Creation Science Rebuttals
Creation Magazine
Moulting Arthropod Fossilized in a Flash
Volume 27, Issue 2, March 2005
Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
First Published 23 June 2006
The March 2005 issue of Creation Magazine contained a short article on a fossilized arthropod caught in the act of moulting.1
The article tells about a fossil arthropod, Marrella splendens, which was fossilized in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies (dated as Middle Cambrian, or about 505 million years ago). Over 25,000 previous specimens of this species have been found, but none in the act of moulting. According to the young earth author, David Catchpoole, the "conditions were just right for quickly burying, killing, and fossilizing these creatures."
He makes no claims about how this relates to young earth creation science, but the implications are obvious. He is saying that Noah's Flood provides the right scenario for the rapid burial of the fossils. However, note that while the one fossil that was caught in the act of moulting did indeed require rapid burial, Catchpoole does not address the condition of the other 25,000 previous specimens. However, in his summary, he is claiming that they too were rapidly buried (note he says "creatures," using the plural to refer to all of these specimens.
In other words, he found one isolated example of rapid burial, and he 'rapidly' applied the conditions of its burial to the other 25,000 of this species, but provides no evidence that the other 25,000 were buried rapidly. Such a leap of imagination by Catchpoole has no basis in fact.
It should also be noted that a rapidly buried fossil is not proof of Noah's Flood. It is proof that a flood did indeed bury it, but then it becomes a question of which flood. Many fossils show evidence of rapid burial...but many others do not. These flood fossils merely prove there was a flood, but do not testify to the size of the flood. Since the geologic record contains no support for a global flood, one must assume that these were all local flood events.
1 Creation Magazine, Volume 27, Issue 2. Published on the web at https://creation.com/moulting-arthropod-fossilized-in-a-flash
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
Related Articles
To learn more
about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
or check out the article
Can You Be A
Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to
provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism,
and honor God by properly presenting His creation.