Catastrophic Dinosaur Deposit

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Catastrophic dinosaur deposit found according to BBC News and news@nature, 7 June 2006 and Nature, vol. 441, p739, 8 June 2006. Sauropods were enormous long-necked, four-legged dinosaurs that grew to be as long as 27m (88 ft). Palaeontologists in Germany have found bones of a small dinosaur that seems to be a miniature version of monster sauropods. They have named it Europasaurus holgeri. The bones were from at least 10 individuals, the largest of which would have been 6.2m long (20.3 ft). Initially the scientists thought that the dinosaurs were juveniles but when they examined the bones under a microscope they found the bone layer structure was like that of adult dinosaurs, but the layers were smaller. The researchers suggest that the animals lived on small islands and had evolved to be small in order to survive in an environment with scarce resources. In the supplementary information provided on the Nature website the researchers describe the rock layer where the fossils were found as: "Bed 93 is a carbonate mudstone, which near the bone accumulation contains large intraclasts (max. 200 cm3). Scarce other vertebrate remains from the bone accumulation pertain to fishes, atoposaurid crocodiles, pterosaurs, turtles, and theropod dinosaurs. Gastropods and bivalves are the macroinvertebrate component, and foraminifera and ostracodes are most common in the microfossil fraction. Other microfauna components are characean gyrogonites, fish teeth and sponge remains." They go on to claim, "The sauropod carcasses were probably transported by a river from the island into the sea and came to rest in the shallow, low-energy marine environment. The localized nature of the bone accumulation suggest that all the bones were accumulated in a single catastrophic event."


Editorial Comment: Small dinosaurs have been found in the past and always appear to be fully formed separate kinds, so these new specimens are no help to the theory of evolution. If they had shrunk from larger species then they are the result of a degenerative change, either to their environment or themselves - again no help to evolution. The comments about the sediment in which they were buried show that in spite of an overall belief in slow gradual processes, evolutionists are prepared to admit that these fossils were buried in "a single catastrophic event" that resulted in land dwelling animals such as dinosaurs and pterosaurs being buried amongst sea creatures. This is actually the norm for dinosaurs, as most dinos we have investigated have been buried in sediments containing masses of shells and other sea creatures which is exactly what you would expect if a catastrophic flood swept over all the land surfaces, picked up any land dwelling animals, mixed them with sea creatures and then dumped them all together. Vast amounts of time are a popular belief, but the fossil record does not show it. (Ref. catastrophe, dinosaurs, flood)  

Evidence News 24th June 2006