Why Don’t We Find Human And Dinosaur Fossils Together?
Biblical Authority Ministries, July 16, 2025 (Donate)
Introduction
Biblical creationists believe that man and dinosaurs lived together in the past because God, a perfect eyewitness to history, said that He created man and land animals on Day 6 (Genesis 1:24-31). Dinosaurs are land animals, so logically; they were created on Day 6.
Those who do not believe the plain reading of the Bible, such as many non-Christians and biblical compromisers, believe the bulk of rock and fossil layers represent billions of years of earth history. Because of this secularized worldview of long ages, they cannot have man and dinosaurs living at the same time. They reinterpret Scripture as well as earth features.
Do Fossil Layers Represent Many Eons Of Time?
No—they are primarily a result of a global Flood that was described by God in Genesis 6–8. They represent rocks that were primarily made during the Flood over the course of about a year. Of course, there have been rock layers formed after the Flood in small doses from local catastrophes like volcanoes and local floods.
Image from Presentation Library
This belief about millions of years doesn’t come from the Bible but from sources outside the Bible—man’s ideas, specifically the religion of secular humanism. Rock layers that contain dinosaur fossils tend to be lower (deeper) than the layers with human fossils. Therefore, long age believers interpret this as dinosaurs dying out millions of years before humans appeared.
Old earth proponents (those who mix secular origins with the Christianity) believe that if man and dinosaurs lived together, their fossils should be found in the same layers. Since no one has found definitive evidence of humans and dinosaurs in the same layers (Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Triassic), they say that humans and dinosaurs are separated by millions of years of time and, therefore, didn’t live together.
So, Old earth proponents ask a very good question: Why don’t we find human fossils with dinosaur fossils if they lived together?
We find human fossils and their remains in layers that most creationists largely consider post-Flood. Most of these are probably from burial since the Flood and the scattering of humanity from Babel. It is true that human and dinosaur fossils have yet to be found in the same layers, but does that mean that long age believers are correct when they state that dinosaurs died out millions of years before man came into existence? Let’s investigate this question further.
Were All The Human Pre-Flood Remains Completely Obliterated So That No Evidence Will Be Left?
This argument is derived from passages such as Genesis 6:7 and Genesis 7:23 where God says he will “blot out” man from the face of the earth using the Flood. However, it may not solve our problem completely. After a lengthy study, Fouts and Wise pointed out that the Hebrew wording for māhâ (machah) referring to “blot out” or “destroy” can and will still leave evidence behind. They say:
“Although māhâ is properly translated “blot out”, “wipe”, or even “destroy”, it is not to be understood to refer to the complete obliteration of something without evidence remaining. In every Biblical use of māhâ where it is possible to determine the fate of the blotted, wiped, or destroyed, the continued existence of something is terminated, but evidence may indeed remain of the previous existence and/or the blotting event itself. Even the theological consideration of the “blotting out” of sin suggests that evidence usually remains (e.g. consequences, scars, sin nature, etc.)”[1]
Animals were also to be blotted out (Genesis 6:7, 7:4), but we find their remains. In light of this, it is highly possible that human fossils from the Flood could still exist, but haven’t been found yet.
But the real question is, should we find human fossils in layers that contain dinosaur fossils? To answer this further, we need to estimate how many humans there may have been before the Flood, the likelihood they would have been fossilized, their distribution, how much Flood sediment there was, and whether the remains would have been preserved or not.
Pre-Flood Population
Estimates for the pre-Flood population are based on very little information since Genesis 1 doesn’t give extensive family size and growth information. We know that Noah was in the tenth generation of his line and it was about 1650 years after creation. Genesis also indicates that in Noah’s lineage children were being born when their fathers were between the ages of 65 (Enoch to Methuselah) to well over 500 (Noah to his three sons).
How many generations were there in other lineages? We don’t know. We know the line from Adam to Noah was living upwards of 900 years, but we can’t be certain everyone lived this long. How often and how many children were born? We don’t know? What were the death rates? We don’t know.
Despite this lack of information, some estimates have been done. Tom Pickett gives a range of about 5 to 17 billion people.[2] This is based on various population growth rates and generations of 16-22 prior to the Flood. Recall that Noah was in the 10th generation, so this may be well beyond the higher end of the population maximum. The late Henry Morris had conservative estimates as low as 235 million people. He also calculated rates based on modern population growth, giving about 3 billion people.[3]
John Morris reports estimates that there were about 350 million people pre-Flood.[4] Based on these estimates, pre-Flood populations may have ranged from hundreds of millions to 17 billion people.
