Re: Home-schoolers find intact dinosaur skeleton

From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Tue May 21 2002 - 16:56:31 EDT

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    A few other difficulties:

    >"Most people do not realize that there is a tremendous paucity of
    >dinosaur bones available to scientists," said Phillips. "Ninety-five
    >percent of all the fossils in the world are marine invertebrates; 95
    >percent of the remaining 5 percent are plants. The vast majority of
    >the rest of the fossil record are fish and insects. Only a fraction
    >of a percent of the remaining fossil record includes land
    >vertebrates, and those finds usually consist of less than one bone.
    >To find a complete allosaur is simply historic."<

    Actually, by number the vast majority of fossils are marine protists.
    The relatively small proportion of land vertebrates is correct;
    however, this still includes very large numbers of some species,
    including a handful of dinosaurs. However, the actual point of his
    statement is correct; a complete skeleton is generally noteworthy.

    >"a catastrophic event. Not only was this fully articulated dinosaur
    >found lying in a bed of leaves and plant debris, but there is wood
    >from trees mixed in among the bones, some of which contains
    >petrified and unpetrified elements in the same piece of wood. If
    >this creature were millions of years old, the evidence would look
    >quite different."<

    It does not require a catastrophe (except possibly from the viewpoint
    of the individual allosaur) to produce a pile with a carcasse and
    plant remains. A combination of petrified and unpetrified wood tells
    nothing about the age of the sample.

    >"Up to now, a well-funded and insular community of evolutionary
    >theorists have dominated the field of paleontology, directing most
    >of the large dinosaur finds to research and museums committed to
    >interpreting the fossil evidence through the faith-driven
    >assumptions of evolution," said Phillips.<

    Well-funded and paleontology is an incongruous juxtaposition,
    although dinosaurs tend to attract big donors. (Upkeep of the
    specimens, however, does not). The conspiracy theory attitude is
    problematic, but Phillips is not identified as having any scientific
    credentials and so is probably simply relying on his sources.

    > "To have a dinosaur of this size and significance within the camp
    >of scientists committed to the creation model is nothing short of a
    >coup d'etat."<

    "THE creation model" is highly problematic.
    "biblical creationism" likewise makes an unwarrented claim to high ground.

         Dr. David Campbell
         Old Seashells
         University of Alabama
         Biodiversity & Systematics
         Dept. Biological Sciences
         Box 870345
         Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 USA
         bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com

    That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted
    Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at
    Droitgate Spa



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