Posted on 05/23/2002 6:48:35 AM PDT by Registered
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A SPECIAL REPORT FROM THE VISION FORUM, INC. ================================================ HOME SCHOOL EXPEDITION UNCOVERS RARE ALLOSAUR and GIANT SAUROPOD ================================================ COLORADO, May 20 -- A dinosaur fossil expedition for home educators sponsored by Vision Forum and Creation Expeditions has excavated a rare, large, intact Allosaurus measuring more than 22 feet in length, 10 feet in height, with a complete skull more than a yard long. Allosaurs are believed to be a close relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, and differ from the T. rex primarily in size and cranial capacity. Under the leadership of Vision Forum president Doug Phillips, an adjunct professor of apologetics with the Institute for Creation Research, and Peter DeRosa, a veteran archaeologist and paleontologist with Creation Expeditions, the team of thirty home educators spent a week hunting for and excavating fossils in a privately owned location in the Skull Creek Basin of Northwest Colorado. Of the thirty-seven Allosaurs which have been discovered around the globe, only thirteen have been found with more than twenty-five percent of the fossilized remains intact. Of those thirteen, only three complete skulls have ever been recovered. The Skull Creek Allosaur not only provides the world with the fourth complete skull, but nearly seventy percent of the animal has already been found which lends credence to speculation that it may prove to be the best-preserved and most fully-articulated allosaur yet to be excavated. "Most people do not realize that there is a tremendous paucity of dinosaur bones available to scientists," said Doug Phillips. "Ninety-five percent of all the fossils in the world are marine invertebrates. Ninety-five percent of the remaining five percent are plants. The vast majority of the rest of the fossil record is fish and insects. Only a fraction of a percent of the remaining fossil record includes land vertebrates, and those finds usually consist of less than one bone. To find a complete Allosaur is simply historic." FOSSILS POINT to RELATIVELY RECENT and CATASTROPHIC BURIAL ================================================ The significance of the find arises not only from its rarity, but also from the circumstances surrounding the death of the animal. "The evidence strongly points to a relatively recent and catastrophic event similar to that described in the Bible as the Flood of Noah's day," said Pete DeRosa. "We found a complete section of vertebrae more than twelve feet in length which was fully articulated. The dinosaur appears to be in much the same position as he was at the time of his death and burial, which must have been virtually instantaneous, and caused by a catastrophic event. Not only was this fully articulated dinosaur found laying in a bed of leaves and plant debris, but there is wood from trees mixed in among the bones, some of which contains petrified and non-petrified elements in the same piece of wood. If this creature were millions of years old, the evidence would look quite different." The discovery of such a valuable dinosaur by creation scientists could send shockwaves through the scientific community. Phillips notes that "up to now, a well-funded and insular community of evolutionary theorists have dominated the field of paleontology, directing most of the large dinosaur finds to research and museums committed to interpreting the fossil evidence through the faith-driven assumptions of evolution. To have a dinosaur of this size and significance within the camp of scientists committed to the creation model is nothing short of a coup d'etat." The DeRosas, who have a contract on the fossil rights to the property and own the right to the material they excavate, had been working the site well in advance of the arrival of the home school expedition. Their preliminary work over a period of months led them to believe that they had an allosaurus, but it was not until the Vision Forum home school expedition arrived and preformed the heavy lifting of moving a lot of dirt, that evidence was found to validate their suspicions. HOME SCHOOL FATHER FINDS ALLOSAURUS SKULL ================================================ As often happens with fossil expeditions, the discovery of the Allosaur skull came at the last moment of the last day of the trip. With just minutes to go before calling quits on the expedition, Dr. Bruce Bellamy, a home school father from Clinton, Missouri, broke dirt on what would prove to be the neck vertebrae leading up to the skull. "I placed a $250 bounty on anyone who found the skull," Phillips said. "It was just a small incentive for my team, of course. The actual skull could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars." Last week, Pete DeRosa brought in a fresh team of professional excavators to plaster jack the skull and remove it from the ground for laboratory preservation. It is not yet known when the skull will be available for viewing. GIANT "BEHEMOTH" SAUROPOD UNCOVERED ================================================ Dr. Bellamy was not the only one to uncover a last minute prize. Just yards away on a second site, nine-year-old home schooler Haley Meadows was dusting away dirt with her brush when she found the claws to a 100-foot Sauropod, presently believed to be of the rare Ultrasaurus variety. "What is amazing