Fossil Sorting
   During the Biblical Flood of Noah

According to the most straight forward reading of the Bible, a person would assume that virtually all of the animals in the fossil record were victims of the great catastrophic flood of Noah. Many critics of this view seem to envision that the animals killed during the the flood should be buried all mixed together, but this is not what is found. An analysis of the strata has revealed that the fossils are sorted. Organisms are typically found within a limited span of layers, and frequently above or below other specific fossils. This sequence of distinct layers, known as the geological column, has been interpreted to represent the history of life on earth of millions of years, and the time when the organism evolved and then went extinct.

If the Bible is correct, then the geological column has been misinterpreted. The rocks that cover the earth may indeed have captured a recording of history, but instead of a history of life on earth, they simply illustrate the rate at which organisms died during the Biblical deluge. The flood was an extended event lasting an entire year, and the waters did not reach their peak elevation until 5 months following the beginning of the event. This allowed organisms time to avoid the event depending on their own abilities and tolerances.

There are many geological, behavioral, and physiological factors expected to affect an organism's time of death during a flood as described in the Bible. For example, habit elevation, mobility, environmental tolerance, and intelligence were probably the most significant influences upon relative times of death, and therefore, when or if the organism was found in the geological column. The fossils in the geological column demonstrate this expected trend. The first organisms to be buried were the bottom dwelling creatures, followed by free-swimming marine life forms, cold blooded, then warm-blooded, and then humans. It is obvious that organisms possess varying abilities to survive environmental stress (i.e. cold blooded animals such as reptiles are extremely sensitive to temperature fluctuations, and amphibian will die upon contact with salt water).

Although sorting is expected to occur during the Biblical global deluge, exceptions to their normal position in the flood strata are also a given. According to the global-flood model, out of place fossils should be somewhat common, forcing regular revisions of the proposed evolutionary history. Indeed a close investigation reveals a tremendous number of anomalously occurring fossils, and living fossils, which defy conventional explanation.  Based on the global flood interpretation of the geological column, "earlier than previously thought" will be heard repeatedly from the scientific community because their explanation is totally incorrect, and instead all organisms buried in the sedimentary rock were all alive on earth just a few months before.

Earlier Than Previously Thought References

• Jurassic "Beaver" Found; Rewrites History of Mammals It looks a lot like a beaver—hairy body, flat tail, limbs and webbed feet adapted for swimming—but it lived 164 million years ago. National Geographic News. February 23, 2006
• Fossil Reanalysis Pushes Back Origin of Homo sapiens A new analysis of human remains first discovered in 1967 suggests that they are in fact much older than previously believed. Scientific American 2/23/05
• Birds Flew Earlier Than Previously Thought, Scientists Say Scientists have determined that Archaeopteryx had what it took to fly. NYTimes 8/4/04
  • Flying dinosaur had 'bird brain' Nature 8/4/04
• Earliest Bilateral Fossil Discovered - Scientists have reported that bilateral animals appeared 600 million years ago, about 50 million years before the Cambrian Explosion. 6/7/04
• Salamander Origins Pegged To Asia National Geographic News. A recent fossil find in China has pushed back the origins of Salamanders to 150 mya. The salamanders are virtually unchanged from what we find living today in the neighborhood swamp.
• Primate ancestor lived with dinos - 4/17/2002 BBC News SCI-TECH - The common ancestor of humans, monkeys, apes and other primates may have arisen much earlier than previously thought.
• Oldest hummingbird fossils found - BBC NEWS Science-Nature 5/6/04

Human Findings

• Oldest member of human family found Nature July 2002. The discovery in Chad of Sahelanthropus tchadensis was announced in. A skull was found which dates more than a million years sooner than anything found previously. This find is also significantly more advanced than supposed to be for its age, and is requiring a dramatic revision of current theories on human evolution.
  • A Fossil Unearthed in Africa Pushes Back Human Origins NY Times July 11, 2002,
  • 'A Nuclear Bomb' For Evolution by Christianity Today Magazine 08/14/2002
  • A Response to the Discovery of the Chad Skull Toumae Bill Hoesch, M.S. Geology
  • Africa Discovery of Skull Calls Previous Theories Of Man Into Question Radio Free Europe
  • Giants and Dinosaurs Together! - PRAVDA.Ru 11/11/03
  • 'It's a wonderful thing' BBC NEWS Science-Nature July 2002
  • Scientists find key evidence of our oldest relative after 25 years searching the Sahara The Guardian July 2002
  • Skulls Found in Africa and in Europe Challenge Theories of Human Origins New York Times Aug 2002
• Skulls of Oldest Homo sapiens- Recovered Scientific American June 2003

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