What is a polystrate fossil?

Question

How did they form? Are they really millions of years old? or did god make them?

evolutionists are in the religious section trying to disprove god and I Ask a question about god and fossils and I get told to go to the science section??? Can't anyone do better than that???

Answer 1

Even the talkorigins guesses at the cause. Still comes down to interpretation. It all depends on your belief system. This is a circular argument.

< "This suggests that these very thick deposits were deposited very rapidly. Similar polystata trees have been found extending upright through successive seams of coal. Some of these trees have supposedly stood upright while successive cycles of oceans and peat swamp have pasted through an area. You be the judge as to the most logical interpretation... slow accumulation over thousands of years or... rapid burial during a massive world wide flood." >

Answer 2

Polystrate or upright fossil describes fossils of single organisms (such as tree trunks) that run through several geological strata. Entire "fossil forests" have been discovered.

In case of polystrate fossil trees of the Yellowstone petrified forests, mainstream geologists, again in sharp disagreement with creationist geologists, i.e. Dr. Harold Coffin, found that the polystrate fossil trees, except for relatively short stumps, are rooted in place within the underlying sediments.

Answer 3

I'm not a geologist, but I don't think the layers have real names - just numbers denoting their position in the strata. And fyi - those "polystrate" fossils do pass through more than one layer, but not more than one STRATA, meaning that they are in fact NOT polystrate, and thus of no damage to the current estimates of the age of the earth. Just because it looks like there's more than one layer doesn't mean it's crossing through multiple strata. There is a difference.

Answer 4

150 years ago, we didn't know about bacteria. No clue. It wasn't understood until Louis Pasteur determined that germs caused disease.

You are asking the same questions that scientists ask. You have, however, asked this in the Religion & Spirituality section, where we are mostly liberal arts majors, not biologists or physicists. Would you come to R&S to find out what opus number was Mozart's 40th Symphony? I think not. You're asking us to play to our weakness. Quite frankly, you're being unfair.

So let me suggest two things:

1. If you are serious about wanting to know the current evidence-based understanding on the origins of the universe, on fossils, and on evolutionary theory, there are excellent descriptions found at http://www.talkorigins.org .

2. Consider that you are proposing (not so subtly) that anything that is not explained is a place for God to be discovered. This is commonly referred to in ontology as "the god of the gaps" theory. It typically assigns God to any blank space that science has not yet reached useful conclusions. Remember what I said about disease? Before bacteria were discovered, it was assumed God was punishing the ill, or that they were demon possessed, or some other supernatural phenomenon caused sickness. This is the same god of the gaps.

Science never assumes, and should never assume, anything is supernatural. The purpose of science is to discover through measured observation, testing, and repetition what natural causes lead to our natural world. If you impose a statement "God caused it," then this stops the search for knowledge, because God is ultimately unknowable. This is the reason that the "god of the gaps" theory is discounted among learned ontological academicians, and is ignored by science.

Answer 5

Polystrate fossils span more than one stratum. They were explained over 100 years ago.

Answer 6

These are fossilized trees that have survived mudslides, floodborne silt deposition, or volcanic ash deposition events. Some sites show multiple event scattered over tens of thousands of years.

Answer 7

who's to say god didn't have something to do with their creation millions of years ago? lol the theory of evolution is clearly described in the creation in the bible for those who care to read with an open mind - its only the unimaginative that think the big bang resulted in a world with humans in 6 days. the rest of the answers you might find in these sites

Answer 8

how can you date a fossil to millions of years when radio carbon dating only goes up to the 10's of thousands...NOT millions and cannot date something that was never alive like rock?

List of scientists that don't believe in Darwinian evolution.
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660

Answer 9

I'm not an expert but according to your questions I believe you are in the wrong category.
Try science section.

Answer 10

Science question surely?