Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct? - Alternative View

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Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct? - Alternative View
Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct? - Alternative View

Video: Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct? - Alternative View

Video: Why Are Dinosaurs Extinct? - Alternative View
Video: Why the Dinosaurs’ Extinction is an Ongoing Puzzle | Nat Geo Explores 2024, March
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This question arises today for many. But what really happened to the dinosaurs?

  • Was there a “Age of Dinosaurs” long before humans appeared?
  • Does the Bible talk about dinosaurs?
  • What happened to the dinosaurs?
  • Why are dinosaurs extinct? What caused and what caused their large-scale extinction?

Newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, museum exhibits and university lectures, school textbooks and even picture books for the little ones in a friendly chorus convince us that millions of years ago the "era of dinosaurs" reigned on earth, subsequently dinosaurs died out long before the appearance of man. However, paleontologists, biologists, and anthropologists who hold atheistic or evolutionary views are trying in vain to recreate history without any eyewitness evidence. If you believe the biblical description of history, then explaining the presence of fossil remains of dinosaurs around the world will be much easier - as if there were no "million years" of evolution. And indeed it is.

If dinosaurs became extinct for millions of years, then why today they find a mass of remains that are perfectly preserved

The Bible describes a worldwide Flood that occurred 4 and a half thousand years ago, which had catastrophic consequences; it was because of them that Noah and his family had to sit in the ark for over a year, along with all the animals and birds on board. The numerous layers of sediment that were carried by water around the world and turned into solid rocks over time are compelling evidence of the change in the geographic shell during the Flood. These sedimentary layers contain billions of animal remains, many of which are so well preserved that they would have to be buried suddenly under the many sediments because they had neither decomposed by oxygen nor become prey to scavengers. Among the billions of fossils, researchers have discovered and described many dinosaur remains.(Occasionally, there are claims that dinosaurs never existed. The fossils refute such claims.)

"Cemeteries" of dinosaur fossils have been found all over the world. In Patagonia, South Africa, one such “mass grave of fossil remains” was found containing a huge number of dinosaur fossils. Among them were the remains of rather large animals, such as the T-Rex-like Giganotosaurus, which reached 14 meters in length. In addition to them, numerous remains of small dinosaurs were found in this "cemetery". All fossils, regardless of size, are perfectly preserved. This points to the death of animals from the waters of the Flood at the time of Noah.

For example, a burial of a “family” of 6 fossilized dinosaurs was found - one mature, two adults, two young and one “baby”. None of them show the slightest sign of attacks from other animals or traces of the eating of bodies by scavengers. Secular paleontologists have advanced the theory that this group of animals "could have died in a flood." This is not the first time that paleontologists have come to the conclusion that dinosaur fossils were fossilized "at the bottom of an ancient lake or sea" or "in a former riverbed." When seven dinosaur skeletons were found in Patagonia, belonging, as it turned out, to the same species - the Mapusaurus roseae, they did not bear "any traces of the disease, which means that the animals were most likely the victims of some catastrophic event." For the sudden burial of heaps of whoppers like these (up to 12,5 meters), a large-scale disaster was really necessary. Similar finds around the world confirm the biblical cataclysm that swept the entire world (Genesis 6-9, 1 Peter 3:20), with traces of which secular paleontologists (2 Peter 3: 5-6) constantly encounter in their research, but persistently refuse to notice him.

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Jack Horner of Montana State University is one such scientist. He, like no one else, is familiar with the "cemeteries" of dinosaurs. During an expedition to the Mongolian Gobi Desert, he and his group set a new "record" for the discovery of dinosaur remains - 67 skeletons in seven days!

Very often, signs of rapid burial are quite obvious: for example, traces of sauropod in Oxfordshire, Great Britain, which could have survived only in the case of a quick burial. Another example is the remains of an oviraptor with two eggs in a body cavity, found in the Chinese province of Jiangxi. The find clearly indicates that the oviraptor died before it could lay eggs, and was buried quickly, before the eggs could decompose.

Looking for an answer to the question "Why did dinosaurs become extinct?", It may be worth paying attention to the existing facts of sudden burials of dinosaurs!

