Should We Find Human And Dinosaurs Fossils Together?

 Should We Find Human And Dinosaurs Fossils Together?

Bodie Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI

Biblical Authority Ministries, April 21, 2025 (Donate) 

Introduction

Biblical creationists believe that man and dinosaurs lived together in the past because God, a perfect eyewitness to history, said that He created man and land animals on Day 6 in the Bible (Genesis 1:24-31). Dinosaurs are land animals, so logically; they were created on Day 6.  

Those who do not believe the plain reading of the Bible, such as many non-Christians and biblical compromisers with the evolutionary story believe the bulk of rock and fossil layers represent billions of years of earth history. 

So, Do Fossil Layers Represent Many Eons Of Time?

No—they are primarily a result of a global Flood that was described by God in Genesis 6–8.  They represent rocks that were primarily made during the Flood over the course of about a year. Of course, we’ve had some rock layering since then, but most is from the Flood.   

 

Image from Presentation Library

This belief about millions and billions of years doesn’t come from the Bible but from sources outside the Bible—man’s ideas. When we look at geology, rock layers that contain dinosaur fossils are lower that the layers with human fossils. Therefore, long age believers interpret this as dinosaurs dying out millions of years before humans appeared.     

Old earth proponents believe that if man and dinosaurs had lived together, that there should be fossils of them found in the same layers. Since no one has found definitive evidence of humans in the same layers as dinosaurs fossils (Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic, they say that humans and dinosaurs are separated by millions of years of time and, therefore, didn’t live together. So, old earth proponents ask a very simple question: Why don’t we find human fossils with dinosaur fossils if they lived together? 

Should biblical creationists expect to find them buried together? Not necessarily. And there are good reasons for it. Consider if there was global today (which won’t happen because of God’s promises). What are the odds that you and a tiger are going to get buried together? Pretty low! 

We find human fossils and remains in layers that most creationists would largely consider post-Flood. It is true that human and dinosaur fossils have yet to be found in the same layers, but does that mean that long age believers are correct when they state that dinosaurs died out millions of years before man came into existence and didn’t live together?  Let’s investigate this question further.   

Were All The Human Pre-Flood Remains Completely Obliterated So That No Evidence Will Be Left?

This argument is derived from passages such as Genesis 6:7 and Genesis 7:23 where God says he will “blot out” man from the face of the earth using the Flood. However, it may not solve the problem completely. After a lengthy study, Fouts and Wise make it clear that the Hebrew wording for māhâ (machah) referring to “blot out” or “destroy” can and will still leave evidence behind.  They say: 

Although māhâ is properly translated “blot out”, “wipe”, or even “destroy”, it is not to be understood to refer to the complete obliteration of something without evidence remaining.  In every Biblical use of māhâ where it is possible to determine the fate of the blotted, wiped, or destroyed, the continued existence of something is terminated, but evidence may indeed remain of the previous existence and/or the blotting event itself.  Even the theological consideration of the “blotting out” of sin suggests that evidence usually remains (e.g. consequences, scars, sin nature, etc.)[1] 

After all, by the scriptural context, animals would be blotted out too and we find their fossil remnants. In light of this, it is highly possible that human fossils from the Flood could still exist, but haven’t been found yet.  

So, should we find human fossils in layers that contain dinosaur fossils? To answer this further, we need estimates as to how many humans there may have been pre-Flood, their distribution, how much Flood sediment there was, the likelihood they would have been fossilized, and the preservation of fossils after formation. 

Pre-Flood Population

Estimates for the pre-Flood population are based on very little information since Genesis 1 doesn’t give extensive family size and growth information. We know that Noah was in the tenth generation of his line and it was about 1650 years after creation. Genesis also indicates that in Noah’s lineage, children were being born anywhere between the ages of 65 (Enoch to Methuselah) to well over 500 years (Noah to his three sons).  

How many generations were other lineages?  We don’t know. We know the line from Adam to Noah was living upwards of 900 but we can’t be certain everyone lived this long.  How often and how many children born? We don’t know? Death rates? We don’t know. 

