Dinosaur Washed Out to Sea with Its Last Meal | The Institute for Creation Research

Dinosaur Washed Out to Sea with Its Last Meal
In 2017, a large dinosaur was discovered washed out to sea,1 similar to the dinosaur bone found 70 miles off Norway’s coast.2 Only this one was partially intact, nearly perfectly preserved, and still contained its last meal fossilized inside its gut.1 Recently, a group led by paleontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology examined the stomach contents of the dinosaur and reported their findings in Royal Society Open Science.1

Gizmodo reported on the dinosaur when it was first discovered.3

“This is one of the best-preserved dinosaurs in the world,” Caleb Brown, a paleontologist at Royal Tyrrell Museum, told Gizmodo back in 2017 when the exquisite fossil was first unveiled. Dating back to the Early Cretaceous, the nodosaur skeleton—a kind of ankylosaur—retained features rarely seen in an armored dinosaur fossil, including skin and scale preservation, intact horn sheaths, and its original shape.4

The nodosaur fossil was found in the fully marine (ocean deposit) Clearwater Formation, a Lower Cretaceous sandy unit filled with plenty of other marine fossils. George Dvorsky described the setting of the discovery,

This fossil was found at an open pit mine north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, back in 2011. Its remarkable preservation was due to a series of fortunate events—fortunate, at least, for paleontologists. Shortly after foraging, the 2,900-pound (1,300-kilogram) behemoth died close to shore, and its body drifted out to sea. Eventually, the body settled to the seafloor where it became preserved in mud [sand really], a patch of Early Cretaceous real estate now known as the Clearwater Formation.4

But fossils have to be buried fast and deep to be preserved.5 There is no gentle drifting out to sea, settling to the bottom, and then somehow becoming buried so that no scavengers attacked the carcass. It was not even found close to shore. Instead, it was found in a sandy rock unit that was in deep enough water to contain several large marine reptiles. The authors explained,

This same restricted glauconitic sandstone unit has yielded abundant articulated marine reptiles, including the ichthyosaur Athabascasaurus bituminous, the plesiosaur Nichollssaura borealis, a polycotylid and the elasmosaur Wapuskanectes betsynichollsae.1

It’s hard to imagine a 1.5-ton dinosaur drifting gently out to sea, settling in the sand, becoming buried, and then nearly perfectly preserved.5 What processes could bury this animal so deep and so fast? And how did it get out so far that it was found with full-sized marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and an elasmosaurs? This was no trivial task.

This recent study concentrated on the stomach contents of the nodosaur. The dinosaur’s stomach, about the size of a basketball, was sectioned into thin rock slices and examined under a microscope.1 The scientists discovered 48 varieties of plants in the stomach, including flowering plants, ferns, conifer, and mosses. They also found gastroliths in the stomach, known as gizzard stones. These small round rocks are swallowed to help the animal grind up its food better.

Obviously, the dinosaur was buried so quickly in the ocean that even its stomach contents didn’t have time to rot.

David Greenwood, a biologist at Brandon University and a co-author of the new paper, said to Gizmodo, “We were shocked to see beautifully preserved and concentrated plant material.” He added that marine rocks almost never provide “such superb preservation of leaves, including the microscopic, spore-producing sporangia of ferns.”4

Indeed, marine rocks also shouldn’t contain land plants or dinosaurs, but they do. And it is all too common to find dinosaurs in marine rocks, like limestone and chalk, at many locations around the globe.6

The best explanation for this wonderfully preserved dinosaur, and its intact stomach contents, is that it was buried rapidly in the Flood. Only a global Flood, with massive tsunami-like waves, could transport a nearly intact 1.5-ton nodosaur out to sea and bury it fast enough to preserve it so perfectly. The mixed land and marine fossils in the Clearwater Formation make the most sense if we accept the Flood as an historical event.

Stage image: Nodosaur fossil.
Stage image credit: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Canada. Copyright © 2020. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.


References
1. Brown, C. M. et al. 2020. Dietary palaeoecology of an armored dinosaur (Ornithischia; Nodosauridae) based on floral analysis of stomach contents. Royal Society Open Science. 7 (6): 200305.
2. Clarey, T., and J. J. S. Johnson. 2019. Deep-Sea Dinosaur Fossil Buries Evolution. Acts & Facts. 48 (8): 10-13.
3. Dvorsky, G. 2017. Incredibly Well-preserved Fossil Changes our Understanding of Armored Dinosaurs. Gizmodo. Posted on Gizmodo.com August 23, 2017, accessed June 7, 2020.
4. Dvorsky, G. 2020. Fossilized Stomach Contents of Armored Dinosaur Reveal its Last Meal. Gizmodo. Posted on Gizmodo.com June 2, 2020, accessed June 7, 2020.
5. Clarey, T. 2020. Carved in Stone. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research.
6. Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaurs in Marine Sediments: A Worldwide Phenomenon. Acts & Facts. 44 (6).

*Dr. Clarey is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his doctorate in geology from Western Michigan University.
The Latest
CREATION PODCAST
Water vs. Wind: The Controversial Coconino | The Creation Podcast:...
Welcome to the sixth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Fossil Fish Finally Filmed
The bizarre lobe-finned coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) “that flourished some 350 million years ago”1 continues to be a thorn...

NEWS
The Mosasaur: A Giant Sea Dragon
Mosasaurs (order Squamata) were massive marine lizards that were common in the pre-Flood oceans. Therefore, it is not surprising that their fossils...

DAYS OF PRAISE DEVOTIONALS
Summer 2025
...

NEWS
Was Life Detected on a Distant Planet?
There was celebration, albeit briefly, for the discovery of potential life on a planet called K2-18b, which is 124 lightyears away from Earth. The...

NEWS
Ichthyosaur Graveyard Explained by the Flood
Ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles that occur globally in the same rock layers as dinosaurs. Specimens with babies support the idea that they gave live...

CREATION PODCAST
What Do We Do With Geology's Unconforming Features? | The Creation...
Welcome to the fifth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old...

NEWS
Freshwater Fish Fossil in Australia
Yet another fish fossil has been discovered. This one was found in the Australian desert and was dated by evolutionists to be “15 million years...

NEWS
May 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans...

NEWS
Acoustic Communication in Animals
We are all familiar with vocalizations in the animal world. For example, dogs bark, birds sing, frogs croak, and whales send forth their own distinct...