The Bible really does talk about dinosaurs

Perhaps someone will object: "There is nothing in the Scriptures about dinosaurs!" But the word "dinosaur", coined by Sir Richard Owen, did not appear until 1841. It is clear that it cannot be found in biblical translations that appeared earlier (for example, the traditional English text appeared in the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Geneva Bible and the King James Bibles were printed). However, the Bible gives us a lot of important information about dinosaurs.

  1. The first dinosaur-like creatures were created during creation week about 6 thousand years ago.
  2. Terrestrial lizards (actually dinosaurs) appeared on the sixth day of the creation week, at the same time as man. If there were water lizards, then they were created the day before, along with all waterfowl (plesiosaur) and winged (pterosaur) reptiles.
  3. Before the Fall, there was neither suffering nor death in the world; dinosaurs originally lived side by side with humans and other created animals.
  4. Because of Adam's sin, all creation (including the dinosaurs) was cursed and “enslaved to corruption” (Romans 8:21).
  5. All lung vertebrate land animals (including dinosaurs) that did not get into Noah's Ark drowned during the Flood about 4500 years ago. However, this does not mean that all dinosaurs became extinct, because a couple of each kind entered the Ark.
  6. From the place where the Ark sat down on the ground ("Mountains of Ararat", Genesis 8: 4, present-day Middle East), pulmonary land animals (including dinosaurs) have spread across the Earth.
  7. After the Flood, fear and awe of man seized all animals without exception, and man received permission to eat meat (Genesis 9: 2-4).

Are dragons dinosaurs?

If we apply the biblical time frame to dinosaurs, another question arises. After the Babylonian events, people were scattered throughout the earth (Genesis 11). A man could not but meet dinosaurs on his way?.. Of course he could, and did, and there is strong evidence of that. In Europe, Asia and China, there are many historical documents describing "dragons" that correspond to modern reconstructions of dinosaurs made from fossils. For example, in the English chronicle of 1405: “Not far from the city of Bures, near Sudbury, to the great regret of all the people, a dragon recently appeared, with a huge body, with a comb on its head, with teeth like saw teeth and a tail of incredible length. He killed the shepherd and devoured many sheep."

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Characteristics such as "comb on the head" and "tail of incredible length" testify to the similarity of "dragon" to dinosaurs. In 900 B. C. one Irishman recorded his encounter with a large animal with thick legs and powerful paws, and with "iron nails" along its tail. Perhaps it was a stegosaurus? And copper engravings of the 15th century. at Carlisle Cathedral, UK, along with fish, dogs, pigs, birds and other common animals, they depict monsters that any modern child recognizes as dinosaurs. How did the engraver know what dinosaurs looked like if he lived three hundred years before their fossils were found, described and named after excavation? Is it also clear that not all dinosaurs are extinct?

The answer is obvious: people knew dinosaurs "by sight", because at that time they still lived on Earth. They were as well known to humans as fish, dogs, pigs and birds. Descriptions of "dragons" are found with surprising consistency from Great Britain (the flag of Wales is the image of a dragon) throughout Europe and India, all the way to China. Images of dragons are often found on Chinese pottery, woodwork, embroidery, etc.

Carvings in a Cambodian temple with an image that resembles a stegosaurus. Around 1200 A. D
Carvings in a Cambodian temple with an image that resembles a stegosaurus. Around 1200 A. D

Carvings in a Cambodian temple with an image that resembles a stegosaurus. Around 1200 A. D.

In traditional (full) Chinese writing, the character "dragon" is depicted as an animal: its right element looks like a ridge and a lizard's tail. The Chinese language is also replete with sayings in which dragons are mentioned along with animals that still live today. Moreover, the cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar includes twelve animal symbols. Eleven of them are real-life animals; hence, the twelfth - the dragon - also lived in reality. All these examples confirm that dinosaurs are historical dragons that lived on Earth not so long ago. It is hard to believe, but today everyone thinks that dinosaurs have become extinct a long time ago, but the facts deny this. This evidence contradicts the whole concept of the "era of the dinosaurs", which allegedly existed for millions of years before the appearance of humans,instead, it once again confirms the reliability of the biblical record of the world.

