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Showing posts with the label Fossils

Lone Ranger Dinosaur Makes Tracks

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There are several areas that have fossilized dinosaur tracks, which is quite remarkable if you think on it. Glen Rose, Texas has a significant number of them. They are easy to see at Dinosaur Valley State Park . Sounds like an interesting place to visit. During a time of drought in 2022, even more tracks were exposed. Paleontologists and other folks were excited to see them. One trackway is impressively long, apparently made by  Acrocanthosaurus atokensis . One tell-tale sign is that it has claws on its feet. Acrocanthosaurus atokensis , Wikimedia Commons / Petr Menshikov ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), modified Hey, Cowboy Bob! How is  A. atokensis on the beach like Christmas? Because of its sandy claws ! Moving on... Secular scientists have some imaginative stories to tell about how they formed, but like so many other attempted explanations by Darwinists, they do not withstand scrutiny. With a proper understanding of sedimentation during the Genesis Flood, forming and fossilization of the tracks

New Shark Fossil no Surprise to Creationists

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Believers in universal common descent presuppose evolution, so they get excited when a fossil is found that can be manipulated into supporting their paradigm. Facts without the deep time and evolutionary assumptions more readily support recent creation and the Genesis Flood. A fossilized shark was discovered down Arkansas way, and Darwin's disciples are excited about how this new discovery can provide information about evolution. Part of the thrill is that cartilage was involved, and that stuff does not fossilize very often. Shark, Pexels / Marc Derndorff When I say new discovery , I mean that it was found in the 1970s. Recently, it was analyzed with CT-scans and given digital reconstruction. (That technology is impressive.) They assigned it a new genus and species name. However, it's still a shark with no evidence of evolution. Also, others were fossilized with it, indicating the rapid burial characteristic of the Flood. There were some other surprises where sharks have been f

Evolution and the Rescuing Device of Stasis

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In " Dishonest Darwinists Dodge Living Fossils ," the concept of stasis  was mentioned. To oversimplify,  living fossils are organisms that remain essentially unchanged from fossils to their living counterparts. Some fossils have millions of years assigned to them. Organisms did not evolve because they did not need to: stasis. Darwin's disciples glom onto the stasis rescuing device because living fossils are a serious impediment for evolution. Living fossils also indicate that the earth is not as ancient as evolution requires. Spotted Gar, Wikimedia Commons, USFWS / Brian Montague (public domain, usage does not imply endorsement) Know why gars live in mostly freshwater or brackish environments? Because if they lived in the oceans, they'd be sea-gars! Not funny, Cowboy Bob. Gars have been described as cigar-shaped, and some can grow rather large. Evolutionists say that their slow rate of evolution affects their low rate of speciation. Also, DNA repair mechanisms could

Dishonest Darwinists Dodge Living Fossils

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There are creatures in the fossil record that show no appreciable difference between supposed millions of years to their modern descendants. Charles Darwin was displeased with this additional evidence against his conjectures. He called them living fossils . If a handful of them existed, they might be waved away as odd quirks. But there are many living fossils. Evolutionists change mystical hats, trading the one where evolution is an undeniable force with the other where stasis occurred. That is, they did not have to evolve. These owlhoots get downright dishonest as well. Horseshoe crab (which is not really a crab) is a living fossil, MorgueFile / xpistwv Unfortunately, people are  not taught  critical thinking, and they seldom display healthy skepticism. The Bearded Buddha taught that things evolved from a common ancestor, branching out on the Tree of Life, gradually turning into something else. Right? People know this, but when dishonest evolutionists change the definitions with the

Dinosaurs and Fish Lizards Keep Getting Bigger

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Is it just my imagination, or are paleontologists finding more extremely large dinosaurs and such? There was a time that Brontosaurus  was impressive, even having the name that means thunder lizard . Probably because you could hear it walking. Now it is dwarfed by other sauropods. Indeed, scientists had to come up with impressive names to tack onto their discoveries, such as titanosaurs. Several more of these have been discovered. Curious, the impressive name game does not seem to happen to plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, but a candidate for the largest of the latter has been presented. Ichthyotitan severnensis , Wikimedia Commons / Ansh Saxena 7163 (PD), modified at PhotoFunia Darwin's disciples are having a great time evosplaining the critters through the fiction of convergent evolution , a cheap rescuing device. After all, there is no evidence for dinosaur origins or ancestors — it is like they were created, not evolved. Rapid speciation was also mentioned, but that has nothing t

