The Flood and the Fossils

I'm not sure this is in the perfect place, but here goes...

While researching the current "Atlantis found" story, I came across this interesting article in the archaeological journal Antiquity.

Fossils of marine organisms, especially shellfish like clams and other molluscs, and sometimes fish, can be found in relatively high elevations in many places around the world...

...Now, to the ancients, fish and/or seashell fossils up in the hills and mountains naturally implied that water levels at some time in the past had to be that high. How else would those seashells get up there?

In the experience of the ancients, only a persistent, calamitous flood could account for such high water in a region that is otherwise largely desert, and where the nearest lakes and seas are far below the elevations where some of these fossils are found.

Full Article: The great flood legends - ancient misreadings of the fossil record?

It's almost pure speculation, I admit, but it has an interesting intellectual simplicity. I'd be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts.

Could these fossils be from people taking food up to where they lived in the mouintains and disgarding the remains which became the fossils they found? Just a thought.

I'm guessing not. For one thing, it's difficult to see how people could eat sufficient quantities of the creatures in question to leave significant fossil remains. Secondly, most of these areas are not inhabited now, nor have they been in the past. And thirdly, mountainsides are not generally conducive to the fossilisation process.

Good logical deduction though, GriBiT!

This theory only prove that the earth was covered with water before homo sapiens were around in caves.

"Only"? My dear marg6043, I've gone ten rounds with many Creationists trying to get them to concede that very point!

What do you think of the misinterpretation theory behind the Flood?

Well I don't believe on the bible flood that kill everything but a family, but I am more with the believe that the earth was flooded before humans were around.

I have many theories about the flood but more in a rhetorical way and to me it was a seasonal thing than an all over the world flood.

I think the land was once a seabed. When the shifting earth plates move they make mountains. One plate moves and the other plate moves the hit eachother and make mountains. This how they got these fossils so high up. This is what I learned in geology 101.

Originally posted by Sistinas
I think the land was once a seabed. When the shifting earth plates move they make mountains. One plate moves and the other plate moves the hit eachother and make mountains. This how they got these fossils so high up. This is what I learned in geology 101.

Another good hypothisis. I'm not sure how realistic or if it's possible, but sounds good to me!

The top 3,000 feet of Mt. Everest is sedimentary rock containing fossils of seashells and other ocean-dwelling animals.
All you need is time. Time solves everything. I mean EVERYTHING.

www.mountain.org...

there isn't enough water to cover all the land in such a fashion. And also is it possible that prehaps these fossils were already fossils before Mt. Everest was there, and when Mt. Everest rose the fossils rose with it? I don't know the age of the mountain or the fossils, but it's just something that might be worth considering. Also, IF there really was so much water that it covered up the entire mountains, wouldn't that mean that Noah and his ark would've been floating around on this ocean at more than 30,000 feet? and don't people need oxygen tanks to breathe at such altitudes?

www.statehousegirls.net...
www.nps.gov...
www.georgetownrockshop.com...

There's a place about NE of Laramie that is an archeological site where UW has found fissil shellfish and such. Here's a site that kinda explains what the climate would have been like:
www.nature.ca...

I, growing up in Wyoming (almost literally in the mountains), have always loved the geological features. Wish I could find better links... there is some really wonderful stuff in this state!

*EDIT: Forgot... if anyone ever gets the chance, stop by the museum at UW in Laramie and say hi to 'Big Al'... it's a small museum, but they have some extrordinary specimens there!

[edit on 13-6-2004 by Earthscum]