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Showing posts with the label Paleontology

Spider Fossil Good News for Creationists

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It seems that most fossils being found nowadays are good news for creationists, what with excellent preservation, computerized tomography ( as used here ), and all that good stuff. New South Wales is a state on the east coast of 'Straya, the centre of which is home to McGraths Flat. It is a research area, and they are finding some interesting fossils (expect more in the future). A brushfooted trapdoor spider fossil was on the large side. Although mostly the same as its modern counterpart, Darwin's disciples naturally cheered evolution. Brushfooted trapdoor spider in Brisbane, Australia, Flickr / Robert Whyte ( CC BY-NC-ND ) Other spider fossils have been discovered there, and even tiny ones can be examined in minute detail. I find this amazing because we're talking about stone that gets examined, not soft tissues. Once again, we see that creatures had to be buried in the right conditions (rapidity is a big part of it) so scientists can examine those details. They could not

A Dinosaur Studies Reformation

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While a passel of people are celebrating fear, death, and evil on Halloween, many Christians take note of October 31 as Reformation Day . That is when German priest used the social media of his day, nailing 95 theses to the Wittenberg door. Most movements and revolutions do not happen overnight, and a kind of dinosaur reformation is happening in paleontology right now. I have said that evolutionists are working for creationists , since they are well-heeled but we can analyze their claims — including those about dinosaurs and such. Dinosaur nailing scroll to wooden door made with Bing AI The secular science industry has been making pronouncements in its authority that do not comport with science and logic, using dinosaurs as evolutionary propaganda. Biblical creationists and others look at their assertions, compare them with evidence, and frequently find them lacking. In addition, there is new research that is mighty difficult for secularists to ignore or suppress — even in their own ra

Getting a Head on an Arthropod Fossil

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There sure is a huge number of high-quality fossils coming out of China. While healthy skepticism is in order because of the people selling fakes in certain areas , the quantity is impressive. It may be that some are so plentiful, they are boring to scientists. Oh goodie, another trilobite... Alert eyes can spot and reference something new or a superior specimen to something already known. Then they can use some of that impressive technology and get the details. This happened with a Kylinxia  fossil and a CT scan. Kylinxia zhangi , Wikimedia Commons / Junnn11 ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) This critter looks like several others, so this child doesn't envy paleontologists who need to tell them apart. Anyway, computerized tomography (the CT in a CT scan) involves numerous X-rays. Kylinxia  got the treatment and the soft stuff of its head buried in the rock was revealed. Of course, secularists promptly began telling evidence-free Just-So Stories about what went on in the distant past millions of D

More Dinosaur Fossils, Further Flood Evidence

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Sometimes it is difficult not to laugh when someone says that there is no evidence for the Genesis Flood, and that it played no part in dinosaur extinction. But secular scientists cannot disagree with the fact that billions of fossils are found in sedimentary rocks. Although the secular paradigm is uniformitarianism (slow and gradual process over long periods of time), even they are beginning to invoke the occasional watery catastrophe when they find it necessary. There are echoes of this in recent findings including two new dinosaurs near Morocco. Rugops primus , pencil drawing, Wikimedia Commons / Nobumichi Tamura / ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) There are parts of North America, England, China and others that attract paleontologists. Some areas are underexplored (which makes some sense, no cause to dig when little or nothing has been found). The big Chicxulub asteroid story is the favorite for the extinction of dinosaurs, but not all secularists are on board. That's why there's a passel

Out-of-Place Pollen Makes Darwin Sneeze

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Down South America way in an interesting meeting place of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana is flat-top Mount Roraima. Mountains like this are said to have been planed flat by erosion, but planation surfaces are troublesome to secular geologists. One reason is that it is not seen happening today. Mr. Roraima contains a small problem: fossilized pollen. It should not exist, but occurs here and in other places as well. Secular dating methods indicate that the mountain is 1.8 billion years old. There was not supposed to be multicellular life on Earth yet. Mount Roraima, Wikimedia Commons / M M ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) Obviously, pollen comes from plants. According to fundamentalist evolutionists, there were no plants 1.8 billion years ago. This is not a new discovery, either, since it was known from 1963. Some secularists wanted to adjust the data to fit their views, even saying that there was contamination. Nope. Instead of admitting that their evolutionary views have been falsified, they put it o

