Fossils sorted by ecological zonation
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Claim
Patterns of fossil deposition in Noah's Flood can be explained by ecological zonation. The lower strata, in general, would contain animals that lived in the lower elevations. Thus, marine invertebrates would be buried first, then fish, then amphibians and reptiles (who live at the boundaries of land and water), and finally mammals and birds. Also, animals would be found buried with other animals from the same communities.
Source
- Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas, pp. 118-120.
Responses
- Such zonation fails to explain why ancient sea mammals like Basilosaurus are found in sediments above terrestrial tetrapods like Gorgonops or Spinosaurus.
- The most persistent and undeniable pattern of the fossil is that the higher in the fossil record a layer comes from, the more like modern diversity the fossils contained within it. Today, all ecological layers are filled with modern species. For instance, Teleost fish are the predominant type of fish in all layers of the oceans and in all fresh water, but they do not show up in the fossil record until the Mesozoic.
- Many species that should have existed in the same ecological zones are not sorted together as fossils. As just one of millions of examples, ichthyosaurs and dolphins are both oceanic creatures that need to spend significant time near the surface, but are never found together as fossils, ichthyosaurs being restricted to the Mesozoic, dolphins never being found before the mid Cenozoic.
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Fallacies contained in this claim
Related claims
- 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 ability to escape
- Fossils sorted by a combination of these factors