Regardless of this lack of information, some estimates have been done. Tom Pickett gives a range of about 5 to 17 billion people.[2] This is based on various population growth rates and anywhere from 16-22 generations. Recall though that Noah was only in the 10 generation so this may be well beyond the higher end of a population maximum. The Henry Morris had conservative estimates as low as 235 million. He also did rates based on modern population growth and this gives about 3 billion people.[3] 

John Morris reports estimates that there were about 350 million people pre-Flood.[4]  Based on these estimates, pre-Flood populations range from hundreds of millions to 17 billion. Keep in mind another factor, everyone was violent and evil prior to Flood, with the exception of Noah. If everyone was a murderer for instance, the entire population can cut in half in one day. So, the likely pre-Flood population prior the Flood was probably very low. 

Were All Humans Fossilized?

Were all the humans able to escape the Flood sediment (i.e., rot and decay)? Likely not. The many animals found in the fossil record weren’t able to escape. The Associated Press pointed out that there was very little wildlife killed in the recent Tsunami of 2004 in Southeast Asia, specifically in Sri Lanka.[5] So it is possible that animals may have a better chance of survival from coastline disasters, of which, the Flood would have first demolished the coasts. Most humans would try to survive but if the Flood waters overtook them quickly, they wouldn’t have much success, in the same way animals didn’t.    

As sad as it was, the Tsunami of 2004 was a good example of the destructiveness of water—even though it was a relatively small flood. Just along the coast line, the nearly 43,000 of the approximate 230,000 people that died were never found, and we know exactly where they were lost.[6] Some of the missing were not included but just presumed dead so this figure is conservative in this respect.  

Since we rarely have a flood of this magnitude to compare to, let’s do some calculations based on these numbers to get a general number for candidates for possible fossilization. What these numbers can tell us is that 230,000 bodies were found at or near the surface, hence not buried and wouldn’t have had the possibility of fossilization. The others (43,000) could have been missing at sea or possibly buried. Those few buried, would be the ones eligible for fossilization.  

Let’s be generous and assume all 43,000 were buried. This would give us a generous maximum of 18.7% of the Tsunami flood victims as possible candidates for fossilization. Considering they were buried over an area of 55,440 km²,[7] we might expect to find 0.77 bodies per km². This translates to about 2 bodies per square mile. With these odds, finding any of the missing people would be highly unlikely!   

Were All Humans Evenly Distributed In The Flood Sediment?

We know humans have a tendency to live in groups like towns, villages and cities. People were probably not evenly distributed before the Flood. Before the Flood, a city was recorded in Genesis 4:17. The bulk of the population today lives within 100 miles of the coastline. One report says: 

“Already nearly two-thirds of humanity -- some 3.6 billion people -- crowd along a coastline, or live with 150 kilometers of one.”[8] 

This is further confirmation that the pre-Flood civilizations probably were not evenly distributed. If man wasn’t evenly distributed, then the likelihood of man being evenly distributed in Flood sediment becomes very remote. 

How Much Flood Sediment Is There?

John Woodmorappe’s studies indicate that there are about 700 million cubic kilometers which translates to about 168 million cubic miles of Flood sediment.[9] John Morris states that there is about 350 million cubic miles of Flood sediment.[10]  

What Can We Conclude?

Prior to the Flood, population were likely not distributed evenly. However, for the sake of the argument, let’s assume it was to make the calculation reasonable. Let’s also use the smaller amount of Flood sediment by John Woodmorappe to be generous. 

Let’s take Henry Morris’ maximum figure to be generous (3 billion people) and use the generous percentage we just calculated from the Tsunami (18.7%) for those possible candidates for fossilization. 18.7% of the 3 billion yields about 560 million fossilized bodies. If we distribute these 560 million fossilized bodies evenly throughout the world’s Flood sediment, we get just over 3 human fossils per cubic mile (3.3 fossilized bodies per cubic mile).  Even being very generous, this is like finding a needle in a haystack!    

What Do We Find In The Fossil Record?

