Imagine trawling for fish and when you pull up your nets you find a massive bone or a huge tooth along with your catch. For over 100 years fishermen in the North Sea between Britain and Denmark have found such items in their nets but it wasn’t until the 1980s that their value, monetarily and... Continue Reading →
Juvenile Dinosaurs Found Huddling in a Nest: A Local or Global Catastrophe?
We live in a new golden age of fossil discoveries. It seems that every week a new and dramatic fossil find is revealed. This fossil renaissance can be attributed to the opening up of new fossil sources, particularly China and Mongolia but also South America and to improved technology for retrieving and analyzing fossil remains.... Continue Reading →
A Tale of Taphonomy: Clam Shrimp Fossils and the Age of the Earth
One of the great privileges of my job is that I get to participate on committees of graduate students. This allows me to get up close and personal with data from sub-disciplines of biology that often extend far from those of my particular expertise. You know by now that I carry a particular fondness for... Continue Reading →
Desert Varnish: A Crude Marker of the Passage of Time
Anyone who has spent time in a desert has probably noticed many dark streaks or patches on the rocks. I expect that most people simply look at these dark streaks and think they are simply stains like a stain on a cement driveway or that line of rust color running down a wall from a... Continue Reading →
Rapid Burial Allows Preservation of a Hadrosaur Fleshy Head Comb
A mummified fossil of common species of hadrosaur was found recently in South Dakota that showed that this particular hadrosaur had a rooster-like fleshy comb on its head. Many hadrosaurs have exotic extensions of their cranial bones but this evidence that even the “boring” hadrosaurs had fleshy projections suggests that the hadrosaurs were an even... Continue Reading →
Cosmogenic Dating Methods Allow Estimates of Erosion Rates on Mars
Just how fast are some rocks on Mars eroding? A few months ago I asked a Martian rock that question (see: My Interview with a Martian: A Story of Origins) and I was not given a very satisfying answer. Well, that rock can be excused for being a bit confused about time given how boring... Continue Reading →
Piles of Fossil Poo: Providing a Peek into the Past
One headline reads “Giant Prehistoric Toilet Found” another refers to the discovery of an ancient latrine. Don’t know how I missed those a few weeks ago. Surely had I seen that headline I would have had to clicked on it to find out what that was all about. The actual title, The oldest known communal latrines... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: Inverted Valleys – A Question of Age
Inverted valleys formed from lava "rivers" and ancient stream beds are one of many unusual geological phenomena found in Utah. The rocks speak in Utah and they speak very clearly because they readily reveal so many clues about their origins since they are so visible to us. Some of the most powerful testimonies of... Continue Reading →
My Interview with a Martian: A Story of Origins
Everything has an origin.* Some stories of origins are relatively simple (eg. Niagara Falls) while others are much more complex (eg. the Grand Canyon). The study of origins is the study and reconstruction of past events. We have eyewitness accounts of some events from the past but mostly we use circumstantial evidence left behind as... Continue Reading →
Dinosaurs, Dragons and Ken Ham: The Literal Reality of Mythological Creatures
Image you are living in 200 BC in the Middle East region and you come by the skull to the right as you plow your field or when you explore the local cave complex. What if you are wandering the desert in Egypt and happen upon the bones in the second figure. Or what about... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: Dino Doo-Doo (Coprolites) and the Genesis Flood
Yep, dinosaurs are known by more than just their bones. I have been reading quite a few research papers about dinosaurs as I prepare to write a long set of posts about Dr. Schweitzer and the significance of soft-tissue preservation in dinosaur bones. During this reading I got distracted by a discussion about dinosaur coprolites... Continue Reading →
Reflections on the 2013 PCA General Assembly and the Age of the Earth
Dr. Jason Lisle of the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) gave a seminar entitled “Astronomy Reveals Creation” at this year’s PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) General Assembly. Some billed this as the young-earth follow-up to a seminar given at previous year's PCA assembly by Dr. Greg Davidson who presented evidence supportive of an ancient earth.... Continue Reading →
The YDB Event: The Most Recent Global Catastrophe in Human History?
Remember the meteor that exploded over Russia earlier this year? A 50 foot diameter object exploded 14 miles above the surface of the earth and created a shock wave that injured 1500 people and damaged more than 7000 buildings. Despite the drama, the lasting effects on the earth were minimal and only small pieces of the meteorite made it to the surface of the earth.
Implications of Artifacts and Bones on Ancient Human Butchery Practices
A recently published study is making news the last couple of days. It regards evidence obtained from remains of preserved bones of human scavenging and/or hunting practices. The site of the dig is a hillside in southern Kenya where, in less than an acre, more than 3700 fossils and more than 2000 artifacts have been recovered... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: Answers in Genesis and a Mountain of Extraterrestrial Dust
How long would it take for falling dust to accumulate into a mound 2 1/2 miles tall? Answers in Genesis has commented (Wind, not water, may have built the Martian Mount Sharp) over the weekend on the same research article that I referenced in my post last week (NH Notes: Did Wind and Dust Create a... Continue Reading →