Evolution and Creation Science
ICR Claim: The Fossils Say No, Cretaceous Dinosaurs
By Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
First Published 15 September 2021
The Institute of
Creation Research recently published an article titled “The Fossils
Still Say No: Capping a Cretaceous Conundrum.” The article claims
that many dinosaur species of the Cretaceous appeared suddenly, with
no apparent prior fossil species that could have evolved into the
new species.
The first such species mentioned is Tyrannosaurus
rex…although oddly, ICR does not claim in the two paragraphs on this
species that it appeared suddenly...he merely gives a brief
description of T. rex. It correctly notes that T. rex was part
of a group of dinosaurs known as tyrannosaurids. There is actually a
long list of tyrannosaurids that shows its possible evolutionary
tree.1
The article suddenly jumps to the claim "Another popular dinosaur of the Cretaceous that appears suddenly with no evolutionary ancestors is the Triceratops." Note that the author did not directly claim T-rex appeared suddenly, but he implies it in this sentence about triceratops. The author proceeds to give a brief description of Triceratops. Triceratops belongs to the family Ceratopsoidea, which has numerous species, and here is its family tree:2
This tree does not show the species leading up to the Ceratopsids. The cladogram below shows one understanding of the relationship between ceratopsids and its precursors.3
The final claim is about the hadrosaurs. The author gives a description of hadrosaurids, but makes no direct claims about its evolution. The cladogram below shows the current understanding of hadrosaurid's tree.4
By now, you may have noticed a pattern...the author gives a brief description of each species. These descriptions are meant to imply the author is a subject matter expert on these dinosaurs, so that the reader will trust the claims of he is making in the article. This is typical of creation science writers. They are writing for a specific audience...an audience that already believes in a young earth. The article is kept at a simple level for the reader, and is meant to awe them with facts about God's creations.
The author continues to dazzle his readers, with claims about mammal and birds appearing suddenly in the fossil record with no supposed evolutionary precursors, and finally mentions the Cretaceous extinction event. Although having nothing to do with dinosaur evolution, this is a tie-in to the young earth global flood model, which he uses to conclude the article. Since this is a separate issue that has been addressed elsewhere, there is no need to mention it here.
Conclusion
Despite the claims of young earth creationists that no evolution is apparent for these species, scientists have postulated their possible family trees, based on morphological similarites between the species that indicates a relationship between the species. It should be noted that the study of a species evolutionary roots is dependent upon the fossil record, which is not a complete record of past life. Only a very small percentage of dinosaurs are preserved as fossils, so we may never reach a full understanding of their evolution.
As a side note...when a transitional species is found in the fossil record, YEC's dismiss it outright. Imagine two dinosaur species, found at 100 and 110 million years ago respectively. Scientists then discover a new species at 105 million years ago, with features of both. YEC's won't recognize the transitional fossil...they merely claim, "Where is this new fossil's transitional forms." It's a never-ending, no-win scenario when dealing with their logic (or lack thereof).
It should also be noted that for progressive creationists, the claims by young earth creationists that species appeared suddenly fits perfectly with their beliefs. God, throughout his period of creating species over millions of years, created each species as a unique creation. The only dispute between YEC's and progressive creationists, such as Dr. Hugh Ross of Reasons to Believe, is the length of creation.
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1 https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/photos/dinosaur-discovery-family-tree
2 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Synthetic-phylogenetic-tree-with-all-ceratopsoid-species-See-Appendix-S1-and-Tables-S4_fig7_281707641
3 Clint. A Boy (2015). "The systematic relationships and biogeographic history of ornithischian dinosaurs". PeerJ. (e1523).
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadrosauridae
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