Changing Ecosystems

© Robert E. Gentet 2010

Try to view the very interesting video on the Discovery Channel's PLANET OF LIFE, volume two, "When Dinosaurs Ruled." Although, as you would expect, the language is highly evolutionary and filled with references to millions of years, the over-all factual record found by scientists in the dinosaur fossil record is telling.

The strata reveal a developing ecosystem over time in each area of the Earth, just as one would expect as each creation center with its characteristic life forms expanded to other areas. The evolutionist pictures this in the opposite way, saying for example: "Dinosaurs evolved to take advantage of the plentiful food supply," when, in fact, they followed their food supply as it spread from its original creation center. Clearly new forms of life appear suddenly in the fossil record, fully developed (with new varieties appearing later as the God-given potential of each Genesis "kind" finds ways to adapt to developing environments).

The earliest plants fossilized in North America were those reproducing by spores. These plants were at the continental margins where fossilization was occurring due to early events related to the Curse God had placed on the Earth. Meanwhile inland, stable shield areas housed gymnosperms, angiosperms, and other life forms that later were able to inhabit the newly formed land areas around the continents.

The gymnosperms spread from the shield areas and, along with them, those animals that fed on them. Thus, suddenly dinosaurs appear in the fossil record, feeding on immense conifer and fern forests which afforded them a plentiful food supply.

Later, the spreading angiosperms from Eden reached the boundary of the ancient North American sea coasts. The Magnolia tree is one of the first angiosperms found. Associated insects specialized in pollinating the various types of flowering plants followed from their creation centers. The food supply of the dinosaurs began to be threatened as angiosperms, insects, and mammals worked together to take over previously conifer and dinosaur dominated lands within limited areas from the sea coasts.

To further complicate the plight of the dinosaurs, the remaining conifers had spiny leaves that were harder for the dinosaurs to eat. Previously, the gymnosperms (unlike the ones today) of the dinosaur forests had softer leaves.

The net effect was a retreat of the dinosaurs to more northern regions where the conifers still dominated while those in the temperate areas were succeeded by the flowering plants unsuited for dinosaur food. Of the 10 species of dinosaurs prominent in the Jurassic strata, only one species is found in the later Cretaceous strata.

One especially interesting section of the video is research on the North Slope of Alaska where one particular type of fossil dinosaur is found associated with its particular plant need. It seems that as the angiosperms took over the temperate areas of the Earth, most dinosaurs were forced to migrate to the northern polar regions of the Earth where their gymnosperm food supply still lingered. (The climate at that time was more moderate in the Polar Regions. It is now believed that the dinosaurs were warm-blooded creatures and could better withstand the colder climate.) Other dinosaur types simply died out for lack of food. A very few dinosaurs (only Triceratops was mentioned in the video) may have been able to eat angiosperms. (Job 40:15-24 mentions the mysterious "behemoth" believed by some creationists to refer to a type of dinosaur. It is specifically said to "feed on grass like an ox." Any dinosaur surviving into the post-Flood world and known to Job would have needed to feed on angiosperms.)

One scientist is quoted in the video as saying that there is no evidence from existing fossils of either plants or animals that dinosaurs established a symbiotic relationship with angiosperms. Symbiotic relationships between plants and insects/mammals are a vital reason for the dominance of the angiosperms in today's world.

In short, it seems that God had carefully pre-planned the demise of the dinosaurs. It was, after all, upon their type that God had also pronounced another specific curse in Genesis 3:14. They above all creatures God had created would eventually meet their doom. For more on this, read an interesting Hebrew word study on the animal types of the Bible by Dr. Joel D. Klenck in the Winter 2010 issue of CRSQ, article "Genesis and the Demise of the Dinosaurs." As the pre-Flood world developed from the various creation centers, God had preordained that humans would be able to multiply and spread across the face of the entire world with the Edenic ecosystem of angiosperms and mammals. Other earlier ecosystems were doomed to die out or to survive only in very limited areas.