God gave humans a dominion mandate¹ and expects us to exercise responsible stewardship “over all the earth.”² After the Flood, God reaffirmed the mandate in Genesis 9:1-10.

The pre-Flood world was teeming with some pretty amazing animals. Then the Flood came, rapidly burying and entombing trillions of creatures in sediments that lithified into rocks such as shale, limestone, and sandstone.