Alberta creationist discovers rare fish fossils in basement dig

[jspa...@linuxquestions.net]

From the article:
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An Alberta man who discovered a school of rare fossilized fish while digging up a Calgary basement believes the world was created by God a few thousand years ago.

It's for that reason Edgar Nernberg doesn't think the fossils could possibly be as old as paleontologists are estimating.

"I subscribe to the creationist position, and I believe they were laid down in Noah's flood, about 4,500 years ago. But we agree to disagree."

He's referring to Darla Zelenitsky, the University of Calgary paleontologist who was brought in to examine the five ancient fish.

She says they likely swam in waters about 60 million years ago, which is the age of the Paskapoo Formation, a sheet of rock that lies under the city.
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Read it at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-creationist-discovers-rare-fish-fossils-in-basement-dig-1.3091266 or http://www.5z8.info/fake-gmail-login-page_e5a4yy_launchexe




J. Spaceman

[J. J. Lodder]

Perhaps he can explain how Noah's flood
would have caused fish species to go extinct,

Jan

[Tim Norfolk]

Silt?

[Bob Casanova]

On Fri, 29 May 2015 20:18:02 +0200, the following appeared
in talk.origins, posted by nos...@de-ster.demon.nl (J. J.
Lodder):

More to the point, why it wouldn't have caused most
non-anadromous species to go extinct, whether it was fresh
or salt water. And if it was salt water, the lack of effect
on croplands sown with salt.
--

Bob C.

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science,
the one that heralds new discoveries, is not
'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"

- Isaac Asimov

[J. J. Lodder]

Or managed to sort all those species of fresh water fish
in just the right lake, and not in others,

Jan

[Bob Casanova]

On Sat, 30 May 2015 21:39:20 +0200, the following appeared

IOW, the same problem as that of the distribution of land
animals.

[J. J. Lodder]

For fish the problem is much greater, conceptually.
How can relatively nearby lakes in the middle of Africa
have very different fish populations,
if all of Africa was covered by turbulent waters a mere 4500 years ago?

Upon retreat each lake should have trapped
the same random mix of fish species,

Jan

[Bob Casanova]

On Mon, 1 Jun 2015 16:01:09 +0200, the following appeared in

Point. I guess it's like the fact that the Ark should have
disintegrated in the first storm: "God willed otherwise".

Obviously God provided the biology equivalent of Maxwell's
Demon to do the sorting.

[J. J. Lodder]

It is even worse than that.
It is not just species but large families of species.
(evolutionary related of course)

The sorter would have to drive all members of all those species
to hover over what was to become Lake Victoria,
without a single one remaining over some other lake.

Or alternatively (the horror!) postulate that all those fish species
evolved at record speed over the last 4500 years.

Or more consistently,
say that this is a mystery beyond human understanding,
but goddidit in his mysterious ways,

Jan

[Bob Casanova]

On Tue, 2 Jun 2015 09:23:10 +0200, the following appeared in

No problem for a sorter designed by an omnipotent entity.

>Or alternatively (the horror!) postulate that all those fish species
>evolved at record speed over the last 4500 years.

Also no problem; that "omnipotence" thingie again.

>Or more consistently,
>say that this is a mystery beyond human understanding,
>but goddidit in his mysterious ways,

Yep. Which makes any objection regarding likelihood
irrelevant.

[chris thompson]

In fact, it would affect anadromous and catadromous fish the same way- it would kill most of them off. There are significant physiological (and physiologically stressful) changes that must occur before a salmon, say, can move to fresh water or an eel can move to the ocean. If it's the wrong time of year or the wrong point in their life cycle they're not going survive.

Chris

[Bob Casanova]

On Tue, 2 Jun 2015 12:56:03 -0700 (PDT), the following
appeared in talk.origins, posted by chris thompson
<chris.li...@gmail.com>:

>In fact, it would affect anadromous and catadromous fish the same way- it would kill most of them off. There are significant physiological (and physiologically stressful) changes that must occur before a salmon, say, can move to fresh water or an eel can move to the ocean. If it's the wrong time of year or the wrong point in their life cycle they're not going survive.

Possibly not; I'm not an ichthyologist (or for that matter,
any sort of biologist), and I assumed it was a matter of
gradual adaptation during migration, perhaps by loitering at
river mouths or in brackish estuaries for some period of
time to allow "rebalancing" of salt tolerance. And I should
have included "non-catadromous" as well, even though as you
note it was wrong to single out non-migratory species.

And of course, there's still that "sow the fields with salt"
issue... ;-)