Changing the way we look at the world
Dinosaur eggs and nests
Dinosaur eggs and nests are found the world over, but I will highlight two published reports on locations in Spain and Korea.
Boseong, Korea
In 2004, Paik, Huh, & Kim published a paper in the Journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, with the title: Dinosaur egg-bearing deposits (Upper Cretaceous) of Boseong, Korea: occurrence, palaeoenvironments, taphonomy, and preservation. They described Upper Cretaceous deposits with clutches of eggs in six “horizons” of mudstone and sandy-mudstone. These deposits are considered to be terminal fan deposits from a river delta.
There is an abundance of channel deposits with erosive bases showing that fluvial action was involved in their deposition. The upwards-fining units, which occur repeatedly within Boseong egg deposits, may form in various alluvial environments such as alluvial fan, braided river, and meandering river. The eggs were found 5 to 10 cm below flood deposits suggesting that they were laid in excavated nests, which were later covered with sediment.
The eggs are preserved in “palaesols” (fossil soil). There are no marine fossils mixed with the eggs and this is consistent with continental deposits. Furthermore, the nature of the deposits suggests that the climate of the nested area was semi-arid.
The lack of displacement of eggs and egg-shells, the presence of some egg clutches 5–10 cm below flood deposits, and the porous nature of the eggshells suggest that the eggs were laid in excavated nests that were buried during incubation. The preservation of numerous egg clutches in several horizons at Boseong is consistent with site fidelity (that is dinosaurs returned at least six times to the same location). However, it might be better to refer to site re-use, since strictly speaking site fidelity means that the same individuals returned to lay eggs on several occasions, and it is not possible to confirm this.
Coll de Nargo, Spain
Sellés et al published a paper in 2013 with the title: Dinosaur eggs in the Upper Cretaceous of the Coll de Nargó area, Lleida Province, south-central Pyrenees, Spain: Oodiversity, biostratigraphy and their implications, in the journal Cretaceous Research.
They describe an area with thousands of dinosaur eggs, in 30 levels across 370 m of Upper Cretaceous deposits. These layers are arranged in two stratigraphic units. It is important to notice that there was extensive bioturbation (mixing of layers as a result of animals living in or burrowing and / or plants growing in soil).
The authors interpretated these layer as successive continental strata. The presence of successive continental strata containing dinosaur clutches suggests that this area was used repeatedly by dinosaurs for a long time. Further, the co-occurrence of three different ootaxa in the same level suggests that the nesting area was shared by at least three different kinds of dinosaur.
The information provided in these two articles shows that there were egg clutches in excavated nests. These eggs are found in different layers of continental deposits which were deposited in arid or semi-arid conditions.
Many similar findings have been reported from North and South America, Russia and India, in Cretaceous deposit which are considered to be at least 60 million years old based on evolutionary assumptions.
I would like to ask and answer some questions:
• When did these deposits form?
• How long did it take?
• What is the best explanation?
According to evolutionary theory and main-stream geology the Late Cretaceous was around 60 to 70 million years ago. These deposits were formed episodically during periods of flooding. At this time sea levels were rising and falling. Even though the majority of scientists unquestioningly accept these assumptions there are a number of challenges to this evolutionary scenario. For example, the existence of unfossilised dinosaur tissue, recovery of dinosaur proteins and other biomolecules and eyewitness accounts of “dinosaurs” – dragons. These issues are independent of any dating methods used to arrive at the ages of millions of years, which are also not without problems.
An alternative view is that of young age creation and flood geology. According to this position the Cretaceous fossil-bearing deposits formed during the Biblical flood (late in the flood according to the most popular creationary assumptions). The pre-flood dinosaurs survived the catastrophic onset of the flood and floated / swam for about 150 days. After this time dinosaurs grounded on freshly deposited briefly exposed Cretaceous sediment and dropped their eggs and were killed as the flood waters returned. This explanation for the dinosaur eggs and nests is the Briefly Exposed Diluvial Sediment (BEDS) model.
However, there are problems with the BEDS model. According to the Bible’s historical record of the flood, the start of the flood was catastrophic on a scale not seen since. All life was wiped out after (no longer than) 40 days.