The Horse Series is Bad Evolution, of Course, of Course

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Out at the Darwin Ranch, Russell Watchtower of the Ministry of Truth and his pal Al Buehterawl were a mite giddy. Word has it that they were all excited about a new report on the horse evolution. Although the horse series has been touted as one of the best examples of evolution, it is full of difficulties . The flimsy story is something that biblical creationists have been using for many years as an example of interpreting data from a fundamentally-flawed presupposition, ignoring other possibilities for observed data, and just bad logic. But those old boys are thrilled that the mystery of the disappearing toes has been solved. Horse hoof, Pexels / Barbara Olsen Darwin's disciples selected candidates for the horse lineage from (among other things) size. They also claim that over time, the toes on the critters reduced until we have the single hoofed animal we see today. That has been a problem. Some evolutionists think that all four toes are still present, but vestigial. Hail Darwin,

Defusing Cambrian Explosion Excuses, Part 2

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This is the second of two installments, Part 1 is here . Several times, atheists and other evolutionists on teh interwebs attempt to wave off the Cambrian Explosion by downplaying its importance. One tinhorn challenged me by demanding to know why it is important, and how creationists deal with it. If they do not know its importance, they should not be apologists for evolution and deep time. But I think people like this enjoy attempting to put creationists on the defensive. It has been a major difficulty for many years, and efforts to solve the problem are doomed to failure. Life on Cambrian Miaolingian sea, WikiComm / Zhixin Sun et. al . ( CC BY 4.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia Note that in all of these things, evolutionists believe  despite  the evidence, and even resort to bad science and bad logic to protect Darwin from mean looks as he saunters down Evolution Street. They get downright deceptive. That's right, I said it!  No amount of tampering with data or reimagining it can cha

Defusing Cambrian Explosion Excuses, Part 1

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As discussed previously, the Cambrian Explosion is classified by secular scientists as happening over 10-25 million Darwin years. Animals with very different body plans are found, but there is no evidence of precursors . This has been a problem all the way back to Darwin, and evolutionists have been attempting to solve it ever since. There has been a great deal of recent news and noise by secularists presenting rescuing devices only to have them wither in the cold light of reason. Yes, some evolutionists want to cut through fake science. We have five articles, three today and two tomorrow, to consider. Diorama of the Burgess Shale Biota, Flickr / James St. John ( CC BY 2.0 ) Creationists know that the Cambrian Explosion is best explained by the Genesis Flood, but secularists reject that out of hand. Gotta have that naturalistic philosophy intact, you betcha! So we watch as evolutionists work on plans and others shoot them down. One was a speculation that the sudden increase in diversi

Katydid Chews Up Evolution

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For some reason, I never thought Katy would, but katydid. Fossilize, that is. And this fossil is extremely detailed, unlike those ammonites and things we find in the river or quarry. There have been quite a few fossils found lately that are very intricate. This katydid fossil shows so much detail, it works against particles-to-paleontologist evolution: All of the minutiae are like their modern counterparts, so no evidence of evolution. We looked at the recurrent secular miracle of convergent evolution . Here is stasis , another popular miracle among Darwin's disciples. Katydid (Tettigoniidae), Flickr / Insects Unlocked (public domain) Evolutionists want things both ways, since evolution is a "fact" and pretty much like an irresistible force (except when it's an entity making choices and decisions), or there is stasis where organisms didn't change after millions of Darwin years. Paddlefish , sharks,   tunicates , alligators,  coelacanths , and many other critters

Whales in the Desert?

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When the word Egypt is mentioned, several things can come to mind: Arid conditions, the Nile River, sand, Moses, God humiliating Pharaoh, a passel of whales  — wait, what? Sure. Things change over time. Indeed, the Sahara itself was once a nice place to go swimming . Whales in the desert are not easily explained by uniformitarian dogma. Indeed, the Valley of the Whales signage uses the ludicrous “dies and sinks to the bottom” boilerplate story for fossilization. In this case there are numerous whales as well as other creatures. Wadi Al-Hitan (Whale Valley), WikiComm / Guy Debonnet ( CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO ) To have numerous well-preserved fossils (scientists can see what some had for last meals), it takes a catastrophic event. Creation science models of the Genesis Flood provide far better explanations than secular Just-So Stories. In fact, Flood geology here goes beyond fossilization and explains landforms as well. In the grand scheme of evolution, the legs of land-based animals developed

