Transcript Document

Science and Creationism
9. Dinosaurs and Man
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Dinosaurs were Big Lizards
• Why are their eggs so large?
– Dinosaur eggs were up to 30cm long
– Crocodile eggs are ~12-13cm long
– Clearly, dinosaurs were very much larger than crocs!
• Do reptiles actually continue growing?
– Generally not, but they can if food is plentiful
• Changes in morphology.
– Dinosaurs are not just large modern lizards
– They have enormous physiological differences
• Dimetrodon back sails
• Stegosaurus back spines
• Prominent bipedalism of Tyrannosaurs, raptors etc.
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Legendary Beasts
• Lots of ancient stories talk about dragons
– Often breathing fire
– There are pictorial representations
• There are many stories, paintings, carvings and
statues of Apollo and Zeus too
– Do you believe in them?
• Legends are not evidence
– As our knowledge improves, legends tend to die out
– There are legends of many fictional things
• Long-necked animals in ancient art?
– Serpents
– Llamas (!)
– Giraffes
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Fire Breathing
• Is this possible?
– Possibly through a methane collection organ?
– A series of tubes ending with a sphincter?
– Some kind of spark generation?
• It’s highly unlikely
• What’s the point?
– It seems like an unecessary ability
– It seems like a highly ineffective ability
– It’s irrelevant to the creationism debate
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Peruvian Burial Stones
• Ica stones
– Depict dinosaurs and machines
– Humans riding dinosaurs!
• Found by the town physician
– Dr Javier Cabrera
– Opened up a museum
– Tried to make money from them
• Hoax was admitted in 1973
– Basilio Uschuya admitted forging a number of them
• Vicente Paris, 1998
– Studied the engravings
– Concluded that most or all of the stones were a hoax
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
1977 Creature
• Pulled up in New Zealand, 1977
• Japanese Trawler Zuiyo-Maru
• It was thrown back after short examination
– Some samples were taken
• Was it a Plesiosaur?
• July 26, 1977
– Prof Fujio Yasuda
– Amino acid study of flesh
– Concluded that the creature had been a shark
• Studies published in 1978
– Franco-Japanese Oceanography Society
– A collection of nine papers
– Concluded strongly that the creature was a basking shark
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Pictures of Basking Shark Carcasses
Zuiyo-Maru Carcass
Kaikoura, New Zealand
1977
Basking Shark Carcass
Kaikoura, New Zealand
1996
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Nessie
• Does Nessie exist?
– No
• There are lots of sightings!
– …but no actual evidence
• Many studies:
– 1934, 1967-8, 1969, 1970, 1972,
1975, 1993, 2001
– Not a single shred of evidence
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
1934 photograph,
later proven to be a
hoax
Randall Reinstedt
• “Shipwrecks & sea monsters of
California's central coast”
• These have been shown to be:
– Rare Whales
– Basking Sharks
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Human Remains from the Cretaceous?
• Dr. Jamie Gutierrez
– Allegedly found fossil hands near an
icthyosaur
– Found in Cretaceous sediment (>65Myr)
• There are no legitimate scientific reports
• Since identified as sea turtle bones
– Of the superfamily Chelonioidea
– Dr. Peter Meylan, Eckard College, Florida
– Dr. Walter Joyce, Yale-Peabody Museum of
Paleontology
– Sea turtle flipper bones superficially
resemble human hands
– An example of homologous evolution
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Paluxy River Tracks
• Dinosaur and human tracks side-by-side?
– Claimed by Carl Baugh, amongst others
• Proven to be a combination of fraud and
mistaken identification
– Some tracks are artificial carvings
– Some are eroded dinosaur tracks
– Some don’t even look human!
• Even the ICR admits this!
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Other Human Tracks
• State Park Ledge
– Not actualy man tracks at all!
– Farlow (1987), Kuban (1986a)
• The Baugh/McFall Sites
– No convincing human tracks proved
– Cole & Godfrey (1985)
• ‘Human footprints’ are usually either:
– Natural erosion features
– Eroded dinosaur tracks
– Fraudulent
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Likouala Swamps
• What’s the region like?
– Rich agriculture
– Lumber, farming
• Could living dinosaurs be here?
– No evidence from any of the inhabitants
• Except for a few tall tales
– No bones, corpses
– No photos, videos
– No aerial photographs, satellite photos
• Stable breeding population?
– Needs hundreds of individuals
© Colin Frayn, 2008-2011
www.frayn.net
Democratic Republic of
the Congo