Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts

Monday, 21 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - How Geophysics Could Have Influenced Human Development - 31,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Aurors in the skies above Europe could have been breathtaking, terrifying or both for ancient humans.

Weird space weather seems to have influenced human behavior on Earth 41,000 years ago – our unusual scientific collaboration explores how

In that long stretch of Earth’s history before it was supposedly "created," according to creationist mythology—a span covering 99.9975% of the planet’s existence—a remarkable geophysical event occurred. Around 41,000 years ago, during a time when modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans coexisted in Eurasia, a major disturbance in Earth’s magnetic field likely influenced human behaviour and may have hastened the disappearance of the Neanderthals.

This event, known as the Laschamps Excursion, was not a typical magnetic pole reversal, which Earth undergoes roughly every 100,000 years. Instead, the planet's magnetic field entered a chaotic state, weakening dramatically to around 10% of its usual strength and breaking into multiple, unstable poles.

Earth’s magnetic field normally shields the surface from ionising radiation by deflecting much of it towards the poles. With that protective barrier severely weakened, the planet would have been exposed to much stronger levels of ultraviolet radiation. The usual deflection of charged particles also produces the auroras, which during this period would have appeared across much of the night sky, including at lower latitudes—perhaps even near the equator—due to the multiple and shifting magnetic poles.

Although the Laschamps Excursion lasted only a few years, the environmental changes it triggered may explain behavioural shifts visible in the archaeological record. This is discussed in an article in The Conversation by Raven Garvey, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan; Agnit Mukhopadhyay, Research Scholar at the University of Alberta and Research Affiliate at Michigan; and Sanja Panovska, a Research Scientist at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences. Together with their colleagues, they have published their findings—open access—in Science Advances.

Incidentally, the archaeological evidence discussed here should not exist at all if the biblical flood narrative were true. Such a flood would have obliterated or buried this material beneath a chaotic layer of silt, destroying the stratified layers of sediment by which these finds are reliably dated—dating that is wholly inconsistent with the timeline of human history as derived from biblical mythology. Moreover, the Laschamps Excursion undermines any creationist claim that the Earth was created and fine-tuned especially for human life. If something as fundamental as magnetic polarity—and the UV protection it affords—can fail naturally due to processes in Earth’s core, then the idea of a specially designed planet collapses under its own absurdity.

The article from The Conversation is reproduced below under a Creative Commons licence and has been reformatted for stylistic consistency.


Weird space weather seems to have influenced human behavior on Earth 41,000 years ago – our unusual scientific collaboration explores how
Wandering magnetic fields would have had noticeable effects for humans.

Maximilian Schanner (GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany)
Raven Garvey, University of Michigan; Agnit Mukhopadhyay, University of Michigan, and Sanja Panovska, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences

Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field.

When we first got together, we wondered whether our unconventional project, linking space weather and human behavior, could actually bridge such a vast disciplinary divide. Now, two years on, we believe the payoffs – personal, professional and scientific – were well worth the initial discomfort.

Our collaboration, which culminated in a recent paper in the journal Science Advances, began with a single question: What happened to life on Earth when the planet’s magnetic field nearly collapsed roughly 41,000 years ago?

Weirdness when Earth’s magnetic shield falters

This near-collapse is known as the Laschamps Excursion, a brief but extreme geomagnetic event named for the volcanic fields in France where it was first identified. At the time of the Laschamps Excursion, near the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth’s magnetic poles didn’t reverse as they do every few hundred thousand years. Instead, they wandered, erratically and rapidly, over thousands of miles. At the same time, the strength of the magnetic field dropped to less than 10% of its modern day intensity.

So, instead of behaving like a stable bar magnet – a dipole – as it usually does, the Earth’s magnetic field fractured into multiple weak poles across the planet. As a result, the protective force field scientists call the magnetosphere became distorted and leaky.

The magnetosphere normally deflects much of the solar wind and harmful ultraviolet radiation that would otherwise reach Earth’s surface.