Tyrannosaurus rex — not so bright after all

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Portrayals of Tyrannosaurus rex  and other carnivorous dinosaurs originally made them out to be nearly machines, attack and eat. Over time, their image evolved, showing them as rather intelligent creatures. Studies show — yeah, my study can beat up your study. One study claims that they were alarmingly intelligent, comparable to primates. Since most secular scientists assume the story that dinosaurs evolved into birds is true, the study used modern bird brains for references. Another study kicks up their intelligence a notch. However... T. rex college professor made at Bing AI * Another study pulls on the reins and hollers, "Whoa!" There are no fossilized dinosaur brains available to study. Also, the size of the cranium and the size of the brain inside — as compared to modern crocodiles — are two different things. (This child wonders why researchers didn't learn from the debunked "Brain size shows intelligence in humans" myth .) Did they notice that they study i

Rescuing Device: Protein Molecules in Dinosaur Eggs

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Original biological materials from fossils have been found for many years, but the 1997 discovery of soft tissues in a dinosaur bone  by Dr. Mary Schweitzer and company really took the rag off the bush . Things get worse for them because biomolecules are also found in dinosaur material. Despite numerous reports of dinosaur soft tissue discoveries reported in peer-reviewed journals, some jaspers still refuse to believe that they exist. Others admit they exist and come up with rescuing devices. The reason is that these things make Papa Darwin sad. Fossil dinosaur eggs, Flickr / Gary Todd (PD) As discussed before, worldviews strongly influence how people interpret evidence. A paleontologist evidence-denier wanted to be the smartest one on the bus, so he tried to refute claims of original biomolecules. It did not go well. Instead, he indulged in circular reasoning: Assume that dinosaur eggs are millions of years old, then prove biomolecules last for millions of years! Yeah, people get pai

An Actual Chinese Dragon

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For some reason, I was invited out to the Darwin Ranch to meet the new hand. It was a mite late and the shadows cast by the setting sun at Deception Pass made the going a bit slow. Once I arrived, foreman Rusty Swingset and his assistant Cliff Swallows had me meet Crappie Crankbait. It seems that Crappie is a specialist in aquatic dinosaur-age creatures. He found it interesting that this is the Year of the Dragon according to the Chinese Zodiac, and recent research on a Chinese dinosaur fossil seems to fit right in. Dinocephalosaurus orientalis , Wikimedia Commons / Nobumichi Tamura ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) (modified) Scientists actually used the word  dragon  regarding this critter because the long neck is somewhat similar to the long necks in portrayals of Chinese dragons. This is not exactly a new animal, but a few more fossils have been found. Sure does look like a plesiosaur, but paleontologists insist that D. orientalis  is not related and lazily invoke " convergent evolution "

Puzzling Plant Fossils and — Evolutionary Experimentation?

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If someone gets a notion to saddle up and ride to the extreme northeast of the US, going on through Maine in a certain place will get them to the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Some fossilized plants were found there that paleontologists described as "enigmatic." One reason for this wording is that they show an extreme amount of detail, which seems to be increasingly common among fossils nowadays. In addition, scientists were surprised at the complexity of the fossilized plants. Neither of these facts are surprising to creationists. Fossilized water fern (image adjusted), Fossil Butte, Wyoming, National Park Service (usage does not imply endorsement of site contents) Yet again, secular paleontologists are assuming deep time and evolution, which in turn dictates the way they interpret evidence. Creationists have the same evidence, but presuppose recent creation and biblical truth in their interpretations (see " What is Really Seen from the Webb Telescope " for

Multiple Evolutionary Miracles and Bird Flight

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Watching or reading material on dinosaurs from secular sources, the story that they evolved into birds frequently comes up. Many things are ignored, including how birds and dinosaurs existed at the same time but museums disingenuously omit this in their displays . Dino-to-bird evolution is also presented as a subject of scientific unity. False. Not only creationists, but some secular scientists reject it. They are not allowed to eat dinner with the big people, and have to scarf it down from paper plates while standing in the alley outside the main hall. Imagined dinosaur bird, Pixabay / Tirriko Evolutionists get mighty sneaky. If they can't prove something, change the facts — or in this case, definitions of dinosaurs  and birds . Presupposing dinosaurs evolved into birds, now we have "non-avian dinosaurs" in the definition. They require trust, but deceive people. Delving into creation science material on dino-to-bird evolution reveals numerous difficulties that changing l

