Droughts across north Texas dried the Paluxy River bed, famous for its dinosaur footprints. Ordinarily, the dinosaur tracks lie buried beneath water-covered mud, but dry conditions enabled workers to remove the mire that had long covered them at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose. Reports of the newly exposed tracks revive the thrill of discovery as well as mysteries about these tracks.1
For example, why are there dinosaur tracks instead of ones from other animals?
Were these dinosaurs the only creatures alive at that time? But that doesn’t square with fossil bone beds that preserve all kinds of creatures, including dinosaurs, birds, mammals, and fish jumbled together. A track-making model based on Noah’s Flood could help. Flood waters may have washed out all the possible track makers except those from creatures that were strong swimmers.
Adult theropod Acrocanthosaurus, plus the sauropod Sauroposeidon, made the most tracks within Dinosaur Valley—and elsewhere for that matter, from San Antonio to Colorado and even Arkansas. Sediment-carrying, land-covering tsunamis could have washed away other animals, including the often-absent baby dinosaurs.
How did any tracks get preserved at all? Tracks rarely get preserved today, and never in the same conditions that the Glen Rose Limestone shows. The sediment must have begun just soft enough to deform when a multi-ton creature walked on it. Then it must have hardened within hours or days—soon enough to keep waves, wind, other creatures’ footsteps, worms, and clams from obliterating the tracks. Then, long before vegetation could take root to disorganize the ground and its tracks, new waters brought fresh sediment to cover the tracks. What was the world like when it could meet these conditions? And why were they walking on limestone which is a marine deposit? This means the dinosaurs were walking in the ocean!
Perhaps the most mysterious feature of both newly discovered and long-known tracks is the broad extent of the rock layers that hold them. Conventional tales say those dinosaurs walked along wet shorelines near ancient lakes or oceans. Today’s shorelines slope down to the water, but not these limestone layers! Somehow, muds landed flat as a pancake for hundreds of square miles.
Once again, the Flood supplies unique conditions that these track-bearing sediments point to. One of the many sediment-laden watery pulses from the year-long Flood of Noah’s day has the potential to lay sediments down that flat that far.
Of course, if these tracks were made within the last few thousand years, then they would not match the conventional millions of years assigned to the Glen Rose Limestone. Given the short time required to have recorded, hardened, and covered them, these new tracks could step on some old ideas.
Reference
1. Sotelo, G. Dinosaur Tracks Uncovered in Texas. Gizmodo. Posted on gizmodo.com August 22, 2022, accessed August 28, 2022.
Stage image: Paluxy river tracks revealed in 2000
Stage image credit: Copyright © Brian Thomas. 2000.
*Dr. Brian Thomas is Research Scientist at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in paleobiochemistry from the University of Liverpool.
Fresh Dinosaur Tracks Revive Rankling Mysteries
More Fossils Show Rapid and Catastrophic Burial
100% Cicada Fossil
Cicadas are an unusual-looking insect belonging to the order Hemiptera (the true bugs, including bed bugs and aphids). If you live in the eastern United...
Hong Kong Dinosaurs Explained by the Flood
The recent discovery of the first dinosaur fossils in Hong Kong came as a surprise to evolutionary paleontologists. It was totally unexpected since...
Centipede-Like Fossil Walked on Land, Not the Ocean Bottom
A new species of what appears to be a fossil centipede was found in sediments that conventional scientists believe were deposited offshore.1...
More Creation Science Update
A Shocking Case for Creation
Scientific investigation and research continue to reveal the Hand of the Creator. In this case, it is the remarkable electric fish (ray-finned fish, or...
Matthew Fontaine Maury: The Father of Oceanography
See above the first printed map of oceanic bathymetry, published by Matthew Fontaine Maury in Explanations with data from USS Dolphin (1836).1
In...
Lifting the Curtain on Scientific Elitism“The curtain has been lifted” is an idiom that aptly portrays when a hidden truth is revealed. On the public side of a curtain called “biological science,” the perception of...
Flood Explains Mysterious Iceland Plant FossilsRecently, a colleague alerted me to some unusual fossil discoveries on Iceland that are best explained by ICR’s Flood model.1,2 The fossils of interest are plants, specifically lignite,3...
Yellowstone National Park, Part 1: A Flood Supervolcanoby Tim Clarey, Ph.D., and Brian Thomas, Ph.D.* Yellowstone became the world’s first national park in 1872. Geologist Ferdinand Hayden led an expedition the year before through much of what...
