Dinosaur

The word dinosaur was coined in 1841 by Richard Owen, from the Greek for "terrible lizard" (fututor). Dinosaurs were a group of large reptiles that previously lived in abundance on Earth.

Creationist Scientists Perspective

Creationist scientists believe that dinosaurs and man coexisted which they claim is based on a number of pieces of evidence. They reject the evolutionary view that dinosaurs existed millions of years ago.

They also reject the "Great Impact Theory" that a meteor struck the earth and caused climatic changes which caused the extinction of dinosaurs and claim there are multiple problems evidentially with this theory.

Creationist scientists also contend that birds being descendants of dinosaurs is unreasonable and is also not scientifically supported with any evidence.

In addition, creationists cite the current online World Book Encyclopedia which states:

"No fossil of any such birdlike reptile has yet been found."

Creationist scientists Dr. Jonathon Safarti wrote regarding dinosaurs being descendants of birds:

The same logic applies to the dinosaur-bird debate. It is perfectly in order for creationists to cite Feduccia’s devastating criticism against the idea that birds evolved ‘ground up’ from running dinosaurs (the cursorial theory). But the dino-to-bird advocates counter with equally powerful arguments against Feduccia’s ‘trees-down’ (arboreal) theory. The evidence indicates that the critics are both right — birds did not evolve either from running dinos or from tree-living mini-crocodiles. In fact, birds did not evolve from non-birds at all!

Creationists also cite the evolutionist Ernst Mayr who in 1942 stated the following:

“It must be admitted, however, that it is a considerable strain on one’s credulity to assume that finely balanced systems such as certain sense organs (the eye of vertebrates, or the bird’s feather) could be improved by random mutations."

Creationist scientists also cite the March 2003 issue of Scientific American which stated:

"Of all the body coverings nature has designed, feathers are the most various and the most mysterious...The origin of feathers is a specific instance of the much more general question of the origin of evolutionary novelties--structures that have no clear antecedents in ancestral animals and no clear related structures (homologues) in contemporary relatives. Although evolutionary theory provides a robust explanation for the appearance of minor variations in the size and shape of creatures and their component parts, it does not yet give as much guidance for understanding the emergence of entirely new structures, including digits, limbs, eyes and feathers...."

Creationist scientists also assert that the comparative anatomy analysis done by evolutionists comparing bird bones and dinosaur bones is flawed.

In addition, creationist Michael Matthews quotes columnist John Leo as stating that one of the most frequent science headlines is "New Theory of Dinosaur Extinction". Michael Matthews quotes John Leo as saying, "No matter how you think the tiresome giant reptiles died off, it always turns out that they probably perished some other way." Creationists assert that evolutionists are frequently coming out with a "New Theory of Dinosaur Extinction" theories and that their theories are laden with false assumptions.

Humans and Dinosaurs Coexisting

According to creationists, there are a number of lines of evidence that point to dinosaurs and man coexisting. For example, explorers have reported seeing a live dinosaur. A thousand people reported seeing a dinosaur-like monster in two sightings around Sayram Lake in Xinjiang according to the Chinese publication, China Today. An expedition which included Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology with the United States National Museum, examined an ancient pictograph which is claimed to portray dinosaurs and man coexisting.. The World Book Encyclopedia states that: "The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles [dinosaurs] which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology." The Nile Mosaic of Palestrina, a second century piece of art, is said to appear to be a piece of artwork that shows a dinosaur and man coexisting. Creationist scientist also see the recent dinosaur soft tissue find as a strong rebuttal of the claim that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago.

Since 565 A.D. there are reports about the Loch Ness Monster (Nessie by birth), a large Monster living in Loch Ness, near Inverness, Scotland. People who saw Nessie described the Monster as it would look similar to a dinosaur. In the life story of St. Columba, there is an account of him driving off a monster attacking a Pict. Some have taken this to refer to the Loch Ness Monster

An alternate theory for the inclusion of dinosaurs within many cultures is the existence of fossils. Ancient people, unaware that the ancient fossils uncovered by erosion were of extinct animals, attributed the bones to living, magical creatures. This would explain the importance of dragons in Chinese culture - there are a large number of dinosaur (as well as non-dinosaur) fossils to be found in China .

Dinosaurs and Creationism

Some Christians reject the Theory of Evolution and the current science community consensus of the age of the earth. Of those Christians who reject evolution, the Young Earth Creationists believe, based primarily on Biblical sources, but also drawing on archeological and fossil evidence, that dinosaurs were created on the 6th day of the Creation Week as a final addendum to the wonders God created, approximately 6,000 years ago; that they lived in the Garden of Eden in harmony with other animals, eating only plants; that pairs of various dinosaurs were taken onto Noah's Ark during the Great Flood and were preserved from drowning; that fossilized dinosaur bones originated during the mass killing of the Flood; and that some descendants of those dinosaurs taken aboard the Ark still roam the earth today.

Because the term only came into use in the 19th century, the Bible obviously does not use the word "dinosaur." However, they are alleged to be mentioned in numerous places throughout the biblical account. For example, the behemoth in Job and the leviathan in Isaiah are sometimes said to be references to dinosaurs, , although some reject this view, saying that behemoth was a hippopotamus and leviathan was a crocodile. There is a problem with this view, however, such as the fact that a hippo doesn't have a "tail like a cedar" and a crocodile does not accurately match the description of leviathan.

Evolutionary Scientists Perspective

Extinction

According to evolutionary scientists, close to 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, and the beginning of what is called the Tertiary period, an event occurred which has come to be known as the K-T Event. These scientists claim this event obliterated most life on Earth, plunging the world into something that would now be likened to global nuclear winter, through which few extant species could survive. Although scientists dispute the nature of the K-T Event (selecting among any number of catastrophes that could have caused the significant global cooling that resulted), most find that the claimed K-T Event was caused by the collision of a massive asteroid with the Earth, the dust and debris from which shrouded the sky for thousands of years, cooling Earth considerably. According to evolutionary scientists, the dinosaurs did not survive this cataclysm. Evolutionary scientists claim that evidence of the dust that caused this long winter is still visible, though, as a line of metal of extraterrestrial origin is often visible in sediment worldwide, occurring as a result of the vaporization and then fall of dust from the meteorite's impact, and its compression within the subsequent geological record. The crater is also visible.

Cambrian Life Explosion

According to evolutionary scientists, the extinction of the dinosaurs removed a major food competitor, and predator, of smaller animals. These scientists claim that as a result of a new "vacancy" in the food chain, following the K-T Event, vast speciation occurred, as the evolutionary pressure of a new cold age propelled animal species to adapt or die out. According to these scientists, what we now know as mammals were some of the main beneficiaries of this explosion: their fur allowed them to adapt to the cold, and their small size allowed them to conserve energy relative to the huge dinosaurs of the previous age.

Dinosaurs and Birds

As a number of feathered dinosaur fossils have been discovered, and evolutionary scientist claim the similarity in the bone structure between birds and dinosaurs show that modern birds are a descendants of dinosaurs. This is cited as an example of macroevolution.

Dinosaur Speciation

Dinosaur species were immensely varied, from herbivores to carnivores. Although many have been found in the fossil record, paleontologists expect that they have barely scratched the surface of the vast genus that the dinosaurs encompassed.