Living Fossils

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The claim by young earth creationists is that these living fossils are proof that the earth is young. The reasoning is that considering that all organisms were alive only 4,300 years ago, prior to the time that they date the Flood of Noah, then it is affordable earth dog to assume that they are st...

No doubt you have heard the claims from young earth creationists about living fossils. A "living fossil" is an organism that is thought to have been extinct, and then it shows up alive on planet earth.

The claim by young earth creationists is that these living fossils are proof that the earth is young. The reasoning is that since all organisms were alive only four,300 years ago, just before the time that they date the Flood of Noah, then it is sensible to assume that they are nonetheless alive right now.

I am positive every person is conscious of the most famous living fossil, the coelacanth, the fish believed to be extinct 65 million years ago. In 1938, a specimen was caught off the coast of South Africa, and since then many a lot more have been caught and examined. In addition to the coelacanth, Answers in Genesis offers a number of examples in the articles linked above.

Determining an Organism's Life Span

How is a fossil's life range is determined? When an organism is located in the fossil record, paleontologists appear for the oldest and youngest specimen to decide it's life range. For instance, if the oldest specimen of a species of dinosaur is in a rock formation dated in the course of the Berrasian Age of the early Cretaceous, then the earliest this dinosaur existed is about 140 million years ago (140 Ma). If the youngest instance of this very same species is from the Turonian Age of the Late Cretaceous, then it died out about 90 million years ago. Hence, the dinosaur is mentioned to have lived from 140 to 90 Ma.

Immediately after this date range is published, an additional sample of this dinosaur is unearthed in a rock bed dated to the Santonian Age of the Late Cretaceous. Does this imply the earlier dates had been incorrect...naturally. But the incorrect dates were not based on guesswork, but on a lack of complete evidence. Now, this dinosaur's lifespan is mentioned to be earth dog from 140 to 84 Ma.

Scientists make this type of adjustment all the time. New fossils are identified, extending the known lifespan of the organism because of new fossil discoveries.

There is no trick or deception on the part of the scientist...he/she is merely interpreting the accessible evidence to reach a conclusion.

What occurs when a fossil species is found to be alive, such as the coelacanth? It is identified lifespan is extended...that is it! It doesn't' imply the earth is young, it doesn't even provide great evidence for a young earth. For the coelacanth, its lifespan was extended from 400-65 million years ago to 400 Ma to the present. Nothing further can be implied from this information.

In the case of our dinosaur, if it was located alive nowadays, naturally the young earth creationists would claim it is a living fossil. The true scientific globe would merely adjust its lifespan to 140 Ma to the present. There would be no panic in the scientific world...they would not wonder if the earth really is only 6,000 years earth dog old. The rest of the evidence clearly indicates an old earth, and one particular living dino would not contradict that.

The presence of a living fossil in no way is evidence for a young earth. Yes, there are fossils that occasionally turn up living, but there are millions a lot more which are lengthy gone, which went extinct millions of years ago, and there is no evidence they are alive right now. As a result, we have millions of extinct species, and a handful of so-called "living fossils" which have a gap of millions of years in the fossil record. The evidence strongly supports millions of years of extinction, and an old earth.

When a "living fossil" is found, YECs naturally jump on it and proclaim it as proof of a young earth. Even so, when they grasp at this one particular straw and bring consideration to it, they are ignoring the 50 foot tall haystack from where it came from.