Feedback: Humans And Dinosaurs…Any Evidence Of Coexistence?
Bodie Hodge,
M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical
Authority Ministries, July 29, 2025 (Donate)
Letter,
unedited:
If man and Dinosaurs lived at the same time why do
we not [find] evidence of it?
D., U.S.
Response:
Thank you for
contacting the ministry. To answer
your question, we do. Being the author of a couple of books on this subject, I
would refer you there for details. But I will discuss some of this below.
Dinosaurs, Dragons, and the Bible (Bodie Hodge)
Dragons, Legends, and Lore of Dinosaurs (Bodie Hodge and Laura Welch)
Biblical
Evidence
We do find
evidence of man and dinosaurs living at the same time. First there is the
biblical evidence:
1. Genesis 1:24-31 clearly reveal that man and dinosaurs, which are land animals, as being created on the same day. Water dragons were created one day before.
2. Job 40 discusses a creature which is most likely a sauropod type of dinosaur.
3. Numerous passages that discuss land dragons in the Old Testament (dragon is the old name for dinosaurs; “dinosaur” is a relatively new word being coined in 1841—dragons included both land and water dwelling reptiles).
Literature and
Historical Evidence
Second, there is ancient literature that reveals such things like historians like Athanasius Kircher, John of Damascus, Beowulf, Marco Polo, Herodotus, John Gill, John Calvin, The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) by Jacobus de Voragine, and even a fairly modern newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph recorded the killing of a large winged reptile who description was similar to the pteranodon or pterodactyl in 1890! These are all discussed in detail in the books above.
Ancient Artistic
Evidence
Finally, there are petroglyphs—which are cave paintings, etchings and the like. These are found all over the world such as the Ishtar Gate in Babylon that was made by order of Nebuchadnezzar. It contains a dinosaur on it. There is one that looks like a dinosaur at Natural Bridges National Monument that stirred up some controversy recently.
Also, there are some creatures that look like dinosaurs
on Bishop Bell’s grave in Carlisle Cathedral in Northern England. Also, there
is a relief in a Temple in of the Ancient Khmer at Angkor, Cambodia that has a
stegosaur with other animals.[1]
Fossil
Evidence
Also, we have
found dinosaur remains within 500 years of human remains. Let me explain. The
vast majority of the fossil record was laid down about 4,300 years ago during
the Flood of Noah. Of the small amount of Flood sediment actually sifted
through (about 2-3%), many dinosaur fossils have been unearthed, particularly in
the Flood layers called Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous.[2]
After the
Flood, we wouldn’t expect too many human fossils until the population started
to re-grow and people began spreading across the earth. In fact, the Bible
records that the first post-Flood death was that of Peleg about 340 years after
the Flood.[3]
Early in
Peleg’s life, the people groups were separated from Babel, and people migrated
to all parts of the globe. From this time on, we would expect people to have
died in a few catastrophes or buried along their routes of migration or in the
areas where they settled. This is exactly what we do find. Human fossils (like Homo
erectus, Neanderthals, and modern Homo sapiens) begin popping up in
post-Flood sediments in burial forms, in caves, areas of volcanic disturbances,
etc.
Some of these
fossils could be from as early as the migration from Babel (100–200 years after
the Flood), but others could be from a few hundred years later. Either way, at
least some of these humans are within 500 years or so of the Flood, in which
layers most of the dinosaur fossils were laid down.
Christians
need to think biblically about dinosaurs as well as the rock layers. I still
find it strange how humanists attempt to take the Flood sediment that was laid
down over the course of about a year and stretch it out to millions and
billions of years. Thinking biblically, though, how could dinosaurs, which are
found buried in Flood sediments, have evolved into birds when birds like doves
(Genesis 8:8–12)
and ravens (Genesis 8:7)
were aboard the Ark with Noah at the same time that these dinosaurs were dying?
The secular position falls into shambles in light of the Bible
As for
evidence of dinosaur and human coexistence after the Flood, there is plenty
within about 500 of each other, and it is consistent with a biblical worldview.
One just needs to do some research.
With kindness in Christ,
Bodie Hodge
Originally posted at Answers in Genesis; Edited; Republished with permission.
[1]
Much of this information in the last three paragraphs can be found in the book Dinosaurs,
Dragons, and the Bible. I also coauthored
a book with Laura Welch called Dragons:
Legend and Lore of Dinosaurs, Master Books, Green Forest, AK, 2011. See also Evidence of Dinosaurs at Angkor,
Kenneth Cole, Answers in Genesis
website, January 15, 2007, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/01/15/evidence-dinosaurs-angkor.
[2]
Technically, when a dinosaur is found in another layer, it is automatically redefined
as one of these three rock layers because a dinosaur is an index fossil and can
only be in one of these the layers. For instance, if you are sifting through
rock that is defined as Permian, and you find a dinosaur, that rock layer is redefined
to either be Triassic, Jurassic, or Cretaceous depending on what dinosaur you
found. This is why it is impossible to find a dinosaur in other rock layers.
[3]
Ancient Patriarchs in Genesis, Bodie Hodge, Biblical
Authority Ministries website, republished April 3, 2025 (originally January
20, 2009), https://www.biblicalauthorityministries.org/2025/04/ancient-patriarchs-in-genesis.html.