Secular Scientists Closer to Genesis Flood in Trilobite Extinction

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My wife baked a trilobite pie the other day... Okay, it was really a pecan pie, but I immediately thought of trilobite fossils. Too bad those critters are extinct, and I would like it if some were found alive as living fossils . Those things fluster believers in molecules-to-musician evolution. Actually, trilobites also fluster evolutionists. Advances in technology show that they had amazing eyes and visual acuity . Trilobites are associated with the Cambrian Explosion , which is also a sore spot for secular scientists. "Trilobite pie," Flickr / Cowboy Bob Sorensen  ( CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ) Secular paleontologists typically believe in slow 'n' gradual processes over millions of years that shaped today's landforms. Fossilization supposedly happened slowly as well, but that idea has been demonstrated to be ludicrous many times over. Because the evidence doesn't fit their narrative, some secular scientists are appealing to catastrophic events. Trilobite Fossils, Unsp

Not Loving Lucy the Australopithecus Afarensis

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Over the years, I have featured several articles on the alleged transitional form, the ape with kaleidoscope eyes, commonly known as Lucy. Earnest evolutionists try to slap down biblical creationists and other Darwin doubters claiming the ape from afar ( Afar is far from here, anyway) with talking points. A big problem with popularized science is that folks get notions lodged in their craniums, but retractions and refutations are often ignored. Indeed, knowledgeable creationists often correct believers in universal common descent with the facts. A great deal of information about Lucy in the public mind is wrong. Modified photo by Wikimedia Commons /  Shalom ,  kaleidoscopes from Freeimages /  Frizzy Lee Those who insist in atoms-to-ape evolution frequently present A. afarensis as a link as if scientists were in complete agreement, which is false. Lucy is contested as a link between apes and humans, and the walking upright thing is also a source of disagreement. Its status is sketch

Evolutionists Deny Evidence to make Darwin Smile

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Added link about altering facts to fit views on 10 July 2023. As we have seen many times, people interpret evidence according to their worldviews. For example, an evolutionist can see a trilobite fossil and say that it is millions of years old, a biblical creationist uses the same evidence and interprets it as representing the Genesis Flood. Nobody is strictly neutral. Secular scientists are thought to be objective, following where the evidence leads, but that does not happen when the narrative is paramount. It is adjusted so Darwin's frown will turn upside down and people continue to be hoodwinked. Darwin Approves of Evoluton Fairy Tales, modified from Favourite French fairy tales / Barbara Douglas , 1921 In The Face of Evil , a 1977 "Dr. Who" story, The Doctor was given these words by writer Chris Boucher: You know, the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common, they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views,

Marine Reptile Locomotion Imaginings

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Some folks make a big deal out of saying that marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs,  thalattosuchians , and so on were not dinosaurs. It is a classification thing, we get that, but no need for being fastuous about it. Moving on. Those water dinosaurs (I had to do that) — marine reptiles of dinosaur times cause consternation for secular paleontologists because a priori  presuppositions of evolution are not supported by evidence (see " Paleontologists Dodging Important Ichthyosaur Questions " for one example). Their research on locomotion is...interesting. Varieties of ichthyosaurs. WikiComm /  Nobu Tamura , compiled by Levi Bernardo ( CC BY 3.0 ) Darwin's disciples want to know how they evolved and adapted. Creation scientists argue from their own presuppositions and say that they did not evolve, and the evidence is nonexistent. Michael Benton said that scientists "know" some things, but how? Were they there ? Obviously not. This is a historical vie

New Jellyfish Discovered, no Evolution

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In a way, it should not be surprising that a jellyfish was discovered way down in the deep blue sea — well, not so blue at such depths. More like black because light does not reach there. We have not explored the sea extensively because of darkness, pressure, temperatures, and more. We looked at how anemones are unfriendly to believers in descent with modifications evolution a while ago. They are so delicate, fossilization is rare. Jellyfish are also fragile and the proper conditions are necessary for fossilization. Jellyfish Atolla reynoldsi ,  NOAA ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ), modified at PhotoFunia The fossil record shows something that is unsurprising to biblical creationists: Jellyfish have always been jellyfish even after millions years in the conventional dating system. They were created to be what they are. Sure, there are varieties. But no sign of transitional forms in all that time. The eyes of the box jellyfish are baffling to secular scientists. Maybe A. reynoldsi  has some interes

