‘Unique’ two-headed reptile fossil
by David Catchpoole
For copyright reasons we are unable to display here the original image of the two-headed
reptile fossil published in Creation magazine.
Having two heads rather than one is a developmental abnormality which occurs with
some frequency in living reptiles, especially snakes1,2 and
turtles. But the two-headed aquatic reptile shown here is the first such vertebrate
fossil ever found—‘unique in the fossil record’.3
Except for its two heads and two necks, it is similar ‘in every respect’3
to many other fossil specimens of the same species, a long-necked aquatic diapsid,4 commonly found at the same
locality.5 Also in common
with many other specimens from the same rock formation is its ‘extreme apparent
juvenility’ when it was fossilized—note the proportionally large head,
with very large orbits (eye cavities). Further, this species of diapsid could exceed
1 metre (3 ft) in length when adult, but the juvenile specimens (including this
malformed individual) are all less than 9 cm (4 in) long. In fact, the researchers
say that ‘the curled-up attitude of some of the specimens suggests that they
were still in an embryonic position when they became fossilized.’3
There are two key points to note. First, this in no way is evidence of evolution,
as even diehard evolutionists admit in relation to living two-headed reptiles, as
there is no new genetic information involved in making an extra head.1
Second, the ‘good’3 preservation of the malformed and normal
juvenile specimens as fossils speaks of rapid burial, in an unusual
event. (We do not generally see reptiles being fossilized ‘in an embryonic
position’ today!) Considering the vast numbers of well-preserved plants and
animals found as fossils all over the world, this latest fossil discovery once again
points to the reality of a worldwide catastrophe that buried organisms in abundance—consistent
with the global Flood of Noah’s day described in Genesis 6–9.
So the two-headed diapsid fossil is only about 4,500 years old, not over 65 million
years as the evolutionary paleontologists claim.6
And its two-headedness shows that in the post-Fall world by the time of the Flood,
defects (just as we have today) had come into existence—in stark contrast
to the original world that God declared to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31), only around 6,000 years ago, in which there
were no such defects.7
Related articles
References and notes
- Wieland, S., Too close for comfort,
Creation 29(1):56, 2006; <creation.com/twoheads>.
Return to text.
- ‘About 400 cases of two-headed snakes have been recorded
in modern times.’ Two-headed reptile fossil found, BBC News, <news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6195345.stm>,
20 December 2006. Return to text.
- Buffetaut, E., et al., A two-headed reptile
from the Cretaceous of China, Biology Letters 3(1):80–81,
2007. Return to text.
- Known under two contending names of Sinohydrosaurus lingyuanensis
and Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis. Ref. 3. Return to text.
- The Yixian Formation at Wanfuotang, Liaoning Province. The
researchers (ref. 3.) are aware that faked fossils from Liaoning have been reported
(see, e.g., Sarfati, J., Archaeoraptor—Phony
‘feathered’ fossil, <creation.com/archaeoraptor>, 2000),
but have discounted forgery in this case, as ‘the condition of the fossil
and the surrounding matrix excludes any tampering (in particular, the slab bearing
the fossil shows no cracks or evidence of gluing), and there is no doubt that the
specimen is genuine.’ Return to text.
- See: Young age of Earth and Universe Q&A;
<creation.com/young>. Return to text.
- So this two-headed reptile fossil is yet another demonstration
that Christian compromise with secular dating is untenable—see also <creation.com/rc-intro>. Return to text.
| The thousands of fully searchable articles on this site are accessed daily by thousands of people. If even a fraction of those thousands of people gave a small amount regularly, we could dramatically increase our outreach!  | | |
|
