Humans And Dinosaurs Cohabitation Conflict?
Bodie Hodge,
M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical Authority Ministries, October 2, 2025 (Donate)
Letter
unedited:
You
assumptions are quite inaccurate. We should have human remains with dinosaur
remains, but you reject this illogically. We have human remains in the fossile
recirds whenever there were other beasts with us at the time. To call out some
immacualte exception to this with respect to dinosaurs is incredulous, at best.
M.D., U.S.
Response:
You
assumptions are quite inaccurate. We should have human remains with dinosaur
remains, but you reject this illogically.
Thank you for
reaching out. I deny the assertion that humans and dinosaurs should be
buried and fossilized together. This is actually a fallacy of denying the
antecedent. It goes like:
If humans and dinosaurs lived together, they should be found
buried together, we don’t find them buried together so therefore they didn’t
live together.
But there are
other reasons that humans and dinosaurs may not be buried together.
For the sake
of understanding, let’s think about this logically for a moment. If there were
a worldwide flood today (that is, a marine catastrophe that overtakes the
land), what are the odds of the few Emperor penguins that would get fossilized
in Antarctica being buried with the few humans that would get fossilized around
the rest of the world? Pretty slim.
If the two aren’t
buried together, this in no way indicates that humans and penguins didn’t live
at the same time. There are many possible reasons for humans and dinosaurs not
to be buried together:
(1) We know
that both dinosaurs and humans were vegetarian in the beginning. However, after
the Fall, behaviors changed. Some dinosaurs may have developed carnivorous
diets (as evidenced in the fossil record by fossilized dinosaurs found with
other animals in their stomachs), and therefore humans may have not have lived
near them. Of course, there could be other reasons they didn’t live near each
other. But the odds would be low of being buried together if they didn’t live
near each other.
(2) Humans
are very resourceful and may have been able to survive by hanging on floating
debris, swimming or other means to keep from being buried as easily as animals,
which would keep their burial separate.
(3) Most
people today live within about 100 miles of a coast. If the bulk of the
pre-Flood population was living near coasts, then initial tsunamis would
destroy and drag people out to sea. Hence, they would not be candidates for
fossilization. They would be more apt to rot and decay instead of being buried
and fossilized. These initial tsunamis would be one of the mechanisms to churn
up the waters to more sediment rich for later burial and fossilization
(4) Lower
population would naturally reduce the possibility of humans even being found,
let alone buried with dinosaurs.
(5) Given the
amount of sedimentary rock, we still have a great deal to explore before we
could say with any confidence that the two aren't found together.
(6) Reptiles
tend to sink and humans (as well as animals with mammalian physiology) tend to
float during a watery catastrophe. So the natural sorting power of water would
reduce this to a certain degree as well.
Not finding
the two co-fossilized doesn't support or detract from either biblical or
evolutionary viewpoints—it is not “proof” of much of anything—it only proves
that at that specific time, in that specific place, under those specific
conditions, that the two weren't together.
We
have human remains in the fossile recirds whenever there were other beasts with
us at the time.
Perhaps some,
but coelacanths, ginkgo trees, Laotian rock rat, and so on, aren’t buried with
humans, and yet we live together today and in the past.
The problem
is the way you are looking at the fossil layers. Don’t be afraid to question
that what you’ve been told to believe (e.g., in school, media, museums,
textbooks, etc.) about the fossil record: that there are no other possible
(and, we would submit, more plausible) explanations.
In light of
the biblical account of a worldwide Flood about 4,400 years ago, we can offer
another interpretation of the physical evidence. The bulk of the fossiliferous
layers are really an order of burial, not a record of millions of years.
So the fossil layers often called the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Triassic that contain dinosaur fossils were laid down over the course of a year about 4,400 years ago, during the lifetime of Noah.
Human fossils have been found in the layers often called the lower Pleistocene and Pliocene (which most creationists consider post-Flood probably during the dispersion from Babel less than 4,200 years ago)![1] So looking at the layers from a biblical perspective, fossils of man and dinosaurs were formed within 200–500 years of each other!
To call out some immacualte exception to this with respect to dinosaurs is incredulous, at best.
I have a
chapter that dives into this topic in more detail in the New Answers Book
1 form 2006.[2]
I want to encourage you to get a copy and read it. I also want to encourage you
to read and trust what God says in His Word. The history in the Bible is true
and explains the world and because its history is true the message of the
gospel is also true.
In kindness,
Bodie
Recommended Resources
Dinosaurs, Dragons, and the Bible
Bodie Hodge, Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist since 1998 helping out in various churches and running an apologetics website. He spent 21 years working at Answers in Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight Council.
Bodie launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and universities. He is married with four children.
Originally
at Answers in Genesis; Edited; Republished by permission.