Genesis chapter 7 verses 17 to 23 states that:
The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. Every creature perished — those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils — everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
According to the Bible, the flood lasted only 40 days, during which time air-breathing animals on the land died. (For more on this click here.) Even if dinosaurs somehow survived the 40 days of the flood, what did they eat while swimming around for 150 days? Then there is the problem of the un-consolidated sediments, which would not have allowed the dinosaurs to wander around (as evidenced by the numerous fossil dinosaur footprints) excavate nests and lay eggs. Furthermore, the BEDS model is not consistent with the existence of eggs in multiple layers and site re-use. Significant time is required for soil formation and bioturbation. Some eggs have been found containing complete embryos, ready to hatch. There are no body fossils of the creatures which laid the eggs. We would expect to find some body fossil if the sediments were only briefly exposed since there would have been no time for the dinosaurs to escape. It seems that the BEDS model requires a number of improbable events.
Is there a better way to understand the evidence?
I believe that there is!
I would call this the young age creation post-flood model.
All animals outside the ark perished in the catastrophic 40 days of the flood. The ancestors of the dinosaurs were on the ark of Noah. The flood was erosive and destructive and therefore there are no fossils of the creatures alive at that time. All dinosaurs found in the fossil record were descendants from their ancestors coming off the Ark of Noah before the Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments formed. During this time (a couple of centuries) there was a dinosaur population explosion with rapid diversification due to the new environments and the founder effect.
I think that this is more consistent with the Biblical and scientific evidence. The dinosaurs occupied favourable ecological niches and flourished in post-flood semi-arid / warm climate environments. Major tectonic activity continued after the flood with rising and falling sea levels, especially as Cretaceous deposits were laid down. There would have been many local flooding events and alluvial deposition, conducive to fossilisation of the early post-flood creatures.
This alternative creationary explanation for the dinosaur eggs and nests does not require the improbable events associated with the BEDS model. It is also consistent with the plain reading of the historical account of the flood recorded in the Bible and the geological data (leaving aside the radiometric dates).
To summarise:
Only the dinosaurs on Noah’s ark survived, the flood.
Dinosaurs (and all other animals) left the ark as the Triassic rocks were being deposited (at the latest).
Dinosaurs diversified rapidly during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Rapid speciation is possible if pairs of dinosaur kinds on the ark had highly heterogenous genotypes and as a result of new environments and the founder effect.
The fossil eggs found in Cretaceous deposits were laid by dinosaurs which descended from dinosaur ancestors leaving the ark. This requires a Creationary time scale of several centuries.
The post-flood model explains the fossil evidence better than the BEDS model since it allows time for partial consolidation of sediments. The post-flood episodic tectonic activity allows time for repeat use of nest sites as there would have been tranquil intervals of several years.
Dinosaur eggs and nests are found the world over, but I will highlight two published reports on locations in Spain and Korea.
Boseong, Korea
In 2004, Paik, Huh, & Kim published a paper in the Journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, with the title: Dinosaur egg-bearing deposits (Upper Cretaceous) of Boseong, Korea: occurrence, palaeoenvironments, taphonomy, and preservation. They described Upper Cretaceous deposits with clutches of eggs in six “horizons” of mudstone and sandy-mudstone. These deposits are considered to be terminal fan deposits from a river delta.
There is an abundance of channel deposits with erosive bases showing that fluvial action was involved in their deposition. The upwards-fining units, which occur repeatedly within Boseong egg deposits, may form in various alluvial environments such as alluvial fan, braided river, and meandering river. The eggs were found 5 to 10 cm below flood deposits suggesting that they were laid in excavated nests, which were later covered with sediment.
The eggs are preserved in “palaesols” (fossil soil). There are no marine fossils mixed with the eggs and this is consistent with continental deposits. Furthermore, the nature of the deposits suggests that the climate of the nested area was semi-arid.
The lack of displacement of eggs and egg-shells, the presence of some egg clutches 5–10 cm below flood deposits, and the porous nature of the eggshells suggest that the eggs were laid in excavated nests that were buried during incubation. The preservation of numerous egg clutches in several horizons at Boseong is consistent with site fidelity (that is dinosaurs returned at least six times to the same location). However, it might be better to refer to site re-use, since strictly speaking site fidelity means that the same individuals returned to lay eggs on several occasions, and it is not possible to confirm this.
Coll de Nargo, Spain
Sellés et al published a paper in 2013 with the title: Dinosaur eggs in the Upper Cretaceous of the Coll de Nargó area, Lleida Province, south-central Pyrenees, Spain: Oodiversity, biostratigraphy and their implications, in the journal Cretaceous Research.
They describe an area with thousands of dinosaur eggs, in 30 levels across 370 m of Upper Cretaceous deposits. These layers are arranged in two stratigraphic units. It is important to notice that there was extensive bioturbation (mixing of layers as a result of animals living in or burrowing and / or plants growing in soil).