But there is another reality that needs to be factored in. The world before the Flood for 120 years, was extremely violent. So much so, that God decreed judgment. I’ve often said, that if only half of the world acted on this violent hate and committed a murder, they could have cut the population in half in one day! Even many children could have been destroyed by those being evil in that 120 years.
Thus, I’ve always suspected the population to be very low. In 10 generations, with a slow rate of growth, and a grossly high murder rate for over a century, the population could literally be only a few thousand.
Were All Humans Fossilized?
During the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the Associated Press reported that although
many humans were killed during the catastrophe, surprisingly very few livestock
animals were killed.[5]
Based on this evidence, it is possible that land animals may have had a better
chance of survival as the Flood began to devastate and overtake the coastlines
than humans did. Many animals stay farther inland and humans tend to live on
the coast.
As sad as it was, the Tsunami of 2004 was a good example of the destructiveness of water—even though it was a relatively small flood. According to the United Nation’s Office of the Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, nearly 43,000 of the approximate 230,000 people that died, were never found—and we know exactly where they were lost.[6]
Let’s do some rough calculations based on these numbers in order to get a general idea for the number of possible candidates for human fossilization during the Flood. What these numbers can tell us is that 187,000 bodies were found at or near the surface, hence not buried and would not have had the possibility of fossilization. The others (43,000) could have been missing at sea or possibly buried. Those few buried by sediment, would be the ones eligible for fossilization.
Let’s be generous and assume all 43,000 were buried. This would give us a generous maximum of 18.7% of the Tsunami flood victims as possible candidates for fossilization. Considering they were buried over an area of 55,440 square kilometers,[7] we might expect to find 0.77 bodies per square kilometer. This translates to about 2 bodies per square mile. With these odds, finding any of the missing people would be highly unlikely! Consider that a global Flood with a low population would be nearly impossible to find human fossils.
Were All Humans Evenly Distributed In The Flood Sediment?
We know humans have a tendency to live in groups like towns, villages, and cities and the surrounding area. People were probably not evenly distributed before the Flood. Before the Flood, a city was recorded in Genesis 4:17 in the land of wandering (Nod). In accordance with this, most of the population today, lives within 100 miles of the coastline. One report says:
“Already nearly two-thirds of humanity—some 3.6 billion people—crowd along a coastline, or live with 150 kilometers of one.”[8]
This is further confirmation that the pre-Flood civilizations probably were not evenly distributed either. If man wasn’t evenly distributed, then the likelihood of man being evenly distributed in Flood sediment becomes extremely remote.
How Much Flood Sediment Is There?
John Woodmorappe’s studies indicate that there are about 700 million cubic kilometers which translates to about 168 million cubic miles of Flood sediment.[9] This number actually comes from International Geology Review 24(11), Ronov, A.B. 1982, The Earth’s sedimentary shell, pages 1321-1339.
John Morris states that there is about 350 million cubic miles of Flood sediment.[10] However, this number may be high since the total volume of water on the earth is estimated at about 332.5 million cubic miles according to the U.S. Geological Survey.[11]
As mentioned prior to the Flood, it is likely that populations were not evenly distributed. However, for the sake of the argument, let’s assume it was to make the calculation reasonable. Let’s also use the smaller estimate of Flood sediment calculated by John Woodmorappe to be generous. Let’s also assume that all the fossils would have survived to the present.
Let’s take Henry Morris’ maximum figure (3 billion people) and use the percentage we calculated from the Tsunami (18.7%) for the possible candidates for fossilization. 18.7% of the 3 billion yields about 560 million fossilized bodies. If we distribute these 560 million fossilized bodies evenly throughout the world’s Flood sediment, we get just over 3 human fossils per cubic mile (3.3 fossilized bodies per cubic mile). This would be like finding a needle in a haystack!
But realistically, it was more like a few thousand people, and most of them were not buried but rather drown after clinging to floating debris for a time, floated, swam, rotted, decayed, etc. So, the realistic numbers would be more like finding a single needle buried somewhere in an entire state.
What Do We Find In The Fossil Record?
Since the Flood was a marine catastrophe, we would expect marine fossils to be dominant in the fossil record. When we look at the fossil record, we find:
· ~95% of all fossils are marine organisms
· ~95% of the remaining 5%, are algae, plants/trees
· ~95% of the remaining 0.25% consists of
invertebrates including insects.
