Why do mammoth skeletons appear in multiple layers of sediment?
Application: Looking closely at the fossil evidence tells a powerful story.
In this Lesson, Dr. Bob visits the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota and observes fossils in multiple layers of sediment, telling the story of their burial in catastrophic events associated with the global flood.
Supplemental Information
The features we observe in geological formations around the world (including the fossils they often contain) confirm the catastrophic past of earth. Rather than being the result of slow, gradual processes, they speak to a series of destructive events, best explained by the Bible's history. One such example is on display at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota. The fossils were discovered in 1974 during excavating for a housing development, when earth moving equipment exposed them.
Most fossils found at the Mammoth Site are from the North American Columbian Mammoth. But three Woolly Mammoths have also been discovered here, the first time both species have been found together. Other animals have also been discovered, such as camel, llama, giant short-faced bear, wolf, coyote and prairie dog. It is interesting that complete fish skeletons, and thousands of mollusk shells have also been discovered here, providing evidence of the events that buried these animals in great post-flood catastrophes as glaciers melted and floods inundated much of the South Dakota Badlands.
Based on biblical and other historical clues, the Ice Age (which happened during a single period of time rather than in multiple occurrences) was a result of Noah's Flood. The fountains of the deep heated ocean waters enough to cause the evaporation needed to cause the rainfall that was deposited as snow and ice on the cold northern and southern latitudes. Over several hundred years the oceans cooled and the massive glaciers at the temperate latitudes melted. This caused a series of catastrophic local floods. These floods carved out places such as South Dakota's Badlands, these floods are responsible for the death of the animals observed at Mammoth Site (and the large number of aquatic fossils that were transported with the flood waters).
Finding bones deposited at numerous levels in the sediment here is another demonstration of the massive power of these post-ice age flood events. Rather than being the result of long periods of time, the presence of similar animals, in similar sediments, reveals a singular, massive event.
The earth's temperatures continued to cycle as the ice and snow melted, cooling the oceans, causing climate changes that created new weather patterns throughout the world, leading to the Older, and then the Younger, Dryas. The last part of the Ice Age occurred about 700 years after the end of the Flood. The earth continues to cycle through these climate changes as it recovers from the Global Flood approximately 4,000 years ago.
Scripture References
"And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein [is] the breath of life, from under heaven; [and] every thing that [is] in the earth shall die." Genesis 6:17
"But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually." Genesis 8:1-3
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