Tales of Tails of Supposed Human Ancestors

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Something that puts a burr under my saddle is the insistence by evolutionists that we did not come from monkeys, and creationists do not want us to say that, either. It is because we are to accurately represent what they believe. Okay, I get that. But it gets a bit difficult. Study on this: Our alleged ancestors and relatives sure did look like monkeys, and some had tails. Specifically, evolutionists say that although monkeys, apes, and humans had a common ancestor, we diverged millions of years ago — and we lost our tails somewhere along the line. Ring-tailed lemur, Pexels / Magda Ehlers Which  supposed ancestor and when  the tail loss occurred, nobody knows. There is no evidence, but the story requires these things. A loyal Darwinist in the media wrote, indicating that there is kinda-sorta a link between tail loss and a birth defect, and genetics. Sounds like faith. Unfortunately, the faith of secularists is in their narrative, and whatever it takes to deny the work of the Creator. A

Fake Fossil Makes Fools of Evolutionists

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There are several reasons to fake things, including replicas. Money, prestige, grant money, pranks, pushing the fish-to-fool evolution narrative, and more. Replicas and souvenirs are fine as long as they are not marketed as the real thing, which makes them forgeries. When it comes to fossils and paleontology, fraudulent fossils are a serious problem. A famous fraud is Piltdown Man , which fooled evolutionists for over forty years. More recently, Archaeoraptor  was put forward. Those and others should have been scrutinized without Darwin worldview glasses that contaminate perceptions — and rejected. Tridentinosaurus antiquus , WikiComm / Ghedoghedo ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia Some forgeries are not just a bit of fun, but are intended to push the evolution story. Why, if evolution were a fact with "mountains of evidence," is there so much fraud? Keep the pressure on !  Earlier, I mentioned Darwin worldview glasses. Some bad science creeps into the narrative becaus

Deep Time Used to Evosplain Dinosaur Difficulties

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One of the most ridiculous ways of justifying universal common descent is to throw huge amounts of time into a problem, such as saying, "Given enough time, anything can happen." That may seem plausible for a fairy tale and Darwin's magic wand , but not for people who want real answers. It seems to be a common occurrence that dinosaurs are found where denizens of the secular science industry say they should not be. However, scientists do not question their evolutionary paradigm because they presume it is the only possible explanation for what is observed, thus eliminating better material. Minqaria, Wikimedia Commons / UnexpectedDinoLesson ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) (modified) Lambeosaurs (a kind of duckbill) strayed from their expected home ranges and were found in Morocco. Using naturalistic paradigms, a scientist evosplained this by invoking millions of years and saying that mayhaps the ungainly beasties swam there. This jasper also tried to escape the obvious implications of the

Darwinoptera, Skye, and Lying for Evolution

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Obstreperous atheists and fundamentalist evolutionists patrol teh interwebz, targeting Darwin doubters for destruction. They have many weapons drawn and ready, but one of these is dominant: Arbitrary assertions. When those are frequently used to put down Christians and creationists, the people using them are being illogical and indicating that their worldview is incoherent. It is indeed unfortunate when scientists also build arguments on arbitrary and false statements instead of actual evidence. But then, it has also been shown that storytelling brings in the grant money. Darwinoptera pterosaurs, Flickr / Francisco Gil ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) Just off the western coast of Scotland is a group of islands called the Inner Hebrides. A representative of a pterosaur clade called Darwinoptera had apparently been found on the largest, the Isle of Skye. (A nice place to fly, certainly.) Evolutionists were surprised, especially since certain pterosaurs were only known in China, not Scotland. To cov

Ancestor H. Habilis Losing his Job

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It kind of gets me right here (I tap the upper part of my heart surgery scar), knowing that Homo habilis  will be losing his job as a handyman. His television series was canceled as well and he has to turn in his toolbelt immediately after the final episode is filmed. Mayhaps Tim Allen will be glad to get it back. Setting the fun aside, H. habilis  is a member of the evolutionary ancestor parade that culminates in you and me. Except there was more narrative than evidence since its "discovery" in 1960, which caused contention from the start. Toolbelt, Unsplash / Jesse Orrico There are no complete fossils of him, and their primary evidence is the skull labeled ER 1470. Other finds make things worse for evolutionists, who are admitting that they really know very little about human evolution. Well, of course they know very little — it never happened! Bits and pieces are inserted into a contrived narrative, and some scientists decided to pull back the reins and holler, "Whoa!

