Cheap fossils for only $55!

Title slide showing fossils under Ark

Our colleague Dan Phelps, vigilant as usual, has just sent us

[a] nice video by Dr. Joel Duff about collecting fossils at outcrops adjacent to the Ark Park. I was at these outcrops several years ago and found mostly bryozoa from the Upper Ordovician Kope Formation. The creationist “scientists” at the Ark seem oblivious to the existence of these fossils that don’t jibe with creationist Flood geology.

Dr. Duff also discusses the grift AiG does of selling bags of fossils in dirt for exorbitant prices (up to $55 a bag for kids to wash out in a fake mining sluice!). This method is obviously not how fossils are typically unearthed, but the kids and parents buying this product wouldn’t be likely to know better. The Ark apparently purchases their fossils from other parts of the world, while not taking advantage of their local abundant fossils.

Mining sluice
Sluice for sorting fossils. The prices for these cheap fossils encased in mud range from $8 to $55.

Mr. Phelps expresses the hope that Dr. Duff does not give the Ark Park any ideas. Well, he does:

Dr. Duff estimates that there may be 1 trillion (yes, not a typo) fossils buried within the Ark’s property. They are encased in layers of limestone and shale, not buried in dirt. Dr. Duff, therefore, recommends that the Ark Park employ a backhoe and dig a trench a few meters deep, so that children can walk into it and see for themselves how real fossils are discovered. He further recommends that children be allowed to sort through the tailings and perhaps take home a small bag full of fossils in return for a modest payment.

One thing they will find is that their small bag of fossils contains a very limited variety, no diatoms, no fish, no reptiles. How come, if the fossils were deposited by a worldwide flood, do we see so little variety over a very large area? Because there was no worldwide flood, and that is why the Ark Park cannot dig the trench and cannot allow the children to pick at the tailings.

Joel Duff is a professor of biology at the University of Akron. He describes himself here as a Christian who believes, as I understand it, that science is one way of learning about God’s natural world. He blogs as Naturalis Historia and is listed as an author in BioLogos. It is regrettable that the Ark Park and other creationists will not listen to him.