The authors interpretated these layer as successive continental strata. The presence of successive continental strata containing dinosaur clutches suggests that this area was used repeatedly by dinosaurs for a long time. Further, the co-occurrence of three different ootaxa in the same level suggests that the nesting area was shared by at least three different kinds of dinosaur.
The information provided in these two articles shows that there were egg clutches in excavated nests. These eggs are found in different layers of continental deposits which were deposited in arid or semi-arid conditions.
Many similar findings have been reported from North and South America, Russia and India, in Cretaceous deposit which are considered to be at least 60 million years old based on evolutionary assumptions.
I would like to ask and answer some questions:
• When did these deposits form?
• How long did it take?
• What is the best explanation?
According to evolutionary theory and main-stream geology the Late Cretaceous was around 60 to 70 million years ago. These deposits were formed episodically during periods of flooding. At this time sea levels were rising and falling. Even though the majority of scientists unquestioningly accept these assumptions there are a number of challenges to this evolutionary scenario. For example, the existence of unfossilised dinosaur tissue, recovery of dinosaur proteins and other biomolecules and eyewitness accounts of “dinosaurs” – dragons. These issues are independent of any dating methods used to arrive at the ages of millions of years, which are also not without problems.
An alternative view is that of young age creation and flood geology. According to this position the Cretaceous fossil-bearing deposits formed during the Biblical flood (late in the flood according to the most popular creationary assumptions). The pre-flood dinosaurs survived the catastrophic onset of the flood and floated / swam for about 150 days. After this time dinosaurs grounded on freshly deposited briefly exposed Cretaceous sediment and dropped their eggs and were killed as the flood waters returned. This explanation for the dinosaur eggs and nests is the Briefly Exposed Diluvial Sediment (BEDS) model.
However, there are problems with the BEDS model. According to the Bible’s historical record of the flood, the start of the flood was catastrophic on a scale not seen since. All life was wiped out after (no longer than) 40 days.
Genesis chapter 7 verses 17 to 23 states that:
The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. Every creature perished — those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils — everything on dry land died. He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
According to the Bible, the flood lasted only 40 days, during which time air-breathing animals on the land died. (For more on this click here.) Even if dinosaurs somehow survived the 40 days of the flood, what did they eat while swimming around for 150 days? Then there is the problem of the un-consolidated sediments, which would not have allowed the dinosaurs to wander around (as evidenced by the numerous fossil dinosaur footprints) excavate nests and lay eggs. Furthermore, the BEDS model is not consistent with the existence of eggs in multiple layers and site re-use. Significant time is required for soil formation and bioturbation. Some eggs have been found containing complete embryos, ready to hatch. There are no body fossils of the creatures which laid the eggs. We would expect to find some body fossil if the sediments were only briefly exposed since there would have been no time for the dinosaurs to escape. It seems that the BEDS model requires a number of improbable events.
Is there a better way to understand the evidence?
I believe that there is!
I would call this the young age creation post-flood model.
All animals outside the ark perished in the catastrophic 40 days of the flood. The ancestors of the dinosaurs were on the ark of Noah. The flood was erosive and destructive and therefore there are no fossils of the creatures alive at that time. All dinosaurs found in the fossil record were descendants from their ancestors coming off the Ark of Noah before the Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments formed. During this time (a couple of centuries) there was a dinosaur population explosion with rapid diversification due to the new environments and the founder effect.
I think that this is more consistent with the Biblical and scientific evidence. The dinosaurs occupied favourable ecological niches and flourished in post-flood semi-arid / warm climate environments. Major tectonic activity continued after the flood with rising and falling sea levels, especially as Cretaceous deposits were laid down. There would have been many local flooding events and alluvial deposition, conducive to fossilisation of the early post-flood creatures.
This alternative creationary explanation for the dinosaur eggs and nests does not require the improbable events associated with the BEDS model. It is also consistent with the plain reading of the historical account of the flood recorded in the Bible and the geological data (leaving aside the radiometric dates).
To summarise:
Only the dinosaurs on Noah’s ark survived, the flood.
Dinosaurs (and all other animals) left the ark as the Triassic rocks were being deposited (at the latest).
Dinosaurs diversified rapidly during the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Rapid speciation is possible if pairs of dinosaur kinds on the ark had highly heterogenous genotypes and as a result of new environments and the founder effect.
The fossil eggs found in Cretaceous deposits were laid by dinosaurs which descended from dinosaur ancestors leaving the ark. This requires a Creationary time scale of several centuries.
The post-flood model explains the fossil evidence better than the BEDS model since it allows time for partial consolidation of sediments. The post-flood episodic tectonic activity allows time for repeat use of nest sites as there would have been tranquil intervals of several years.
