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Creation Science Notes...July 2000, part IIEven petrification (something turning into a fossil) itself has been greatly misunderstood by even the experts, let alone lay people. It is only recently that has begun to be acknowledged that petrification requires rapid burial. It was previously thought that for example a tree would die, fall into a swamp, gradually over the years it would be covered by sediments which over long periods of time would harden and eventually a fossil would be formed.It is now realized that this hypothesis just doesn't work. A tree falling on even solid ground - let alone a swamp - rots! A dead animal rots and/or is eaten by scavengers, and in a short amount of time no less! Rapid burial is a neccesity to the preservation of an object to be petrified. This rapid burial preserves the biological entity in its shape and water percolating through the rock washes out the dead matter leaving behind a cavity in the shape of this once living thing. In the same manner as a stalactite grows in a cave, minerals are deposited in the cavity thus forming a fossil. In demonstration of this, even some things which
may have had thousands of years to fossilize, still require rapid burial
for their preservation. Take for example, this fossilized jellyfish:
(Click on images to see the high-resolution images) In order for a fossil to form from an object as delicate as a jellyfish, it has to be rapidly buried - in less than an hour for sure. This fossilized jellyfish was preserved in incredible detail as you can see here. |