Mixed Andes Fossils and Evolutionary Storytelling

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Down Colombia way near near the town of Villa de Leyva is an area full of fossils. Paleontologists like it a lot. However, what they found is challenging to uniformitarian beliefs (deep time, slow and gradual processes). The scientific principle of Making Things Up™ was implemented. Regular readers have probably noticed that the secular science industry has a habit of evosplaining  with fake facts, ignoring real facts, and raising unanswered questions. Apparently, what matters more than scientific truth is praising Darwin and bolstering deep time so the grant money keeps coming in. Villa de Leyva, Colombia toward Andes Mountains, Flickr / Rosario González Morón ( CC BY-NC 2.0 ) In the article linked below, there is an example of something that makes this child wonder how the researchers got advanced degrees in the first place. Giving weak explanations for what is observed as if there was no other possibility is commonplace. It just so happens that the story they are confabulating appe

William Stukeley, the Royal Society, and a Plesiosaur

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Although atheists and other anti-creationists try to avoid inconvenient truths, some of us still try to present them. First, many insist that creationists lack the intellectual prowess to be scientists. We show them that many great scientists of the past were Christians , even biblical creationists. Then they may whine that we are discussing dead people, so we tell them about modern scientists that are biblical creationists . No, they are disqualified because the only true  scientists are materialists. Lather, rinse, repeat, they move the goalposts like they were jet propelled. Plesiosaur skeleton, Flickr /  Kim Alaniz  ( CC by 2.0 ) In 1660 London, the Royal Society was formed to encourage the development of natural philosophy (the earlier term for what is now called science). While some sidewinders say that biblical creation science was initiated fairly recently, the Royal Society had members who believed the Bible, including recent creation and the Genesis Flood. One of their member

Tyrannosaurini from out of Time

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Not too long ago, I finished loading supplies into my buckboard and was ready to head on out of town. Of a sudden, I saw Stevia Dolce, the lead baker at the Darwin Ranch. With her was Lotta Lyez who was promoted as an assistant to the cook. Feeling a mite playful, I asked Lotta if she was going to pick up some Tyrannosaurini, it was between the fettuccine and linguine. She stared a moment, then gave a bit of an "Oh, you!" hand flip as Stevia smiled. The wordplay may not have happened if I had not been reading about the sudden appearance of T. Rex  and family. Tyrannosaurus rex , RGBStock / Kevin Tuck Some fossil parts were examined again and the critter was renamed because of subtle differences that were found. (I wonder if that's a bit drastic since people, animals, and so on have variations without having to be branded as a different species.) In the report, homage was given to the puny god of evolution, but with a difference. It is known that dinosaurs have no evoluti

Fossils Still Unchanged After All These Years

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According to descent with modifications evolution, it took millions of years according to secular deep time opinions for the life forms that exist today to emerge. There are billions of fossils buried in rock layers that were laid down by water all over the globe. Evidence of critters changing into other critters should be abundant, but they are not. Instead, evolutionists fight hard to validate the few possible transitional forms they claim to have. There is another big problem: Fossils show no appreciable change over all those years. Source image furnished by Why?Outreach , sturgeon image added When something has not changed, Darwin's acolytes call it "stasis." That is, the creature was fine the way it was, so it never needed to evolve. (This rescuing device is used regarding organisms living today that are unchanged, known as living fossils .) Yet they also present evolution as a kind of irresistible force that's always at work. To say that so many things didn'

The Peculiar Roadrunner

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 While out riding, I met Rusty Swingset (foreman of the Darwin Ranch near Deception Pass) and his lady friend Jacqueline Hyde heading the other way. We reined in and talked about odds and ends. Suddenly, a bird ran by. Jacqueline giggled and said she always thought roadrunners were funny. This member of the cuckoo family really does like to run, especially since it is not a great flyer. If someone takes a notion to chase after it, they should save their energy because it will outrun them — but not a coyote. The roadrunner has odd traits that suit its appearance. Greater roadrunner, Flickr / Dominic Sherony ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) This bad boy is clever, waiting to ambush its prey by the watering hole. It is also ruthless. Hey, rattlesnake! Ha, you missed again but now you're mine ! Yep, fast reflexes.  It is not an example of evolution, but shows adaptation and (probably) the result of natural selection within the created kind. The Roadrunners also has x-shaped footprints so one cannot t