situation in which we find an articulated skeleton.
In the Royal Tyrrell Museum, for example, in the Theropod Pavilion, a skeleton of Gorgosaurus libratus (adinosaur) is displayed. Almost the entire skeleton is present, right down to the last bone, only one half centimeter long, at the tip of the tail. That means that this carcass had to be very rapidly and permanently buried before even very early stages of decay could set in! Permanently buried means that it was buried deeply enough so that nothing could later remove those sediments and expose the body. Gorgosaurus was much like Albertosaurus. With a creature that large, a lot of sediment must have been involved to permanently bury it!Articulated skeletons therefore mean that the creature was very rapidly and permanently buried!
Bone Beds
Lastly sometimes we find collections of individual bones all smashed and collected together, buried in sediments deposited from rushing water currents. These bone beds may reveal a collection of different kinds of animal, or they may represent a whole herd of creatures including specimens of all ages. In cases where a whole herd of one species is involved, it is evident that a sudden catastrophe overtook these animals. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, for example, the bones of thousands of Centrosaurus dinosaurs were deposited in a bone bed that extends for about 8 km. Some bone beds like the one at Pipestone Creek near Grande Prairie (Pachyrhinosaurus) are so concentrated that there are about 150 bones per square meter. These animals were huge and heavy, about 7 m long (like a bus) and 3 m (10 ft) tall. This is taller than the ceiling in a normal room. Think about the powerful water currents that would be required to tip these huge animals over, drown them and smash the bones together.
Fossil Summary
To preserve an object in rock, we need sudden permanent burial in sediments that are usually carried along by powerful water currents. Volcanoes and landslides can suddenly and permanently bury some creatures, but these disasters are not anywhere near so widespread in their effects as rushing water currents. Catastrophic flooding on a scale far greater than we ever see today, was involved.
Footnote: There is an article on fast fossilization (24 hours) on the Answers in Genesis website (https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/how-are-fossils-formed/fossils-in-just-24-hours/). This is in reference to a study carried out by supporters of evolution who nevertheless were able to produce convincing looking fossils in 24 hours. This article is at https://newatlas.com/lab-made-fossils/55619/.
Book reference: Gary and Mary Parker. The Fossil Book. Master Books. 77 pp.