Poor Swimming Dinosaurs

“Poor-swimming” Dinosaurs are Not as Rare as Oard (2011) Claims and Their Remains are Fatal to his “Briefly Exposed Diluvial Sediments” (BEDS) Flood Geology Scenario

Kevin R. Henke, Ph.D.

December 24, 2016

Introduction

As a young-Earth creationist (YEC), Oard (2011) argues that all of the dinosaurs outside of Noah’s ark died in the Flood of Genesis 6-9, which YECs typically believe occurred about 4,500 years ago (e.g., Snelling 2009a, pp. 613, 862, 898). Most YECs admit that dinosaur remains are too far in the middle of the sedimentary rock (“Flood”) record to be pre-Flood or post-Flood. That is, Oard (2011, pp. 113-116) and other YECs recognize that there are often large volumes of Paleozoic and other sedimentary rocks underneath dinosaur-bearing rocks and that there is good evidence that large volumes of sediments and sedimentary rocks once covered a lot of dinosaur-bearing rocks that now crop out on the Earth’s surface. In response to some of the many challenges to Flood geology, Oard (2011) developed the Briefly Exposed Diluvial Sediments (BEDS) scenario.

Probably because of their heavy armor and other body parts, Oard (2011, pp. 93, 122) identifies stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratopsian dinosaurs, including the famous Triceratops, as “poor swimmers.” However, based on track and other evidence, Romano and Whyte (2015) suggest that at least one stegosaur knew how to swim. So, the superficial judgements on the swimming abilities of these dinosaurs in Oard (2011, pp. 93, 122) may be all wet. Nevertheless, it’s doubtful that any land dwelling animal would be able to swim very far during the worldwide 40-day downpour and associated volcanic eruptions, meteorite impacts, tsunamis, and other catastrophes that YECs imagine. So, how did stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratopsian dinosaurs avoid burial in thick underlying Paleozoic sediments and manage to get buried in the middle of the “Flood sediments” with all of the other dinosaurs? If BEDS were true, we would have expected paleontologists to find at least one dinosaur bone or egg in a Paleozoic or Precambrian rock by now.

If these dinosaurs could not swim through the Flood, then Mr. Oard’s only options are to argue that: 1) their carcasses floated and were all miraculously deposited in the middle Flood sediments or 2) living individuals somehow found vegetative mats that were thick enough to support their weights and that they sailed to a BEDS, where they died and were buried. The idea that large numbers of dead ankylosaurs, stegosaurs, and ceratopsians all had enough decay gases to allow them to float over rapidly depositing Paleozoic sediments seems utterly absurd. The claim that large numbers of heavy dinosaurs could float on vegetative mats is also preposterous. Although the idea of “floating forests” before and during Noah’s Flood are popular with Snelling (2009a, p. 962) and many other YECs, YEC Clarey (2015a; 2015b; 2016) persuasively argues against the existence of these floating forests. Clarey (2015a) argues that: 1) massive floating forests would not have been able to maintain suitably large enough freshwater lens to support plant life; 2) tsunamis and other early Flood catastrophes would have broken up the floating forests and the resulting coal beds would have been distributed throughout the Paleozoic record and not just limited to the Carboniferous and later deposits as observed in the actual record; and 3) the floating forest claim is inconsistent with the distribution of coals in the geologic record along the Atlantic coasts.

Meanwhile, Oard (2011, pp. 93, 122) attempts to argue that the poor swimming abilities of stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratopsians “explains” why so few of them and their tracks are found in the geologic record. Yet, how rare are the fossils of these “poor-swimming” dinosaurs and does their presence support BEDS and other forms of Flood geology?

Ceratopsian, Ankylosaur and Stegosaur are not that Rare

Because natural processes rarely entomb the entire corpses of large animals, the remains of ceratopsian, ankylosaur and stegosaur dinosaurs are more likely to be skeletal fragments. Yet, in a world full of sedimentary rocks, various remains of ceratopsians have been found in the Cretaceous rocks of Alberta, North Dakota, Montana, Utah, Texas, China, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, South Korea, and elsewhere (e.g., Fiorillo 1991a). Stegosaurian fossils occur in Utah (Bilbey 1998), the Morrison Formation of the Rocky Mountain states (Christiansen and Tschopp 2010; Foster 2013), China (Xing et al. 2015), Europe (Foster 2013, p. 2), Tanzania (Redelstorff et al. 2013), Argentina (Pereda-Suberbiola et al. 2013), and in other locations. Ankylosaur remains have been found in a number of locations, including: Romania (Benton et al. 1997, p. 283), the Artic of Alaska (Herman et al. 2016, p. 319), in several places in North America, the United Kingdom (Sweetman and Insole 2010), and James Ross Island off the coast of Antarctica (Benton 1991, p. 29). Some intact ankylosaur fossils and possible tracks are also present in the Djadokhta Formation of Mongolia (Dingus et al. 2008, p. 19; Loope et al. 1998, p. 28).

