Despairing, Drowning Dinos

Today we’re going to examine a study of Alberta’s dinosaurs. Go ahead and click on this link (it opens in a new tab) to follow along:

Alberta scientists discover largest bed of dinosaur bones

Centrosaurus skull

I first ran into this report on another site with too many ads to pass on. I wish you could see the amazing drawing they had at the top, though. It showed 3 centrosauruses struggling to keep their open mouths above water with no bottom in sight. If you’re an artist, I’d love to post a similar picture, but I’ve never drawn a dino in my life. If I try now, you’d all think they were cows. 😀

OK, here we go:

• The bone bed is near Hilda, AB. Where is that? Scroll out on this MAP to find out. South of ________ North of ___________ on the border of ________

• Although the article is accurate on the 2.3 square km [.88 square miles], the Canadian Encyclopedia says the bones of 1,000s of individuals are packed into even smaller areas inside this space. What does this tell you about the bones?________________________

• They say the bones prove the dinosaurs lived in herds. Do they really know this?

A factual statement would be, “the Hilda site provides the first solid evidence that some horned dinosaurs were buried in large groups.” We can make guesses (and this could be a good one), but all we really know is where they ended up before we dug out the bones.

Tropical Storm Hilda

Let’s look at what David Eberth tells us. Isn’t it amazing how he recognizes there was a catastrophe here? Geologists have refused to see catastrophes until they have no other choice for two hundred years. These dinosaurs were buried in such a way he had to admit something terrible happened. Trying to explain all features of geology using every day processes is called __________________.

Do we really know they were “routinely wiped out” as he says? Could another scientist say they were buried within hours or days of each other?

Which seems more likely to you:

1. Dinosaurs who survived a bad storm moved back to the same area only to be swept away again and again and again. ___
2. All the dinosaurs were wiped out at the same time and buried in slightly different places and sedimentary layers. ___

Did you catch the event they believe wiped out these dinosaurs? What elements do you have to make a tropical storm? Find out HERE

So you have to have _________ heated above ____c (convert to Fahrenheit HERE), which cause a lot of ________  and ________.

I’m going to copy the best paragraph from our article:

Rather than picturing the animals as drowning while crossing a river, a classic scenario that has been used to explain bonebed occurrences at many sites in Alberta, the research team interpreted the vast coastal landscape as being submerged during tropical storms or hurricanes.

What does this tell us? Before 2010, scientists tried to say the dinosaurs were drowned while ________________.

Was this explanation rare or popular? _____________

Did it fit the facts? _______

The article tells us the water receded and the bones got “trampled and smashed” by scavengers. Does this mean there had to be many years between storms?

One common false belief about Noah’s Flood is to think it smoothly rose to cover the world in 40 days and then smoothly retreated. The Bible doesn’t say anything close! Have a look at Genesis 7:16-24. How many days after the Flood started was the whole world under water? ____________

Did this leave time for other hungry creatures to come back and trample these bones? ___________

The last paragraph tells us other animals were able to escape drowning in this storm. Do they know this really happened, or are they assuming they escaped because they weren’t buried there?

To the east, lots of ocean creatures (cool pictures) have been found including a number of very big ones. To the west, mammal and bird fossils have been found. Maybe, they were all buried within a little while in different locations.

Which do you think more likely:

• Long years between burials ___
• Different creatures were buried at different heights by the same global storm ___

For extra credit: The dates they give for fossils are based on how many known rock layers are above them and Radiometric Dating. Understanding those two things is key to paleontology.

The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
 For he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Psalm 24:1,2

More articles:

Answers in Genesis: Triceratops Tally up to Four in New Wyoming Dinosaur Graveyard Sept. 2, 2013