So, during the Laschamps Excursion when the magnetosphere broke down, our models suggest a number of near-Earth effects. While there is still work to be done to precisely characterize these effects, we do know they included auroras – normally seen only in skies near the poles as the Northern Lights or Southern Lights – wandering toward the equator, and significantly higher-than-present-day doses of harmful solar radiation.
Aurors in the skies above Europe could have been breathtaking, terrifying or both for ancient humans.
The skies 41,000 years ago may have been both spectacular and threatening. When we realized this, we two geophysicists wanted to know whether this could have affected people living at the time.

The archaeologist’s answer was absolutely.

Human responses to ancient space weather

For people on the ground at that time, auroras may have been the most immediate and striking effect, perhaps inspiring awe, fear, ritual behavior or something else entirely. But the archaeological record is notoriously limited in its ability to capture these kinds of cognitive or emotional responses.

Researchers are on firmer ground when it comes to the physiological impacts of increased UV radiation. With the weakened magnetic field, more harmful radiation would have reached Earth’s surface, elevating risk of sunburn, eye damage, birth defects, and other health issues.

In response, people may have adopted practical measures: spending more time in caves, producing tailored clothing for better coverage, or applying mineral pigment “sunscreen” made of ochre to their skin. As we describe in our recent paper, the frequency of these behaviors indeed appears to have increased across parts of Europe, where effects of the Laschamps Excursion were pronounced and prolonged.

lump of reddish crumbly rock
Naturally occurring ochre can act as a protective sunscreen if applied to skin.
At this time, both Neanderthals and members of our species, Homo sapiens, were living in Europe, though their geographic distributions likely overlapped only in certain regions. The archaeological record suggests that different populations exhibited distinct approaches to environmental challenges, with some groups perhaps more reliant on shelter or material culture for protection.

Importantly, we’re not suggesting that space weather alone caused an increase in these behaviors or, certainly, that the Laschamps caused Neanderthals to go extinct, which is one misinterpretation of our research. But it could have been a contributing factor – an invisible but powerful force that influenced innovation and adaptability.

Cross-discipline collaboration

Collaborating across such a disciplinary gap was, at first, daunting. But it turned out to be deeply rewarding.

Archaeologists are used to reconstructing now-invisible phenomena like climate. We can’t measure past temperatures or precipitation directly, but they’ve left traces for us to interpret if we know where and how to look.

satellite image of Earth with a glowing green circle extending down across Europe
An artistic rendering of how far into lower latitudes the aurora might have been visible during the Laschamps Excursion.

Maximilian Schanner (GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany)
But even archaeologists who’ve spent years studying the effects of climate on past behaviors and technologies may not have considered the effects of the geomagnetic field and space weather. These effects, too, are invisible, powerful and best understood through indirect evidence and modeling. Archaeologists can treat space weather as a vital component of Earth’s environmental history and future forecasting.

Likewise, geophysicists, who typically work with large datasets, models and simulations, may not always engage with some of the stakes of space weather. Archaeology adds a human dimension to the science. It reminds us that the effects of space weather don’t stop at the ionosphere. They can ripple down into the lived experiences of people on the ground, influencing how they adapt, create and survive.

The Laschamps Excursion wasn’t a fluke or a one-off. Similar disruptions of Earth’s magnetic field have happened before and will happen again. Understanding how ancient humans responded can provide insight into how future events might affect our world – and perhaps even help us prepare.

Our unconventional collaboration has shown us how much we can learn, how our perspective changes, when we cross disciplinary boundaries. Space may be vast, but it connects us all. And sometimes, building a bridge between Earth and space starts with the smallest things, such as ochre, or a coat, or even sunscreen. The Conversation
Raven Garvey, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan; Agnit Mukhopadhyay, Research Scholar at University of Alberta; Research Affiliate, University of Michigan, and Sanja Panovska, Research scientist, GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Published by The Conversation.
Open access. (CC BY 4.0)
Abstract
In the recent geological past, Earth’s magnetic field reduced to ~10% of the modern values and the magnetic poles shifted away from the geographic poles, causing the Laschamps geomagnetic excursion, about 41 millennia ago. The excursion lasted ~2000 years, with dipole strength reduction and tilting spanning 300 years. During this period, the geomagnetic field’s multipolarity resembled outer planets, causing rapid magnetospheric changes. To our knowledge, this study presents the first space plasma analysis of the excursion, linking the geomagnetic field, magnetospheric system, and upper atmosphere in sequence using feedback channels for distinct temporal epochs. A three-dimensional reconstruction of Earth’s geospace system shows that these shifts affected auroral regions and open magnetic field lines, causing them to expand and wander toward lower latitudes. These changes likely altered the upper atmosphere’s composition and influenced anthropological progress during that era. Looking through a modern lens, such an event would disrupt contemporary technology, including communications and satellite infrastructure.

