Global warming did them in, according to articles in ScienceNOW, 21 Jan 2005 and the Courier Mail (Australia) 22 Jan 2005.
Whilst asteroid impacts are claimed to have caused sudden mass extinctions during earth’s history, palaeontologists from the University of Washington are now claiming that the greatest mass extinction in the history of the world was the result of thousands of years of global warming. According to current evolutionary theories, the greatest mass extinction in world history was not the demise of the dinosaurs but the extinction of numerous animals and plants that occurred when the Permian period ended and the Triassic period began – commonly called the P-T boundary.
A team of scientists studied Permian and Triassic fossils from the Karoo formation in South Africa, and according to ScienceNOW, found that after “10 million years or more of relative stability, Permian creatures suffered more rapid extinction in the time during which the last 50 metres or so of Permian rock were deposited before the Triassic rocks appear”.
These findings appear to be confirmed by other scientists who have studied sediment cores from the Australian and Chinese coasts and concluded that the environment at this time was filled with hot sulphurous emissions from volcanoes pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which caused thousands of years of global warming and oxygen depletion in the ocean.
Editorial Comment: These studies are good evidence that the fossil record is not the history of life on earth, but the record of death. “10 million years or more of relative stability” followed by rapid extinction is also another way of saying that living things stayed the same then died out. This is the opposite of evolution, but is consistent with Genesis, which tells us God created living things to reproduce after their kinds but then cursed the world with death and destruction after man rebelled against him.
The new theory advanced by Ward and colleagues is also a good illustration of how theories about the past keep changing if they are dependent on looking at the present. The only reliable means of knowing what happened in the past is from the testimony of a reliable witness who was there and who has left a record. If scientists choose to ignore the record God has given in His Word they will limp from theory to theory but never find the truth.
Were you helped by this item? If so, consider making a donation so we can keep sending out Evidence News and add more items to this archive. For USA tax deductible donations click here. For UK tax deductible donations click here. For Australia and rest of world click here.