about this sauropod is the fact that it constitutes an entire hill," Phillips said. "This is an enormous and impressive creature. Everywhere we dig, we seem to be finding more bones -- from six-foot femurs to ribs to vertebrae. HOME SCHOOL ADVENTURE TURNS INTO HISTORY-MAKING EXCAVATION ================================================ Excavating a fully articulated dinosaur is a highly specialized, expensive, and technical task -- for which the DeRosa family was well prepared. "We were blessed to be under the supervision of Pete DeRosa and his entire staff from Creation Expeditions," Phillips said. "These guys are a top-notch team with hundreds of digs behind them and more than a decade of experience working on some of the most interesting fossil sites in the world. I think everyone was impressed by their professionalism, their knowledge, and their passion for excellence." Home educators paying $995 per person were treated to a rare opportunity to study dinosaurs, learn excavation techniques, and actually uncover world-class dinosaur bones on a privately owned site once described by National Geographic as one of the fifty best fossil dig sites in the world. "The home schoolers on this trip paid for the privilege of shoveling dirt, hacking at rocks, and the possibility that some of them might uncover dinosaur bones," Phillips said. "Many of our guests came with minimal expectations, but the dig proved successful beyond the imagination of both trip sponsors and participants. There is not one child in a million who gets an opportunity like this. This is what home education is all about." "Learning paleontology and excavation techniques from a godly, highly experienced team of expert paleontologists, has not just been a highlight of our family's home school experience, but one of the greatest experiences God has ever given to my family," Phillips said. "I have been lecturing on dinosaurs and creation for years, but this was the first time I ever had the thrill of sitting with my boys on the edge of a cliff and uncovering a behemoth femur or a Stegosaurus plate," Phillips said. "It is difficult to describe the exhilaration to know that you are uncovering something very similar to the animal described by Job as the great 'behemoth,' an animal which in this case died and was buried during the Flood of Noah's day, and which has remained unseen by the eyes of man for thousands of years. Incredible!" THE FOSSIL SITE MAY YIELD GREATER DISCOVERIES YET ================================================ For many, the fact that creation scientists have broken through the monopoly on paleontology with access to such a fossil-rich treasure trove is the real story. "The story behind the location of this site is perhaps the greatest miracle," said DeRosa. "Through a series of remarkable events, more than 120 acres fell into the hands of the current owners, a Christian home schooling couple committed to biblical creationism." The owners, an evangelical Christian couple who home educate their own children, have been approached by museums, television networks, and leading evolutionists who have expressed a strong interest in the fossils found on the property. "I am sure the evolutionists would love to get their hands on these bones. Who can blame them," Phillips said. "It is like a goldmine for paleontologists." Creation Expeditions, which believes the land may contain dozens of more fully articulated dinosaurs, hopes to be excavating the site for years. VISION FORUM to SPONSOR TWO MORE FOSSIL DIGS ================================================ A similar fossil recovery expedition is planned in the first week of February 2002, for the Peace and Rainbow Rivers of Florida, where the team hopes to recover fossilized mammoth, megalodon, woolly rhino, giant sloth, giant beaver, and other ice age creatures. A recent expedition by the DeRosas to these locations uncovered the largest fully articulated mammoth jaw in the world. A dinosaur dig to the Colorado location is planned for May 2-6. Last year's dig was filled within about a week of the announcement by e-mail. Terms and application requirements for the 2003 Dino Dig will not be announced until later this year. However, if you would like to be considered with members of your family for a spot on the 2003 trip, you can send your contact information to Brian Howell at brian@visionforum.com. Space will be limited to just thirty. VISION FORUM to RELEASE DOCUMENTARY ================================================ Vision Forum is planning to release a video documentary on the historic Dragon's Den Expedition in the future. For more information on the creation work of Vision Forum, go to http://www.visionforum.com. To read about the ministry and conferences of Vision Forum Ministries, visit http://www.visionforum.org. For information on supporting the work of Vision Forum Ministries in its efforts to communicate the Gospel through creation, click here: http://www.visionforum.org/sections/support/ ### For Press Contacts with Pete DeRosa or Doug Phillips, call Bob Renaud at (210) 364-6647, or e-mail him at bob@visionforum.com. ================================================ Visit Us Online - http://www.visionforum.com Feedback - e-news@visionforum.com ================================================ 1-800-440-0022 | (210) 340-8525 | Fax: (210) 340-8577 4719 Blanco Rd., San Antonio, TX 78212 |
Puh-leeze. Regional catastrophic flooding happens several times every year around the globe.