The Five Rules of Flood PaleontologyMost people assume that both geological and fossil evidence support the story of evolution. Geology textbooks portray the formation of canyons, mountains, oil deposits, and other features as representing...
Big Bacterium--a Missing Link?Bacteria are tiny single-cell organisms that show a huge range of metabolic and genetic variation, and also exist in a wide array of shapes and sizes. Bacteria, which are classed among the life forms...
Speculation, Invention, and the Invisible HandEvolution is broadly and almost unequivocally accepted as fact. Creationists who try to present the evidence contradicting it are often met with “How can you go against proven science?”...
ICR’s School of Biblical ApologeticsThe Institute for Creation Research’s School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA) was launched over 12 years ago. ICR’s SOBA programs provide biblical creation-based apologetics for seeking, finding,...
Altruistic Birds Embarrass EvolutionistsWhy are evolutionists surprised to learn that birds are intelligent, careful, and very caring? Birds communicate among themselves, use tools, and often demonstrate altruism (unselfishly caring for others)—sometimes...
Caring for the People in Your LifeMany people relate stewardship to managing money. When they consider their resources, money comes to mind, along with vehicles, homes, investments, clothes, and so on. But how often do we include people...
Creation Kids: Grand Canyonby Christy Hardy and Susan Windsor* You’re never too young to be a creation scientist! Kids, discover fun facts about God’s creation with ICR’s special Creation Kids learning and...Full versions of current and previous Acts & Facts can be viewed online in PDF format using the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader.
You can subscribe to receive a free subscription to Acts & Facts by clicking here.
[body_edit] =>How can Christians stand up to scientific elitism? What does the plant fossil record in Iceland tell us about the global Flood? Does a new bacterium prove evolution? What is our responsibility to those Jesus has placed in our lives? Discover the answers to these questions and more in the May-June 2022 issue of Acts & Facts! [MACRO aaf_article, 13441] [MACRO aaf_article, 13442] [MACRO aaf_article, 13443] [MACRO aaf_article, 13444] [MACRO aaf_article, 13445] [MACRO aaf_article, 13446] [MACRO aaf_article, 13447] [MACRO aaf_article, 13448] [MACRO aaf_article, 13449] [MACRO aaf_article, 13450]
Full versions of current and previous Acts & Facts can be viewed online in PDF format using the free Adobe® Acrobat® Reader.
You can subscribe to receive a free subscription to Acts & Facts by clicking here.
[typeID] => 9 [visible] => t [pdf] => [publishURL] => inside-may-jun-2022-acts-facts/ [publishDate] => 0000-00-00 [authorAsterisk] => f [domainID] => 1 [publication] => [volume] => [issue] => [page] => [author] => Staff Writer [rand] => 1640610187.1672845 ) -->
Inside May-June 2022 Acts & Facts
How can Christians stand up to scientific elitism? What does the plant fossil record in Iceland tell us about the global Flood? Does a new bacterium...
The Latest
Jumping Genes: Engineered to Move
Scientists recently found a “jumping gene” in an odd place. An RNA molecule from a tiny predatory bacterium had entered the cells of a very...
Institute for Creation Research Partners with Louisiana Baptist...
The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) announced today a strategic handover of its School of Biblical Apologetics (SOBA) educational content to Louisiana...
A Tangled Human Tree—or One Human Family?
What if the “ghosts” in our DNA are not lost steps in human evolution? A new Science study found DNA patterns that may point to two unknown...
Mapping the Sense of Smell
Your sense of smell involves much more than enjoying a hike through an aromatic pine forest or appreciating delicious foods.1,2
Our ability...
September 11, 2001: We Will Never Forget
“Fret not thyself because of evil men, neither be thou envious at the wicked: for there shall be no reward to the evil man; the candle of the...
What Can Fossil Teeth Really Tell Us?
A few tiny fossil teeth have been asked to carry a very large story. Researchers used them to name a new order of marsupials, Keeunamorphia, and to...
Man and His Labor
“Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” (Psalm 104:23)
The 104th Psalm is a beautiful psalm of creation and...
Changing Climates, Stable Primates
What do you picture when you think of the first primates? Conventional scientists have long proposed warm forests, thick vines, and tropical heat as...
September Wallpaper
"[Cast] all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7, NKJV)
ICR's September 2026 wallpaper is now...
Life’s Origins: The Bootstrap Problem
Could life’s instructions exist without ever being made? This question raises what is called a “bootstrap problem.”1 It...
Shop Related Products
Living in Light of Genesis
$15.99
Dinosaurs and the Bible
$4.99