Description of dinosaurs in the Bible

Scripture more than once indirectly speaks of animals that may have been dinosaurs, and the book of Job contains a detailed description of a dinosaur-like creature. A few hundred years after the Flood, God, speaking with Job about His omnipotence, reminded him of one of the largest land animals He created:

The interpreters of the Bible could not determine which beast is called the "hippo" here. He clearly lived in Job's time, otherwise God's reminders would not make sense. Some Bible translators simply transliterated the Hebrew word, "hippopotamus." Others, given the size and strength of the animal, as well as the fact that it is “the top of the ways of God”, believed that this word meant the largest creature on earth, namely an elephant or (given the ability to live in streams or swamps - verses 16- 17) hippopotamus. This was indicated in the notes, and sometimes in the text itself. However, neither the elephant nor the hippo were the largest land animals created by God (the fossils show that dinosaurs were much larger than elephants).

In addition, the tail of the "hippopotamus" was likened to a cedar (verse 17). Is such a comparison suitable for the tails of an elephant and a hippo (Lebanese cedars are huge trees)? But the reconstruction of the Brachiosaurus, made on the basis of the found fossils, is much more consistent with God's description of the hippopotamus from the book of Job.

How did dinosaurs fit into the ark?

Considering the variety of dinosaur species that existed and the enormous size of some of them (for example, the seismosaurus - Seismosaurus - was 40 meters long, judging by the reconstruction based on the remains), the question arises: how did they all fit in Noah's ark? To give the correct answer, you need to take into account several circumstances.

1. There were only about 55 created dinosaur genera

Noah needed to take with him not all kinds of animals ("species" is a category notorious for its uncertainty), but only one pair from each created kind. Dinosaurs were selected according to the same principle. Thus, Noah's ark included not about 668 species of dinosaurs, but only representatives of "genera" (Genesis 6:20), of which, according to estimates, there were only 55. Although people, when they say "dinosaurs", usually imagine huge representatives of ancient dinosaurs, most dinosaurs were relatively small. Compsognathus, for example, was no larger than a chicken. And the size of an average dinosaur did not exceed the size of a small sheep.

2. The ark was huge

According to Genesis 6: 14–16, the ark was far from the small vessel that it is often portrayed as being. It was large enough to accommodate as many animals as needed, including dinosaurs.

3. Only young individuals could enter the ark

But even despite the real enormous size of the Ark, the largest dinosaurs we know would hardly have squeezed through the entrance to it. However, this does not mean that large dinosaurs were not on the ship at all. It would be more logical to take into the ark not "an elderly couple of brachiosaurs", but young individuals of the same genus, which were to reproduce and populate the Earth after the Flood. Consider that God Himself chose pairs of each kind and brought them to the ark (Genesis 6:20), so Noah did not need to “bring” dinosaurs (as, indeed, other animals and birds) to the place. But weren't the “babies” of the huge dinosaurs large?

To date, many dinosaur eggs have been found, the largest of which reaches approximately 50 cm in length. Thus, barely hatching from an egg, the cubs of the largest dinosaurs were less than a meter tall. Scientists studying the growth rings in dinosaur bones found that these reptiles had a "teenage growth spurt."

For example, the imposing size of the Apatosaurus began this leap at about five years of age, weighing only one ton (about as much as a goby). During the growth spurt, the animal gained more than five tons per year, and by the age of 12-13, with a weight of 25 tons, the growth curve leveled off (see diagram). Other dinosaurs - such as the 1,700-kilogram Malasaurus (Maiasaura) or the 20-kilogram Syntarsus and Psittacosaurus - had the same sigmoidal (S-shaped) growth curve.

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The growth rate of the dinosaur, calculated from the annual rings of animals, indicates that young individuals of large dinosaurs could well have accommodated in the ark. God knew which species would grow immediately after they left the ark, and chose them accordingly. This explanation also responds to skepticism about the size and diet of large dinosaurs while in the ark. In short, when dinosaurs were on board, they were small in size. And the growth spurt after leaving the ark allowed them to quickly outgrow those who could hunt them. To summarize, we can say that Noah could easily accommodate dinosaurs of all kinds in the Ark, because:

  1. the average size of most dinosaurs did not exceed the size of a sheep;
  2. even large dinosaurs were small before the growth spurt;
  3. genera of dinosaurs (in comparison with the number of "species") were relatively few - about 55;
  4. the ark was large enough.