Since the Flood was a marine catastrophe, what we would expect is evidence of marine catastrophe.  We would expect that the marine fossils to be dominant in the fossil record. When we look at the fossil record, we find: 

·        ~95% of all fossils is marine organisms

·        ~95% of the remaining 5%, is algae, plants/trees

·        ~95% of the remaining 0.25% consists of invertebrates including insects.

·        The remaining 0.0125% is vertebrates, mostly fish. [95% of land vertebrates consist of less than 1 bone and 95% of mammals fossils are from the Ice Age after the flood][11] 

The Flood was primarily a marine catastrophe that overtook the land.  It makes logical sense that we would find many marine fossils on land. Also, vertebrates are not as common as other types of life forms.  Therefore, we wouldn’t expect to find as many in the fossil record.  This makes sense of these percentages and helps explain why many organisms like vertebrates consist of very little fossil evidence and marine organism dominate the fossil record. 

Let’s Think About The Question

Often, people believe that if human bones aren’t found with dinosaur bones, then they didn’t live together. Let’s think about it this way instead: If human bones aren’t found buried with dinosaur bones, it simply means they weren’t buried together.  

A great example is that of a coelacanth. A coelacanth is a fish that has fossils supposedly before the time of the dinosaurs because its fossils were in found layers below dinosaurs fossils.[12] Due to the absence of coelacanth fossils in levels supposedly 70 million years ago and above, evolutionists commonly believed that the coelacanth went extinct or evolved into something else.  But they have been found alive today! 

Remember, we don’t find human bones buried with coelacanths either, but we live together in this day and age and people are enjoying them for dinner in some parts of the world! This is but one of the many living fossils that illustrates this concept.  

Image from Presentation Library 

It would be consistent with the biblical view if human and dinosaur fossils are found together in the future.  In fact, it would be more of a problem for those who accept the geologic layers as evidence for millions of years instead of a global Flood though because of the assumption that man and dinosaurs didn’t live together (hence shouldn’t have been buried together in their view).  

As biblical creationists, we don’t require that human and dinosaur fossils have to be found buried together.  Whether they are found together or not, does not affect the biblical view.  Fouts and Wise may very well be correct, the evidence left behind for humans before the Flood, may simply not have been found yet.  

Originally on answersingenesis.org; Republished by permission.

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[1] Blotting our and breaking up: miscellaneous Hebrew Studies in Geocatastrophism, David Fouts and Kurt Wise, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburg, PA, 1998, Page 219.

[2] Population of the PreFlood World, Tom Pickett Found online here: http://www.ldolphin.org/pickett.html Download date: 8/21/2006

[3] Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science, Henry Morris, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1970, page 77-78.

[4] The Young Earth, John Morris, Master Books, Eleventh Printing, May 2002, Page 71.

[5] Tsunami kills few animals in Sri Lanka, Gemunu Amarasinghe, Associated Press, December 30, 2004, Found online here: http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/tsunami_wildlife_041230.html Download date: 8/25/2006.

[6] The Human Toll http://www.tsunamispecialenvoy.org/country/humantoll.asp Download date: June 6, 2006.

[7] Human tragedy, more than physical damage, places Tsunami among worst water-related disasters ever, Pieter Waalewijn and Daniel Renault, Found online here: http://www.fao.org/tsunami/stories/spotlight1005.htm Download date: August 31, 2006.

[8] Coasts in Crisis, Don Hinrichsen, Found online here: http://www.aaas.org/international/ehn/fisheries/hinrichs.htm Download Date: 8/25/2006.

[9] Studies in Flood Geology, John Woodmorappe, Institute for Creation Research 1999, page 59.

[10] The Young Earth, John Morris, Master Books, Eleventh Printing, May 2002, Page 71.

[11] The Young Earth, John Morris, Master Books, Eleventh Printing, May 2002, Page 70; Where are all the human fossils? Andrew Snelling, Creation magazine 14(1):28-33, December, 1991.

[12] The creatures time forgot, Lynn Dicks, New Scientist, October 23, 1999; 164: (2209) page 36-39.