PS. this was posted a couple of days ago.
HOME SCHOOL EXPEDITION UNCOVERS RARE ALLOSAUR and GIANT SAUROPODYes, but,
aren't you concerned about your children's socialization?!!
The story goes that two old boys named Luke and Ray-Bob had themselves a truck and were buying watermelons in Fla. and Ga. for $2 and trucking them to Chicago and Detroit and selling them for $2. After awhile, they noticed that they were not making any money; naturally enough, they had a big business meeting and came to the conclusion that they needed a bigger truck.
Evolutionists, of course, are using time in precisely the same manner in which the two rednecks are using truck size, and there is no real reason for anybody to take them any more seriously than they would take the two rednecks.
Now, You couldn't easily prove that Luke and Ray-Bob couldn't possibly make money buying and selling for $2 since they could always say they merely needed the next size bigger truck. There is one thing which would really demolish their case however: that, God forbid, would be for somebody like Algor to get elected president and immediately outlaw the internal combustion engine; after THAT, guaranteed, nobody would ever make money trucking watermelons from Florida to Chicago and selling them for what they paid for them.
Likewise, If comebody could provide a coercive case for the fact that American Indians dealt with dinosaurs on a regular basis, then the time-frames which evolutionists so love to use as a magic wand to enable their doctrines would be demolished, the entire doctrine of evolutionism, broken. Not that there is any lack of logical proofs that no amount of time would suffice for macro-evolution but, without those time scales, no version of evolution is even thinkable, much less possible.
In this regard, evolutionists and geologists would appear to have developed a sort of a dinosaur-in-the-livingroom problem over the last few years. Take the case of Mishipishu, the "Water panther" for instance.
Petroglyphs show him with the dorsal blades of the stegosaur and Indian legends speak of him using his "great spiked tail" as a weapon. Remarkably, the Canadian national parks which maintain these pictographs are unaware of the notion of interpreting Mishipishu as a stegosaur, and refer to him only as a "manatou", or water spirit.
Vine Deloria is probably the best known native American author of the last half century or so. He is a past president of the National Council of American Indians, and several of his books, including the familiar "Custer Died for Your Sins", are standard university texts on Indian affairs.
One of Vine's books, "Red Earth, White Lies", is a book about catastrophism and about the great North American megaufauna extinctions which occurred around 12000 years ago (using conventional dating). In this book, Vine utterly destroys the standard "overkill" and "blitzkrieg" hypotheses which are used to explain these die-outs.