Even if ankylosaur and other dinosaur carcasses could somehow float during Noah’s Flood, the problems for BEDS do not end there. For example, why is it that floating ankylosaur carcasses consistently washed ashore on BEDS in areas as widely separated as Mongolia, the United Kingdom and North America, but only with other dinosaurs and animals that geologists consider Cretaceous? Why didn’t any of the ankylosaurs wash ashore with the carcasses of elephants or people? Why didn’t any of the ankylosaurs wash onto the sands of the vast Ordovician St. Peters Sandstone that covers much of the United States? How did Noah’s Flood manage to consistently keep dinosaurs together and separated from all elephants, Pennsylvanian coal deposits, Permian reptiles and humans on various continents? Where did ankylosaurs or other poor swimming dinosaurs take refuge during the early Flood before they were killed and buried? If YECs want to claim that fossil assemblages are actually well-mixed and defy biological evolution, they have the burden of evidence to find examples of in-situ dinosaur remains in the Paleozoic or mixed with elephant, human or other “out-of-place” fossils. So far, all of their efforts have been complete failures (for several examples, look here).

Tracks from Likely Poor Swimmers

Another fatal problem for BEDS is the presence of ankylosaur, stegosaur, and other “poor swimming” dinosaur tracks in the geologic record, which indicate that these animals were alive when the middle portion of the supposed Flood sediments were deposited. As usual, actualism (modern uniformitarianism) involving natural processes and biological evolution over an extended period of time provides good explanations for the distribution of these fossils in the geologic record, but BEDS and other forms of Flood geology cannot. Dinosaurs simply had not yet evolved in the Precambrian and Paleozoic.

After arguing on Oard (2011, p. 86) that dinosaur tracks are difficult to associate with particular types of dinosaurs, Oard (2011, p. 93) cites Lockley (1991) and claims that stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ceratopsian and other “poor swimming” dinosaurs rarely left tracks in the geologic record. So, how does Mr. Oard know that these dinosaurs rarely left tracks in the geologic record when he previously claimed that dinosaur tracks are difficult to associate with a particular type of dinosaur? In reality, paleontologists only know that the tracks of certain dinosaurs are rare (as examples: stegosaurs in Mateus and Milán 2010 and ceratopsians in Lockley 1991, p. 59) because through careful studies they have had some success in associating these tracks with specific groups of dinosaurs. Otherwise, the tracks of stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ceratopsian, and other “poor-swimming” dinosaurs could be relatively common in the geologic record, but indistinguishable.

Although Oard (2011, p. 93) quotes Lockley (1991) as a source for the claim that stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, ceratopsian and other “poor swimming” dinosaurs rarely left tracks in the geologic record, he does not provide any page numbers. Lockley (1991, p. 59) claims without referencing or explanation, that ceratopsians rarely left tracks because they preferred to walk on hard substrates, which would not preserve footprints. Nevertheless, ceratopsian tracks have been found at several different levels in the Laramie beds of Colorado along with the tracks of theropod and duckbill dinosaurs (Lockley 1991, p. 100). Other, mostly isolated, ceratopsian tracks may have been found at other locations (Lockley 1991, p. 59).

Stegosaurian footprints were discovered and identified in the Brushy Basin Member of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation in San Juan County, Utah, USA (Milán and Chiappe 2009). Stegosaurian tracks have also been found in the Upper Jurassic Lourinhã Formation in Portugal (Mateus et al. 2011). Possible stegosaurian tracks are present in the Vega Formation of northern Spain, although their existence needs to be confirmed (Gutierrez and Shelton 2012, pp. 606-607). Christiansen and Tschopp (2010) found skin impressions from a stegosaur in the Morrison Formation in Wyoming, USA. The impressions are associated with the remains of the stegosaur Hesperosaurus mjosi. Tree logs blocked the carcasses during heavy flooding and allowed them to be rapidly buried (Christiansen and Tschopp (2010, p. 164). The condition of the specimen indicates partial burial initially and full burial later (Christiansen and Tschopp 2010, p. 165).

Again, where did these stegosaurs or other dinosaurs take refuge during the early Flood before the Vega, Morrison or Lourinhã formations were deposited? How did they find their way to a BEDS? How did they swim through the catastrophic deposition of Paleozoic sediments or happen to find floating vegetation mats that could support their weights? Why weren’t they killed and buried in Paleozoic or Precambrian sediments? Altogether, the chemical, mineralogical, fossil and other evidence from the Vega, Lourinhã, Morrison and many other formations refute the far-fetched BEDS scenario and supports actualism. It is far more probable that YEC interpretations of Genesis are wrong than BEDS being real.

References

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