Dinosaurs, humans and the fossil record

by Daniel Anderson

Published: 10 April 2007 (GMT+10)

Photo Smithsonian Institute, Wikipedia.org

Laonastes aenigmamus or Laotian rock rat

According to the Bible, God created land animals and human beings on the sixth day about 6,000 years ago. This means that dinosaurs, Adam and Eve coexisted in the Garden of Eden at the very beginning of creation. However, evolutionists often mock and ridicule the biblical account because of an absence of evidence in the fossil record. In other words, because human and dinosaur bones have never been discovered together in the same sedimentary strata, they could not have lived contemporaneously. However, three specific examples illustrate the error of this logic, and provide positive evidence for the credibility of the biblical account.

Coelacanth

Paleontologists believed that coelacanths went extinct about 65 million years ago. However, in 1938, fishermen off the coast of South Africa found them alive and well. By evolutionary logic, coelacanths have coexisted with a multitude of other sea creatures for the last 65 million years; yet, the fossil record is silent. In addition, coelacanths and humans continue to coexist even though their fossil bones have never been discovered together.

Tuatara

Native to New Zealand, this beakhead lizard supposedly went extinct about 135 million years ago. For the last 135 million years on the evolutionary timeline, not a single Tuatara fossil has ever been discovered.¹ Therefore, for the last 135 million years the Tuatara has coexisted with a number of other animals, yet the fossil record bears no record. Tuataras and humans continue to coexist even though their fossil bones have never been discovered together.

Rock rat

Just recently, scientists were shocked to discover that the Laotian rock rat was alive and well in the jungles of Laos. Based on the fossil record, this type of rodent was believed to have gone extinct about 11 million years ago.² Once again, the rock rat has coexisted with many other creatures without the fossil record bearing witness. In addition, this small rodent lives with humans today, yet their fossil bones have never been discovered next to human bones.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of creature coexistence not being documented by the fossil record. Although human and dinosaur fossils have never been discovered together, this in no way refutes the biblical account. Fossilization is a rare event in which vertebrates such as dinosaurs and humans comprise less than 0.0125% of the entire fossil record.³ In the case of the coelacanth, tuatara, and rock rat, observational evidence demonstrates that creatures can easily coexist without leaving a record of such coexistence in the fossil record.

1. Sodera, V., One Small Speck to Man. p. 36. Return to Text.
2. Retired professor captures a ‘living fossil’—Laotian rock rat once believed to have gone extinct. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060614090123.htm. 14 June 2006. See also: The ‘Lazarus effect’: Rodent ‘Resurrection’! Creation 29(2):52–55, 2007. Return to Text.
3. Morris, J.D., The Young Earth, Master Books, p. 70, 1994. Return to Text.