Researching Creation

The Late Appearance of Humans in the Fossil Record

JB

Currently in Creationism there are two puzzling issues with regards to the fossil record:

  • Where are the mammals in the flood sediments?
  • Where are the humans in the post-flood sediments?

The fossil record of the flood strata is fairly easy to understand if we look at it as consecutive habitats which get washed away.  The one big problem with this theory is that there is an entire biome (the mammals) that appears to be missing.  There have been many possibilities considered for this one, including:

  • The population of mammals pre-flood was small enough to not be well-represented in flood sediments
  • The mammalian biome was subducted into the earth during the flood
  • Probably others I can't think of right now

Sadly, this is not actually the topic of this post, I just thought I'd throw it in for free :)

After the flood (if you view the end of the flood as the K/T boundary), the fossil record is fairly consistent with the idea of a post-flood repopulation of the earth.  The marsupials seem to be the fastest to get anywhere, with the placentals being slower but more dominating.

So why are the apes consistently before humans in the fossil record?  Kurt Wise's take on this - it's because of Babel.   After the flood the animals were obedient - they spread out and repopulated the earth.  The humans, however, were not obedient.  They stayed in the same spot at Babel.  This caused the animals to have a very large head-start in repopulating the earth, which is one of the reasons why apes always precede humans in the fossil record, and why the humans appear to be the only baramin whose fossil record does not extend back to the flood.