La Brea Tar Pits and Creation
by Owen Omid Borville
May 20, 2019
Geology, Biology
Within one of the largest human population centers on Earth today is also one of the largest fossil collections on Earth. The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles contain a diverse collection of over three million ice age fossils from hundreds of different species, including saber-tooth cats, wolves, mastodons, and mammoths. Evolutionists claim that the fossils found here are preserved within 10,000 to 50,000 year old natural asphalt deposits where animals gradually became trapped over thousands of years. However, a closer examination of the fossils indicates a quick burial as a result of a catastrophic event. Creationists believe that this event was the Genesis Flood that occurred less than 5,000 years ago during a year-long catastrophic surge of waters that covered the entire land surface of the Earth for several months during this flood year.
The location features natural asphalt (also known as asphaltum, bitumen, pitch, or tar) that has "seeped up" from underground for thousands of years. The material exists as crude oil inside the earth and migrates upward along a fault in the subsurface until spilling onto the ground surface and forming pools of the liquid material, which converts into natural asphalt upon contact with the atmosphere. After the tar pits were discovered, the site was mined for asphalt for commercial use.
Evolutionists and mainstream scientists claim that over thousands of years animals would wander into the asphalt deposits and become trapped and eventually die. These trapped animals would attract predators to feed on the dead bodies and these later arrivals would also become trapped and die, leading to the large accumulation of trapped animals at the site that would become fossilized. The asphalt material supposedly preserves the fossils, according to mainstream scientists. However, creationists have noted the many problems associated with the mainstream evolutionist interpretation of the fossils at the tar pits.
The first is that preservation requires rapid burial from a catastrophic event, such as a flood. The nature in which the fossilized bones at the tar pits are found suggests a catastrophic burial. Bones are found broken and assembled together in a catastrophic fashion, such that would suggest burial by a sudden flood event. The large quantity of fossilized bones at the site accumulated within a relatively small space does not point toward random, wandering animals becoming trapped within the tar deposits gradually over thousands of years. Although it is possible that some animals did wander and become trapped within the tar deposits, the large mass accumulation of bones at the site suggests that a catastrophic flood was responsible for most of the the fossils at the site. In addition, fossil fragments from different animal species have been found mixed together at the site, and these fragments needed to be sorted out and identified in order to produce complete skeletons of individual animals.
The La Brea site also contains the fossils of many extinct animals, many of which were larger and more complex than today's animals. The collection of fossil species at the site complies with the creationist model that identifies that larger, complex animals were in existence before the Genesis Flood event and that many of these have became extinct because of the flood itself and because of different environmental conditions today in contrast to the pre-Flood environment. Animals in the pre-Flood environment could grow larger because of unique environmental conditions that do not exist today. The curse on mankind and the Earth because of the sin of man is reflected with the remains of the Genesis Flood that led to an environment today that is not as blessed by God as the previous environment. In addition, why are animals that are so much larger and different than today's animals found within deposits that are so recent? Even the evolutionist's dates for these fossils at La Brea are within the thousands of years, which would not allow for millions of years of evolution to produce today's animals. The fossils found at La Brea are unique species created during the creation week by God that have become extinct from the Earth and will never return.
by Owen Omid Borville
May 20, 2019
Geology, Biology
Within one of the largest human population centers on Earth today is also one of the largest fossil collections on Earth. The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles contain a diverse collection of over three million ice age fossils from hundreds of different species, including saber-tooth cats, wolves, mastodons, and mammoths. Evolutionists claim that the fossils found here are preserved within 10,000 to 50,000 year old natural asphalt deposits where animals gradually became trapped over thousands of years. However, a closer examination of the fossils indicates a quick burial as a result of a catastrophic event. Creationists believe that this event was the Genesis Flood that occurred less than 5,000 years ago during a year-long catastrophic surge of waters that covered the entire land surface of the Earth for several months during this flood year.
The location features natural asphalt (also known as asphaltum, bitumen, pitch, or tar) that has "seeped up" from underground for thousands of years. The material exists as crude oil inside the earth and migrates upward along a fault in the subsurface until spilling onto the ground surface and forming pools of the liquid material, which converts into natural asphalt upon contact with the atmosphere. After the tar pits were discovered, the site was mined for asphalt for commercial use.
Evolutionists and mainstream scientists claim that over thousands of years animals would wander into the asphalt deposits and become trapped and eventually die. These trapped animals would attract predators to feed on the dead bodies and these later arrivals would also become trapped and die, leading to the large accumulation of trapped animals at the site that would become fossilized. The asphalt material supposedly preserves the fossils, according to mainstream scientists. However, creationists have noted the many problems associated with the mainstream evolutionist interpretation of the fossils at the tar pits.
The first is that preservation requires rapid burial from a catastrophic event, such as a flood. The nature in which the fossilized bones at the tar pits are found suggests a catastrophic burial. Bones are found broken and assembled together in a catastrophic fashion, such that would suggest burial by a sudden flood event. The large quantity of fossilized bones at the site accumulated within a relatively small space does not point toward random, wandering animals becoming trapped within the tar deposits gradually over thousands of years. Although it is possible that some animals did wander and become trapped within the tar deposits, the large mass accumulation of bones at the site suggests that a catastrophic flood was responsible for most of the the fossils at the site. In addition, fossil fragments from different animal species have been found mixed together at the site, and these fragments needed to be sorted out and identified in order to produce complete skeletons of individual animals.
The La Brea site also contains the fossils of many extinct animals, many of which were larger and more complex than today's animals. The collection of fossil species at the site complies with the creationist model that identifies that larger, complex animals were in existence before the Genesis Flood event and that many of these have became extinct because of the flood itself and because of different environmental conditions today in contrast to the pre-Flood environment. Animals in the pre-Flood environment could grow larger because of unique environmental conditions that do not exist today. The curse on mankind and the Earth because of the sin of man is reflected with the remains of the Genesis Flood that led to an environment today that is not as blessed by God as the previous environment. In addition, why are animals that are so much larger and different than today's animals found within deposits that are so recent? Even the evolutionist's dates for these fossils at La Brea are within the thousands of years, which would not allow for millions of years of evolution to produce today's animals. The fossils found at La Brea are unique species created during the creation week by God that have become extinct from the Earth and will never return.