INTRODUCTION
For over 3.2 billion years, Earth’s intrinsic magnetic field has protected the planet’s atmosphere (1) and habitability (2) by serving as a shield against the solar wind (3), a continuous stream of energetic charged particles emanating from the Sun. This shield, known as the magnetosphere (4), takes on a shape resembling a magnetic dipole and is shaped by convective flow processes (5) and currents carrying charged particles (6). Within the magnetosphere, magnetic field lines transport charged particles by trapping and/or accelerating them, creating a space plasma environment (7, 8) that spans tens to hundreds of Earth radii (RE; ~6378 km in distance units) in the dayside and nightside, respectively. Earth’s space plasma environment is a complex and nonlinear system that plays a crucial role in safeguarding life from space-based threats (9). Charged particles from this environment interact with the upper atmosphere near the magnetic poles, giving rise to the captivating natural light displays known as the aurora borealis (Northern Lights) and aurora australis (Southern Lights) (10). Because of their close association with the planet’s intrinsic magnetic field, the attributes of the aurora are directly affected by magnetic disturbances like space storms (11), and magnetic substorms (12, 13). These disturbances can alter the trajectories of charged particles, affecting the location and intensity of the aurorae (14). Beyond shielding Earth from the solar wind, the space plasma environment also safeguards the planet’s habitability by deflecting harmful solar charged particles and cosmic radiation (15), thereby preserving the integrity of the stratospheric ozone layer (16) and atmospheric circulation processes (17). Furthermore, this magnetic environment plays a critical role in protecting modern technology like satellites (18), communication channels (19), and electrical power grids (20) during such disturbances, underscoring its profound societal importance.

Despite serving as a protective shield, Earth’s intrinsic magnetic field is prone to fluctuations. Owing to its convecting liquid outer core (21), which drives the planetary dynamo (22), the intrinsic magnetic field has constantly varied in geological time (23), occasionally leading to a complete reversal of the field (24). On certain occasions, the geomagnetic field changes rapidly over the time span of a few millennia; these events are called geomagnetic excursions (25) (henceforth referred to as excursions). Excursions are similar to geomagnetic reversals but occur over shorter timescales (24). They cause the intrinsic field strength to diminish and the magnetic tilt to change (25), rapidly relocating the magnetic poles over vast distances, even within a human lifetime (26). By contrast, the duration of the most recent reversal, Matuyama-Brunhes reversal, is estimated to be in the order of 20 to 30 thousand years (27). Although the exact circumstances that cause an excursion are not clearly established (23, 24), geomagnetic records indicate that the Earth’s magnetic field changed markedly about 41,000 years ago (or 41 ka). This event, known as the Laschamps excursion, is the most recent, well-documented, and best-studied global excursion, having been observed in several geological archival records worldwide (28). During this event, the axial dipole components of Earth’s geomagnetic field substantially weakened, resulting in a significant reduction in field intensity and a departure from dipolarity (29).

