A common question I get (and a good question at that) is “What killed the dinosaurs?” Again, ignoring the assumption for now that the dinosaurs are, in fact, extinct, we do know that we find fossilized dinosaurs probably numbering in the millions. What killed them all?
There are multiple hypotheses:
- They were run over by prehistoric tractor trailers
- Asteroid impact
- Great flood
- Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris has denied any involvement in the death of the dinosaurs, and we find no evidence of prehistoric tractor trailers alongside the dinosaurs (i.e., fossil tire tracks).
Conventional interpretation is that it was an asteroid. This is based on what is called the K/T boundary, a thin layer that supposedly marks the time when this alleged asteroid hit. This thin layer contains a mineral called iridium, which is found in meteors and asteroids. First, there are problems with this theory that the iridium was from an asteroid: There is iridium found in layers both above, and below the K/T boundary. So were there multiple asteroid strikes? Why didn’t those asteroids kill the dinosaurs? Secondly, in January of 2011, a team of scientists from the University of Alberta showed that (according to the evolutionary timescale) some dinosaurs had survived 700,000 years after the alleged asteroid impact!
Third, it turns out Iridium is expelled in large quantities from volcanoes. Fourth, the evidence from the dinosaurs just plain doesn’t support the asteroid theory. Let’s look at the actual evidence. This is a photograph from Dinosaur National Monument, in Utah:
You can see that there are lots of dinosaur bones, but they’re all detached from each other.
The dinosaurs have been ripped apart, their bones all mixed together, and then buried. What would do this? I show even more details in “God’s Little Creation” (a children’s creation seminar) starting at 36:47:
When one actually digs dinosaurs, the evidence becomes obvious. For example, we find closed clams buried with the dinosaurs. Clams that were buried alive!
In fact, taking a tour through the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller, Alberta (a must-see!), you will notice that over and over again, they say things like “This dinosaur drowned in a flood.” “This herd of dinosaurs were killed trying to cross a raging river.” “This dinosaur died in a flash flood.”
The evidence is overwhelming that the fossil dinosaurs we find were killed in a flood.
And when one looks at the size of these formations that contain dinosaurs, you can quickly see that this was no meandering river – it was a catastrophic flood of global proportions.
It would seem obvious, by the evidence that is was a global flood that killed the dinosaurs we find. I would suggest this is the flood of Noah, documented in the book of Genesis, in the Bible.