Anemones are Unfriendly to Evolution

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Sea anemones are not helpful to evolution. These friends of clownfish did not fossilize easily, like their jellyfish cousins. Apparently anemone fossils are rarer than those of jellyfish. Like with so many other creatures, there is no sign of evolution in the fossil record. The old story of something dying and sinking, then getting covered up and eventually become permineralized into the fossils we all know and love is false, but secular dogma. That is why secular scientists are started by fossils of soft creatures, organs, and the like. Sea Anemone, Flickr / Bernard Spragg (public domain) For something to fossilize, it requires rapid burial. This provides the materials as well as the conditions lacking in the typical secular story. The overwhelming majority of the billions of fossils that were buried all around the globe are marine organisms. This easily indicates the Genesis Flood. Interestingly, secularists are also discussing rapid burial. Unsurprisingly, they do not mention the

Giant Ants Found in Canada

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Think of Them! , the 1954 movie where atomic blasts caused ants to mutate into giants that ate people. Excellent science documentary. Well, except for the fact that mutations do not work that way at all, and it is impossible for ants to get that big . Relatively speaking, ancient ants and other creatures were giants in comparison to those living today. There were ants called  Titanomyrma by paleontologists, comparable in size to a small wren. Secular scientists saw their fossils in various places, but their arrival in Canada did not fit their paradigm. Titanomyrma gigantea , Wikimedia Commons / Ghedoghedo ( CC BY-SA 3.0 ) A Titanomyrma  fossil was found in Canada caused no small difficulty to secular scientists, such as how they crossed continents during cold times. Some weird speculations were proposed, but no go. If scientists would tear down the Darwin Wall and consider creation science Genesis Flood models, they would not need to evosplain things with nonsense. Evolutionary scie

Studying Dead Fish for Deep Time

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As discussed here several times, believers in descent with modifications evolution often conduct inefficient science. Many use the principle of Making Things Up™ and telling Just-So Stories that deceive people into thinking that they were in the presence of real science. One wonders if sloppy science is in an effort to avoid the facts, such as the presence of soft tissues in dinosaur fossils . Those should not exist after an alleged 65 million years. Research was conducted using dead sea bass in an attempt to determine why some soft parts fossilize but not others. Fossil sponge, Flickr / James St. John ( CC BY 2.0 ) Once again, secularists use bad logic by presuming evolution and deep time, then basing their research on those things. These wonder what kind of environment could cause fossilization. Biblical creationists argue that the global Genesis Flood provides those conditions, and this may be why they don't cowboy up and seriously deal with soft tissues and creation science Fl

Another Dinosaur Bird Candidate Crashes

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President Ronald Reagan said, “It isn’t so much that liberals are ignorant. It’s just that they know so many things that aren’t so.” Similarly, Darwinists believe a lot of things that aren't so — and that they made up themselves. Consider  Cratonavis zhui . No, it is not a menu item. Secular scientists have problems with placing dinosaurs (see " Strange Dinosaur Classification is Strange " for one example). Now we have yet another Archaeopteryx to become a failed transitional form between dinosaurs and birds. Dinosaur bird thing via PxHere I'll allow that they have reasons for their confusion, but they are viewing through their Darwin spectacles instead of being as objective as they should be. Evolutionists often use viciously circular reasoning by assuming evolution to prove evolution, and C. zhui  has features that are similar to dinosaurs. It supposedly has a dinosaur head and a birdlike body There are several reasons to reject this as an example of evolution. In J

Flowers and Ants Stymie Evolutionists

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Sometimes people knock ants off flowers because they think they are intrusive. But that is like bursting into the home of someone and chasing out visitors, only to learn that the visitors were invited guests. Many times, ants and flowers have a mutually-beneficial relationship: Plants provide shelter and nutrients, ants disperse seeds and help defend the plants. Besides, ants like to climb things. Charlie Darwin and his followers have long insisted that flowers and plants evolved together, but they have no evidence. Flower with ants, Pixabay / wal_172619 When checking the fossil record, ants have always been ants. Sorry, Charlie, no transitional forms or signs of a common ancestor. Biblical kinds  of ants are found ( kinds  are close to the  family  classification in biology), but secularists will not consider that. I gave Chuck a floral wreath at  PhotoFunia In addition to the lack of transitional forms in the fossil CD — I mean, record — the Bearded Buddha lamented the  abominable my