Vine informs me that "Red Earth, White Lies" is one of several books which arise from decades of research including conversations with nearly every story-teller and keeper of oral traditions from Alaska down to Central and South America. He tells me that, if there was one thing which used to completely floor him early on in this research, it was the extent to which most of these tribes retain oral traditions of Indians having to deal not only with pleistocene megafauna, but with dinosaurs as well. In "Red Earth, White Lies", he notes (pages 242-243) that:
Indians generfly speak with a precise and literal imagery. As a rule, when trying to identify creatures of the old stories, they say they are "like" familiar neighborhood animals, but then carefully differentiate the perceived differences. I have found that if the animal being described was in any way comparable to modern animals, that similarity would be pointed out; the word "monster" would not be used.Only in instances where the creature bears no resemblance to anything we know today will it be described as a monster. Since no dinosaur shape resembles any modern animal, and since the reports are to be given literal credibility I must suggest that we are identifying a dinosaur. Thus, in the story of large animals at Pomme de Terre prairie in southwestern Missouri, a variant of the story suggests that the western animals were megafauna and the creatures who crossed the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and invaded the lands of the megafauna were dinosaurs. The dinosaurs thus easily displace the familiar, perhaps Pleistocene, megafauna and move west, where we find their remains in the Rocky Mountains today
In numerous places in the Great Lakes are found pictographs of a creature who has been described in the English translation as the "water panther" This animal has a saw-toothed back and a benign, catlike face in many of the carvings. Various deeds are attributed to this panther, and it seems likely that the pictographs of this creature which are frequently carved near streams and lakes are a warning to others that a water panther inhabits that body of water. The Sioux have a tale about such a monster in the Missouri River. According to reports, the monster had ". . . red hair all over its body . . . and its body was shaped like that of a buffalo. It had one eye and in the middle of its forehead was one horn. Its backbone was just like a cross- cut saw; it was flat and notched like a saw or cogwheel" I suspect that the dinosaur in question here must be a stegosaurus.
Then there is the case of the Brontosaur Pictograph on rough stone.
This petroglyph, in fact, first came to light with the Doheney Expedition to Java Supai, the report of which comes not from the National Enquirer, but from the Peabody Muscum of American Ethnology at Harvard University.
Then there is the case of the man and brontosaur petroglyph at the Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah:
A book on Indian rock art sold atthe park visitors center notes:
"There is a petroglyph in Natural Bridges National Monument that bears a startling resemblance to dinosaur, specifically a Brontosaurus, with a long tail and neck, small head and all." (Prehistoric Indians, Barnes and Pendleton, 1995, p.201) The desert varnish, which indicates age, is especially heavy over this section.
Then again, there is the picture which the people at Bible.ca snapped of Don Patten with the petroglyph of the triceroptops:
And the pterodactyle at San Rafael Swell in Black Dragon Wash, Utah:
Like I say, it's never been easy to be an evolutionist, and it's not getting any easier.
>Puh-leeze. Regional catastrophic flooding happens several times every year around the globe.
History becomes myth and myth becomes legend.
How to apologize?
The fact that an Allosaurus was buried in a flood does not require nor provide proof of the Biblical account of the flood.
You could if you ran a simple spreadsheet for them and explained it. I think it's pretty easy to prove that if your cost of goods ia equal to your total selling price, then all of the other costs associated with the business will necessarily mean a net loss on your business activities. In fact, you could actually predict when the company would be out of money completely.
So your whole analogy, and therefore your argument, is pretty bogus if you ask me.
a·pol·o·get·ic Pronunciation Key ( -p l -j t  k) also a·pol·o·get·i·cal (--kl)adj.
n.
[Middle English, formal defense, from Latin apolog  ticus, from Greek apologtikos, suitable for defense, from apologeisthai, to defend oneself verbally, from apologos, apology, story. See apologue.]a·pol o·geti·cal·ly adv. |
And of course, there is no other plausible explanation for these images except that the Indians were familiar with living dinosaurs.
Likewise, the dragons and space monsters that my son loves to draw are irrefutable proof that he has encountered living examples of these creatures.
Speaking of which, ever read anything by John Polkinghorne? Read his "Quarks, Chaos, and Christianity" this week. Very impressive! CS Lewis with a PhD in quantum mechanics. I'm now on his "Faith of a Physicist." Highly recommend him if you get a chance, QCC is only about 100 pages. Former Oxford physics professor, now Anglican priest. Knows his stuff, in both realms.
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