Massive Cache of Dangerous Carnivores Found | The Institute for Creation Research

Massive Cache of Dangerous Carnivores Found
Recently, a new study published in the journal ZooKeys has claimed to have found the most dangerous location to live in Earth’s history.1 And it is possible they are entirely correct, but for the wrong reasons.

Fossil discoveries in eastern Morocco’s Kem Kem beds have been fascinating paleontologists for decades. These sandy-rich units outcrop for a few hundred miles along the Algerian-Moroccan border in northwest Africa. The fossil-rich strata are claimed to be mid-to-early Late Cretaceous.2 Above the Kem Kem layers sits an extensive Late-Cretaceous limestone unit that covers much of North Africa.2 Below the Kem Kem are marine-fossil rich rocks of Devonian, Silurian, and Cambrian strata.2

Lead author Nizar Ibrahim, from the University of Detroit Mercy, and colleagues cataloged large theropod dinosaurs, sharks, bony fishes, and lobe-finned fishes, such as the coelacanth, turtles, crocodyliforms, pterosaurs, as well as invertebrate, plant, and trace fossils from the Kem Kem.2

“This is the most comprehensive piece of work on fossil vertebrates from the Sahara in almost a century, since the famous German palaeontologist Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach published his last major work in 1936," wrote David Martill, of the co-authors of the study.1

Oddly, the scientists found that there seemed to be an abundance of large theropod (meat-eating) dinosaurs in the Kem Kem, too many to be easily explained.2 The study authors described:

The Kem Kem vertebrate fauna is biased toward large-bodied carnivores including at least four large-bodied non-avian theropods (an abelisaurid, Spinosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, and Deltadromeus), several large-bodied pterosaurs, and several large crocodyliforms. No comparable modern terrestrial ecosystem exists with similar bias toward large-bodied carnivores.2

To explain the diversity of the fossil assemblages, the study authors acknowledged that the Kem Kem must “as a whole represent a “compound assemblage” derived from two formations (Cavin et al. 2010) or from disparate paleoenvironments (Dyke 2010).2

Does simple mixing of two formations explain the diversity of the fossils found in this unit, a unit sandwiched in between layers of marine rocks? And how do these uniformitarian scientists explain so many types of theropods in a single rock unit? Was this just a dangerous place to live, or is there another reason?

In 2015, we reported that Ibrahim had discovered car-sized coelacanths and other marine fossils in these same rock layers (the Kem Kem) along with a 50-foot Spinosaurus dinosaur.3,4 Today’s coelacanths live about 500 feet below the ocean surface and not in freshwater rivers as paleontologists insist that they did in the past, the present study included.2,3 The claimed mixing of rivers and delta environments still cannot explain the tremendous diversity of the fossils nor the predominance of large theropod dinosaurs found together in the same rock layer.

The global Flood offers a better explanation for what we observe, not only in the Kem Kem, but in the rock layers above and below also. According to ICR’s pre-Flood geographic interpretation, the western border of Morocco was likely the edge of a shallow sea, with some lowlands and uplands to the south and west.5 This explains the predominance of shallow marine fossils in the underlying formations; these animals were simply buried in the earliest part of the Flood as tsunami-like waves began to crash across the shallow oceans (Devonian, Silurian and Cambrian) rocks beneath the Kem Kem.

As the floodwaters rose higher in the Cretaceous, the waves washed over the lowlands and even the uplands, causing the large dinosaurs and other animals to congregate together on the remaining bits of drier land and/or shallowest water. This explains the unusual diversity of the fossil assemblage, including the many large theropod dinosaurs all found in close proximity. These animals were huddled together trying in desperation to survive. This truly was the deadliest moment in the history of the Earth.

Eventually, even the largest dinosaurs succumbed to the rising floodwaters and became entombed in the strata of the Kem Kem. Shortly thereafter, the sea rose even higher, reaching its maximum level at the end of the Cretaceous, inundating the entire globe, and leaving a massive limestone bed across North Africa and much of Europe in its wake. There was only one global Flood as recorded in the Bible that drowned and buried billions of fossils. And it left behind the carnage in the rock layers for us to observe today.

Finding dinosaurs mixed with marine fossils like coelacanths and sharks is commonplace in the rocks of the Flood from the United States to Brazil, from India to Morocco. Earlier, I had reached the same conclusion:

Dinosaur fossils found in rock strata with marine fossils are commonplace, not the exception. The fossil evidence supports a catastrophic and global flood that mixed the marine realm with the terrestrial realm as tsunami-like waves spread ocean fauna and sediments across the continents. Genesis 7 and 8 describe this process better than any secular scientist could imagine.3

Stage image: A Carcharodontosaurus eyes a group of crocodile-like hunters called Elosuchus.
Stage image credit: 
Davide Bonadonna/ScienceAlert. Copyright © 2020. Adapted for use in accordance with federal copyright (fair use doctrine) law. Usage by ICR does not imply endorsement of copyright holders.

References
1. Dockrill, P. 2020. Palaeontologists Think They Have Found 'The Most Dangerous Place' in Earth's History. ScienceAlert. Posted on sciencealert.com April 28, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020.
2. Ibrahim N. et al. 2020. Geology and paleontology of the Upper Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of eastern Morocco. ZooKeys. 928: 1-16.
3. Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaurs in Marine Sediments: A Worldwide Phenomenon. Acts & Facts. 44 (6).
4. Ibrahim, N. et al. 2014. Semiaquatic adaptations in a giant predatory dinosaur. Science. 345 (6204): 1613-1616.
5. Clarey, T. 2020. Carved in Stone. Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 400-417.

*Dr. Clarey is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his doctorate in geology from Western Michigan University.
The Latest
NEWS
Dino Footprints Down Under
Dinosaur trackways1 are once again making the news. Australia is the setting of a remarkable series of dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithischian...

NEWS
April 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things...

NEWS
Human Evolution and the Inner Ear
The vain attempt by evolutionists to make an evolutionary connection between people and ape-like ancestors continues. This time, it is in regard to...

CREATION PODCAST
Defending the Faith with a Rocket Scientist | Creation.Live Podcast:...
How do engineering principles, biological complexity, and a solid understanding of apologetics work together to further the cause of Christ? Why...

NEWS
Aerobic and Anaerobic Hot Spring Bacteria
God designed a domain of prokaryotes called Archaea that thrive in harsh and extreme environments. In 1969, two microbiologists, Thomas Brock and Hudson...

CREATION PODCAST
The Soulless Hominid Theory: A Fatal Flaw in Old Earth Creationism...
Welcome to the second episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit...

NEWS
Humpback Whale Calls Echo Creation
There is nothing simple about the system of communication called language, whether animal or human.1 Human language is a very sophisticated...

NEWS
Mary Parker, Creation Ministry Partner of Dr. Gary Parker, Is...
Mary Parker, the wife and co-laborer of Dr. Gary Parker, went home to be with her Lord on March 20, 2025. Dr. Parker was a popular and effective...

NEWS
Plants Rely on Quantum Mechanics
Scientists will probably never fully understand photosynthesis as additional research uncovers even more fascinating mysteries.1,2 ICR’s...

NEWS
Martian Polar Ice Cap ''Surprisingly Young''?
A team of German planetary scientists has concluded that a three-kilometer-thick northern polar ice cap on Mars has a “surprisingly young”...