Fossils sorted by ability to escape

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Contents 1 Claim 2 Source 3 Responses 4 Fallacies contained in this claim 5 Further Reading 6 Related claims 7 See also 8 Acknowledgments

Claim

The order of fossils in the fossil record is explained by animals' ability to escape the rising floodwaters. Slow animals, such as clams, are found low in the fossil record, while quicker animals such as mammals and birds appear higher.

Source

• Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas, p. 119.

Responses

1. So then why are the biggest dinosaurs (the sauropods) found in the middle of the Mesozoic formation? Since they are at the extreme of size, one would expect them to be at either the bottom or the very top.
2. Given the fact that the majority of flowering plants always occur higher-up in the geological column than do most dinosaurs and all therapsids, the "ability to escape" conjecture would indicate that beech trees run faster than velociraptors or Gorgonops. As well, moles are apparently clearly better at escaping floodwaters than pterodactyls.
3. Why are brachiopods found so much lower in the fossil record than bivalves, even though both have nigh-identical escape-powers? Why is the greatest diversity of brachiopods between the beginning and the middle of the Paleozoic? Did they all get tired of escaping and go to sleep in one layer?
4. So "quicker" animals like sloths outran "slower" ones like sauropods, velociraptors, pterosaurs, etc.?
5. Dolphins and ichthyosaurs have identical ability to escape rising flood waters, being shaped like large fish and all, but are never sorted together, ichthyosaurs being limited to the Mesozoic, dolphins to the mid-Cenozoic and above.
6. So not one trilobite floated to the top? Not one monkey or human sank to the bottom?
7. add more responses

Fallacies contained in this claim

• Cherry Picking (the few fossils explained by this are the only ones mentioned)
• Just So Story (does not fit reality)

Further Reading

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Related claims

• Fossils sorted by ecological zonation
• Geologic column was deposited by the Flood
• Fossils were deposited by the Flood
• Fossil order was determined by the Flood
• Fossils sorted hydrologically
• Fossils sorted by a combination of these factors

See also

• Fossil Sorting
• Henry Morris' Fossil Sorting Predictions in "Scientific Creationism"

Acknowledgments