Paleodragonology

Photo c. Senter (2012, p.3) CLAIM:  A petroglyph from the Fremont culture discovered in Black Dragon Canyon, Utah (San Rafael Swell) depicts a pterosaur complete with a head-crest. (Hodge & Welch, 2011 , p.5) (Ham, 2006 , p.162) (Ham, 2013 , p.36) (Swift, 1997 ) RESPONSE:  The so-called "Black Canyon Pterosaur" refers to a rock art panel in Black Canyon, Utah, which some young-Earth creationists have interpreted as depicting a pterosaur. However, the petroglyph is actually a composite of separate anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures characteristic of the Barrier Canyon style. In the late 1940s, researcher John Simonson outlined the pictograph with chalk, perceiving it as a single image of a winged monster, which he believed resembled a pterosaur. (Senter, 2012, p.2-3) This interpretation was accepted by some young-Earth creationists as evidence of a recent human-dinosaur co-existence as early as 1997 (Swift), even though an accurate representation of what lay beneat...

CLAIM:  A petroglyph in Arizona’s Havasupai Canyon, carved by the Havasupai people sometime after they arrived in the area between 1000 and 1300 CE, shows the unmistakable depiction of a hadrosaur, specifically an Edmontosaurus . (Ham, 2017 , p.162) (Hovind, 2003 , 35:03) (Swift, 1997 ) RESPONSE:  While some young-Earth sources continue to claim that a petroglyph of a hadrosaur, specifically an  Edmontosaurus , has been found in Havasupai Canyon, detailed analyses suggest that these interpretations cannot be supported. ANALYSIS OF THE PETROGLYPH Phil Senter's 2012 study on alleged dinosaurs found in ancient rock art, published in Paleontologia Electronica , critically examined the Edmontosaurus  claim and concluded that the figure is actually a stylized bird. Senter highlited the similarities between this petroglyph and other bird images found in the canyon, including eagle depictions with a hooked head and long tail similar to the claimed hadrosaur. The "J" shape at...

CLAIM:  Marco Polo documented dinosaurs in his travels throughout China between 1271 - 1288 CE. (Butt, 2010 ) (Clarey, 2015 , p.19) (Hodge & Welch, 2011 , p.6) (Hovind, 2003 , 34:24) (Isaacs, 2010 , p.28) (Thomas, 2013 , p.19) RESPONSE:  Despite popular opinion throughout young-Earth creationist literature, there is no good reason to believe that Marco Polo witnessed dinosaurs. Polo's own description favors his encounter with a much more likely creature, the extinct 20ft. long crocodile Hanyusuchus . WHAT DID MARCO POLO DESCRIBE? In the records of his travels, Marco Polo mentions giant serpents residing in the province of Karazan, which some young-Earth creationists have interpreted to mean that Polo witnessed living dinosaurs in 13th and 14th-century China. Polo described the creatures as follows (taken from Thomas Wright's 1854 revision of William Marsden's translation): "Here are seen huge serpents, ten paces in length, and ten spans in the girt of the body. At ...

  CLAIM: In 1998, a taxidermist discovered the corpse of a plesiosaur on the shore of Lake Eerie. It was displayed in Carl Baugh’s Creation Evidence Museum in Texas. (Hovind, 2003 , 1:35:15) RESPONSE:  The carcass was not a plesiosaur, but a partially-decomposed burbot fish ( Lota lota ) that had been discovered by taxidermist Larry Petersen, who used it to create a tongue-in-cheek cryptid for an upcoming trade show as a treat for kids. Carl Baugh bought the animal from him to display in his Creation Evidence Museum as evidence of living dinosaurs, and it was used by Kent Hovind as proof of the same - Baugh later stopped promoting the creature once scans of the piece confirmed that parts of its skeleton had been extensively manipulated/removed in order to taxidermy it. (Kuban, 2007) REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING Kuban, G. (2007) Lake Erie Sea Monster?  paleo.cc.

CLAIM:  The Biblical unicorn may have been an Elasmotherium . (Ham, 2010 , p.30) RESPONSE:  In Ken Ham's New Answers Book 3 , Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell floats the idea that the unicorn of the King James Bible may have been an Elasmotherium , an extinct rhino genus native to Asia. However, this interpretation has numerous theological and scientific problems. BIBLICAL ISSUES - Language and Depiction:  Other young-Earth creationist ministries like Creation Ministries International and Got Questions point out that the Hebrew word that the KJV translates as unicorn, re'em , likely refers to a type of bovine given that it is a plausible cognate of the Assyrian rimu  (wild bull/ass) and/or the Ugaritic rum  (auroch, wild buffalo). (Got Questions, n.d.; Wieland, 1992; Wiktionary, 2024) The most likely candidate for the re'em  was the auroch ( Bos primigenius ), a megafaunal bovine well known to those in the Ancient Near East as a symbol of strength and divinity that w...

CLAIM:  In the 1990s, mammoth-like elephants were discovered in Nepal that embarrassed experts who have declared mammoths to be extinct when they were in fact alive and well. (Ham, 2017 , p.170) (Wieland, 1996 ) RESPONSE:  No experts were embarrassed - in fact, paleobiologist Adrian Lister  undertook expeditions to study the supposed mammoths (one of which was named Raja Gaj, the largest Asian elephant ever documented) and reported that they were just ordinary Asian elephants whose mammoth-like features had been exaggerated by the press. (Lister & Blashford-Snell, 2000) DNA from the elephants' dung would further confirm that the oversized Asian elephants were just that - oversized Asian elephants. (Strickler, 2010) "Popular reports that Raja Gaj resembles a mammoth are exaggerated: despite the large size, high cranium and sloping back of Raja Gaj, other elements of his morphology are quite unlike that of Mammuthus , for examples, the double, as opposed to single, cran...

CLAIM:  The Acambaro Figurines, a collection of around 33,000 ceramic pieces uncovered in Acambaro, Mexico that date from around 2500 BCE, depict a number of animals, including dinosaurs. (Hovind, 2003 , 41:03) RESPONSE:  In July 1944, Waldemar Julsrud, a German merchant living in Acambaro, Guanajuato, Mexico, claimed to have stumbled upon clay figurines buried near El Toro Mountain. Hiring local farmers to excavate additional artifacts, he amassed a collection of nearly 33,000 pieces, and paid the farmers for each figurine they brought him. These figurines depicted animals, humans, mythological creatures, and, most controversially, what appeared to be dinosaurs. (Pezzati, 2005) The figurines ranged in size from a few inches to nearly six feet, and their alleged antiquity sparked interest and controversy after capturing the attention of young-Earth creationists such as Don Patton, Kent Hovind, and Dennis Swift. They argued that the artifacts supported the idea of a human-dinos...