· The remaining 0.0125% are vertebrates, mostly fish. [95% of land vertebrates consist of less than 1 bone and 95% of mammals’ fossils are from the Ice Age after the flood][12]
Image from Presentation Library
The Flood was a marine catastrophe that overtook the land. It makes logical sense that we would find many marine fossils on land. Also, vertebrates are not as common as other types of life forms. Therefore, we wouldn’t expect to find as many in the fossil record. This makes sense of these percentages and helps understand why vertebrates are poorly represented and even overwhelmed by marine organisms in the record.
Let’s Think About The Original Question
Often, people believe that if human bones aren’t found with dinosaur bones, then they didn’t live together. Let’s think about it this way instead: If human bones aren’t found buried with dinosaur bones, it simply means they weren’t buried together.
A great example is that of the coelacanth. Coelacanth fossils are found in layers below dinosaurs and in layers that date about the “same age” as dinosaurs by secular reckoning.[13] It was thought the Coelacanth became extinct about 70 million years ago because their fossils are not found after this time.
However, in 1938 living populations were found in the Indian Ocean![14] This example shows that the fossil record is not complete. It is not truly representative of living populations. Remember, we don’t find human bones buried with coelacanths (or crocodiles, rhinoceros, etc.) either, but we live together in this day and age. Regarding coelacanths, people are enjoying them for dinner in some parts of the world! This is but one of the many living fossils that illustrates this concept.
Images from Presentation Library
If we do not find humans and dinosaur fossils buried together, then it is still consistent with a biblical worldview—because we don’t expect to find humans and dinosaurs buried together. If human and dinosaur bones are found in the same geologic layers in the future, it would be consistent with the biblical view.
In fact, it would be more of a problem for those who accept the geologic layers as evidence for millions of years. If the fossil layers really represented millions of years, then finding a human and dinosaur fossilized in the same layers would cause problems because in the old earth view, man wasn’t supposed to be that old, or dinosaurs that young.
As biblical creationists, we don’t require that human and dinosaur fossils have to be found buried together. Whether they are found together or not, does not affect the biblical view. Fouts and Wise may very well be correct, the evidence left behind for humans before the Flood, may simply not have been found yet.
But let’s not miss the obvious answer either. Humans and dinosaurs were likely not living together and thus not candidates to buried together. If there was a global Flood today (which will not happen due to the promises of God) what are the odds that a person and a rhinoceros would be buried together? The odds would be very low for hosts of reasons.
There are good reasons we don’t expect to find humans and dinosaurs buried together. Not finding them together is not a big a deal to the biblical position. Much more could be discussed but this was meant as a short introduction to the subject.
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.
[1] David
Fouts and Kurt Wise, Blotting our and breaking up: miscellaneous Hebrew Studies
in Geocatastrophism, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on
Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburg, PA, 1998, Page 219.
[2] Tom
Pickett, Population of the PreFlood World, http://www.ldolphin.org/pickett.html
Download date: 8/21/2006.
[3] Henry
Morris, Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, 1970, page 77-78.
[4] John
Morris, The Young Earth, Master Books, Eleventh Printing, May 2002, Page 71.
[5] Gemunu
Amarasinghe, Tsunami kills few animals in Sri Lanka, Associated Press, December
30, 2004, http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/tsunami_wildlife_041230.html
Download date: 8/25/2006.
[6] The
Human Toll http://www.tsunamispecialenvoy.org/country/humantoll.asp Download
date: June 6, 2006.
[7] Pieter
Waalewijn and Daniel Renault, Human tragedy, more than physical damage, places
Tsunami among worst water-related disasters ever, http://www.fao.org/tsunami/stories/spotlight1005.htm
Download date: August 31, 2006.
[8] Don
Hinrichsen, Our Common Seas: Coasts in Crisis, Earthscan / James & James
Publishers, 1990; Populations pressure burdens oceans, June 10, 2010, https://www.bairdmaritime.com/shipping/populations-pressure-burdens-oceans.
[9] John
Woodmorappe, Studies in Flood Geology, Institute for Creation Research 1999, p.
59.
[10] Ibid. (Ref
4)
[11] How
Much Water is There on Earth?, U.S. Geological Survey, November 13, 2019,
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth.
[12] John
Morris, The Young Earth, Master Books, Eleventh Printing, May 2002, p. 70; Andrew
Snelling, Where are all the human fossils? Creation magazine 14(1):28-33,
December, 1991.
[13] Lynn
Dicks, The creatures time forgot, New Scientist, October 23, 1999; 164: (2209)
page 36-39.
[14] Rebecca
Driver, Sea monsters…more that a legend?, Creation magazine
19(4):38-42, September 1997, Found online here:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i4/seamonsters.asp.
