Fossil Fish

QUESTION: Why are there so many fossil fish?

ANSWER:

Of the billions and billions of fossils that are buried just beneath the Earth’s surface, the vast majority are fossil fish. American geologist Dr. John Morris estimates that as much as “95% of all fossils are marine invertebrates, particularly shellfish”¹. These fossil fish are found buried atop the highest mountain ranges on the planet. How did they get up there and why are there so many fossil fish?

There are two opposing perspectives on this: traditional catastrophism and neocatastrophism. Both perspectives derive their discrepant conclusions largely from the same body of evidence which they interpret differently.

Traditional catastrophism says that the Earth has been inundated by a catastrophic deluge sometime in the not too distant past, during and after which billions of organisms were buried in sediments whereby their remains were fossilized. During such a cataclysm, many land animals would float and rot while more marine life settled out with the sediments. This would ensure the preservation of much more marine life in the fossil record.

Neocatastrophism says that different parts of the planet have been submerged and uplifted over the ages. The mountains of today were once submerged and have since uplifted above sea level. This would explain why marine fossils are found atop high-elevation mountain ranges. The abundance of marine fossils in general is explained by the fact that land animals are much more likely to rot or be scavenged than buried in sedimentation while marine life has a better chance of being buried in water-born sediments.

Neocatastrophism is currently the more popular of the two competing perspectives, but that is not to say that traditional catastrophism does not enjoy acceptance by accredited scientists. There is strong evidence in support of a global deluge, like the hundreds of indigenous flood traditions all over the world which purport to document such an event.