The variations observed in Earth’s magnetic field during the Laschamps excursion would have had profound implications on Earth’s biosphere (30). The weakening magnetic field intensity likely led to an influx of energetic particles and cosmic radiation penetrating Earth’s atmosphere (31), potentially causing notable alterations in atmospheric circulation (14) and composition (32). Although it is widely believed that these variations had a direct impact on early human development with the emergence of modern humans and megafaunal extinctions being recorded during the same time period as this excursion (26), such assumptions were based on oversimplified models of the space plasma environment. Accurately assessing their impact remains challenging without a comprehensive reconstruction of the space plasma environment on a global scale. A previous study (33) has attempted to delineate Earth’s magnetospheric morphology and its effect on the upper atmosphere and aurora for nondipolar geomagnetic fields, albeit relying on synthetic data with idealized parameters. Until recently, only a limited number of studies (34) have explored the state of the near-Earth space environment concerning transient nondipolar geomagnetic fields. Although these studies provide insights into the effects of geomagnetic reversals on the magnetosphere, the specific conditions of the magnetosphere and aurorae during the Laschamps event have never been investigated until now.

To our knowledge, this manuscript presents the first study that delves into the global repercussions of the fluctuating intrinsic magnetic field on Earth’s magnetospheric structure during the Laschamps event, linking this structure to the formation of a wandering auroral zone. Recent progress in numerical modeling has allowed us to accurately investigate the geospace system not only in three dimensions but also as a collective system. The study breaks down the timeline of the Laschamps excursion into specific temporal epochs that reveal notable variations in the space environment while enabling easy comparisons of variability across different time frames. Moreover, correlating the geophysical findings with anthropological evidences offers a pathway for future research to delve deeper into the precise effects of geomagnetic fluctuations not only on Earth but also on Earth-like planets in distant stellar systems.

GEOMAGNETIC VARIATIONS DURING THE LASCHAMPS EXCURSION
Recent studies examining the multimillennial variations of Earth’s magnetic field have yielded remarkable insights into the overarching morphology of the Laschamps excursion, suggesting that its genesis lay in the decay and subsequent recovery of the axial dipole field’s influence on the geomagnetic field (29, 35). Studies indicate that the magnitude of the axial dipole field, the field component allowing Earth to have a dipole-like magnetic field structure, directly dictated the scale of the excursion, whether it was regional or global in scope (36). Although the field intensity was globally very low, reconstructions of spatial morphology showed that regional field intensities and directions differed strongly (22). Notably, the equatorial dipole and nondipole components of the field remained relatively stable amidst these fluctuations (36).

The Laschamps excursion persisted for roughly 1800 years at the Earth’s surface, and a deeper investigation into the core-mantle boundary across an extended time frame of the event (50 to 30 ka; see Fig. 1A) revealed three distinct periods: pre-Laschamps period (50 to 43 ka), the excursion period (42 to 40 ka), and post-Laschamps period (39 to 30 ka) (36). In the pre-Laschamps period, the geomagnetic field resembled the present-day configuration, dominated by a strong axial dipole field with high dipole moment values. However, during the excursion period, the axial dipole field weakened substantially, approaching near-zero levels and occasionally even reversing its polarity for geologically brief periods. Globally, the field intensity plummeted to levels lower than the contemporary field intensity observed over the South Atlantic Anomaly (37), the region with the weakest magnetic field strength on present-day Earth. Transitional directional changes in the field were observed worldwide, albeit with varying magnitudes and timings across different regions. Meanwhile, the nondipole field components remained relatively consistent with pre-Laschamps levels. In the post-Laschamps period, whereas the nondipole field continued to behave typically, the axial dipole field began a slow recovery. However, this recovery failed to fully restore the pre-Laschamps levels, resulting in frequent, regionally confined excursions (36) until the modern-day field intensity was attained (24, 28). This study focuses its geomagnetic analyses on the period encompassing the peak drop during the Laschamps event, honing in on the excursion state and the brief intervals immediately preceding and following it (see Fig. 1A, inset). Within the 42- to 39-ka time frame, three distinct phases were evident: the stable field before the extreme decay (Phase A), the Laschamps midpoint (Phase B), and the recovery (Phase C).
Fig. 1. Variations in Earth’s internal magnetic field during the Laschamps Event.
(A) Intensity (denoted as “magnetic intensity”) and directional variations (denoted as “magnetic inclination”) of the intrinsic magnetic field during the Laschamps excursion, in comparison to modern conditions. B.P., before the present. (B to F) Global maps of intensity and inclination at the Earth’s surface for selected epochs across the peak field intensity drop during Laschamps as identified in subplot (A).