Dinosaurs refute the theory of evolution

From the point of view of the theory of evolution, the fossil record was formed slowly and for a long time. But in this case, many of the fossils were clearly "out of place": they do not correspond in any way to the supposed sequential formation of layers from the bottom up, as evolutionists say. Inconsistent fossils also call into question the possibility of dinosaur evolution. Here are some examples.

  1. The bones of a small dinosaur called Psittacosaurus have been found in the stomach of the fossil mammal Repenomamus robustus. This find (along with the remains of a second, very large Repenomamus discovered nearby) fundamentally turned evolutionists' beliefs that mammals of the "age of the dinosaurs" were small, thanks to which they managed to escape from huge reptiles. But creationists were not surprised at all, because according to the Bible, mammals, dinosaurs, and humans all lived at the same time.
  2. Evolutionists' claim that only small mammals such as shrews lived next to dinosaurs was finally disproved when fossils of a beaver-like mammal were found in Inner Mongolia. Evolutionists have determined their age to be 164 million years - that is, according to their own ideas, these animals existed 100 million years before the dinosaurs became extinct.
  3. The rocks in which the bones of extinct dinosaurs are found often contain almost no plant debris. Although, in order to feed, such large herbivorous dinosaurs, such as Brachiosaurus, needed a huge amount of vegetation. However, creationists see no mystery in this. The host rocks are not buried ecosystems of the "age of the dinosaurs," but rocks solidified around the dinosaurs buried during the Flood. It is logical to assume that the dinosaurs tried to escape the incoming waters of the Flood, which the plants could not do; therefore, plants are not buried with animals.
  4. Evolutionary scientists who have found the remains of at least five types of plant food in coproliths (fossilized excrement) of dinosaurs say it came as a complete surprise to them. Indeed, according to the universal scheme of evolution, based on a long "chronology" of the fossil record, grass as such appeared about 55 million years ago - 10 million years after the dinosaurs became extinct. How could ancient reptiles eat what, in theory, did not exist yet?
  5. The common evolutionary hypothesis that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds is largely self-contradicting. Evolutionists themselves argue that the fossils of the "bird-like dinosaurs" are millions of years younger than the famous remains of Archeopteryx, which was a full-fledged flying bird. Even the Confuciusornis fossils - a bird with a real beak - are older than its supposed ancestors.
  6. For secular science, the extinction of dinosaurs now remains an insoluble mystery, to which public attention is drawn. Various evolutionary theories of such extinction have been put forward: mammals appeared that ate dinosaur eggs; new narcotic plants have appeared; it's all to blame for the worldwide cooling - or warming. The most popular was the theory of a meteorite falling, which killed the dinosaurs. But this raises a lot of questions to which there is no answer. For example, the extinction dates of the dinosaurs determined by evolutionists do not coincide with the 22 (determined by them) dates of the crater, while the famous find of iridium in rocks around the world (as stated, the main evidence of a hypothetical collision with a meteorite) raises certain doubts. From a biblical point of view, the "mystery" of the extinction of dinosaurs does not exist. The fossils contained in sedimentary rocks are not a "record" of evolution and disappearance over millions of years, but evidence of mass burials following the Flood.

All genera of birds and land animals (dinosaurs are no exception) escaped in the ark, and after the Flood they repopulated the Earth. Since then, not only dinosaurs have disappeared, but also many other animals - after all, the entire Creation continued to this day continues to be under the consequences of the curse. Dinosaurs, like the dodo bird, are most likely extinct due to human intervention. They either posed a direct threat to human safety, or the resettlement of people on Earth and agricultural activities deprived these creatures of their habitat.

For the same reasons, due to the ongoing human migration since Babylonian times, today tigers, rhinos and elephants are included in the list of endangered species in Southeast Asia. The epic tales of the valiant Indonesian knights killing wandering tigers and elephants are surprisingly similar to the ancient legends of St. George and the dragon, Beowulf and other characters who slay dragons to save people from these "monsters." Someone may doubt: how can you kill a huge dinosaur with a primitive weapon? Nevertheless, whalers managed to kill whales and drag them aboard sailing ships with the help of hand harpoons and coordinated team actions, although whales are much larger than dinosaurs in size.

