Claim CC363:
Fossilization requires rapid burial, or the organism will decay. This
suggests that a catastrophe is responsible for fossils.
Source:
Whitcomb, John C. Jr. and Henry M. Morris, 1961. <#The Genesis Flood#>.
Philadephia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., pp. 128-129.
Response:
- Bones can survive for over a year before being buried. Shells can last
decades or even centuries. In fact, some fossils that have been eroded
or encrusted or bored by other animals have been found, showing that
long times passed before they were buried, and discrediting
catastrophic burial. Only soft tissues need to be preserved quickly.
- Rapid burial is not necessary for rapid preservation. Fossils can also
be preserved by falling in a peat bog or on an anoxic lake bottom,
areas where decay is slow or nonexistent. Other fossils are preserved
in tree sap, which can become amber over time.
- Rapid burial is common as a result of processes that are local
catastrophes or that can scarcely be considered catastrophes at all,
such as
- burial in sediments in a river delta
- burial in sediments from a local river flood
- burial in a small landslide, as along an eroded stream bank
- burial in ash from a volcano
- burial in a blown sand dune
- Patterns of fossilization are consistent with noncatastrophic
processes such as those mentioned above. Fossilization occurs as a
result of all those different processes, not as a result of a single
catastrophe. And it occurs where we would expect on the basis of
commonplace processes. Bison fossils, for example, are found in active
floodplains, not in upland areas.
Links:
Littleton, Keith, 2002. Fish fossils.
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/postmonth/sep02.html
created 2003-7-23