Likewise, hunters caught and killed large animals using fire, traps, or curare. The drying up of numerous inland seas on continents after the Flood could also contribute to the extinction of dinosaurs. Apparently, they lived near water, like hippos. The drying up of the water bodies deprived these reptiles of a suitable habitat. The rise and fall of the post-Flood Ice Age also made it difficult for dinosaurs to survive. So, the disappearance of dinosaurs is easily explained from a biblical point of view. It is noteworthy that according to the evolutionary interpretation of the fossilized strata, many organisms disappeared millions of years ago, including the coelacanth (which is sometimes also called "dinosaur fish" because it was considered extinct 65 million years ago) and wollemia (or "Jurassic pine") …

Evolutionists were quite surprised when these and many other "living fossils" (or the so-called "lazarev taxa") were discovered today. Creationists were not surprised by these findings. They will not be surprised if in our time someone finds a living dinosaur, somewhere in the dense jungles of the Congo or on the islands of Papua New Guinea. But among the supporters of the theory of evolution, this will cause even more shock than the find of coelacanth and wollemia that have survived to this day.

Dinosaur bones are not millions of years old

Not all dinosaur remains are completely fossilized. The bones of the pangolin were found containing blood cells, hemoglobin, and soft tissue, including blood vessels. Such a find led evolutionists to bewildered: how, then, could the bones found be 65 million years old? Dr. Mary Schweizer, one of the group of scientists who discovered these remains, was intrigued: “If you take a blood sample, put it on a shelf and forget about it, then within a week the blood will change beyond recognition. Why did dinosaur blood survive? " Indeed, why? Maybe because they became extinct not millions of years ago, but underwent a rapid burial only a few thousand years ago, and maybe even later?.. However, evolutionary views are so firmly rooted in the scientific community that Dr. Schweizer, trying to publish their works in scientific journals,experienced "great difficulties":

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Schweizer describes how she sensed a distinctly cadaveric odor emanating from a Tyrannosaurus skeleton (found in the Hell Creek, Montana area). When she told the experienced paleontologist Jack Horner (see above) about this, he replied: "Yes, all the bones from Hell Creek smell the same." The belief in the million-year age of the remains of dinosaurs so dulled the feelings of paleontologists that they did not even think about the possibility of a relatively recent death of the discovered individuals, although evidence of this was right under their very noses. And Mary Schweizer herself, it seems, cannot or does not want to abandon the theory of "million years".

Outcome

Evolutionists find it difficult to refute such overwhelming evidence that their theory is false. Therefore, churches should loudly announce this and appeal to all who believe in evolution and, on this basis, reject the biblical chronology of history - a history that, among other things, speaks of God's intervention in its course for the salvation of a person who rebelled against Him. In the light of the Bible, the "mystery" of dinosaurs ceases to be a mystery.

Here's the Good News

Creation Ministries International seeks to glorify and honor the Creator God, and to assert the truth that the Bible describes the true story of the origin of the world and man. Part of this story is the bad news of Adam's violation of God's command. This brought death, suffering and separation from God into the world. These results are known to everyone. All descendants of Adam are afflicted with sin from the moment of conception (Psalm 50: 7) and share in Adam's disobedience (sin). They can no longer be in the presence of the Holy God and are doomed to be separated from Him. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and that all “will be punished, eternal destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might” (2 Thessalonians 1: 9). But there is good news: God did not remain indifferent to our trouble. “For God so loved the world,that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life”(John 3:16).

Jesus Christ, the Creator, being sinless, took upon Himself the blame for the sins of all mankind and their consequences - death and separation from God. He died on the cross, but on the third day he was resurrected, conquering death. And now everyone who sincerely believes in Him, repents of their sins and relies not on themselves, but on Christ, can return to God and remain in eternal communion with their Creator. “He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). Wonderful is our Savior, and wonderful is salvation in Christ, our Creator!

David Catchpool