The differences in the geomagnetic field during the three phases of the Laschamps excursion have been illustrated in Fig. 1 (B to F). Phase A signified a dipole-dominated field with a gradual decline in the dipole moment strength that reached approximately half of present-day values (38). Concurrently, as estimated from the dipole components (the first three Gauss coefficients of the geomagnetic field) (39), the dipole tilt underwent large deviations from the geographic poles to equatorward latitudes (∼15°; see Fig. 1B). Phase B witnessed the field intensity plummeting to its nadir, with the dipole moment plummeting to approximately an order of magnitude lower than present-day levels (∼10% of the modern dipole moment), alongside rapid and pronounced variations in dipole tilt (see Fig. 1C). These tilt fluctuations stemmed from the reduced axial dipole contribution, resulting in a complex field marked by the emergence of multiple poles, contrasting starkly with a simplistic dipole model (see Fig. 1, D and E). Phase C heralded the beginning of field intensity recovery to moderate levels, with dipole tilt gradually reaching present-day norms. Throughout much of this phase, the field adopted a dipole structure reminiscent of the modern-day configuration (see Fig. 1F). Nevertheless, although the dipole moment at 39.9 ka is similar to that of the pre-Laschamps epoch, discernible differences in the global geomagnetic structure between these two periods were evident, as illustrated by the isoclinic lines on both maps.

RESPONSE OF THE MAGNETOSPHERIC SYSTEM
Variations in intrinsic magnetic fields have considerable ramifications on a planet’s magnetospheric system. Comparisons between Earth’s magnetosphere and those observed in other planets within the solar system like Jupiter and Neptune show significant disparities in size and structure, primarily attributed to variations in planetary magnetic moments and rotation periods (40, 41). Thus, it is virtually certain that the notable fluctuations observed in the geomagnetic field during the Laschamps excursion would have triggered a marked transformation in Earth’s magnetospheric configuration. Recent investigations into Earth’s magnetospheric structure during the Matuyama-Brunhes reversal—the most recent geomagnetic reversal that took place 778 ka—uncovered a substantial reduction in the magnetosphere’s size and the emergence of numerous regions where the magnetic field lines interact and release energy over a period spanning multiple millenia (34). However, because of the accelerated pace of geomagnetic instability characteristic of an excursion, Earth’s magnetospheric configuration transformed profoundly and swiftly over the course of a few centuries during the Laschamps excursion. Leveraging advanced techniques rooted in first principles–based global-scale numerical schemes, we present a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of Earth’s prehistoric magnetosphere during the Laschamps excursion and analyze the system’s shape, size, and structure.
Figure 2 illustrates the swift variations in Earth’s magnetospheric structure across distinct temporal epochs, spanning the various phases of the Laschamps excursion. During much of Phase A of the excursion, Earth’s magnetospheric structure remained largely dipolar, resembling modern times (see comparisons of Fig. 2, A and B). However, a gradual decrease in geomagnetic strength resulted in a reduction in the magnetosphere’s size. By 42.153 ka, Earth’s magnetosphere shrunk to ∼5.3 RE (33,804 km from Earth’s surface) on the dayside, almost half the size of the present-day magnetosphere, which ranges between 8 and 11 RE (∼51,000 to 70,000 km from Earth’s surface) during moderate solar conditions (42). Diminishing geomagnetic strength also expanded the open-closed field line boundary around the poles. The open-closed field line boundary is a region characterized as a boundary between open geomagnetic field lines, magnetic field lines that extend from the magnetosphere into interplanetary space and facilitate the entry of energetic particles from the Sun (43) and galactic cosmic radiation (44), and closed geomagnetic field lines, looped field lines that connect back to the planetary magnetic field (45). Furthermore, a gradual increase in the geomagnetic field’s dipole tilt meant that the magnetosphere’s dipole axis was significantly inclined toward the equator. During this epoch, the magnetosphere tilted by 46.3° to the geographic polar axis, at least four times higher than modern Earth’s geomagnetic tilt of ∼11°. By 41.168 ka (see Fig. 2C), as Phase A of the excursion drew to a close, a weakening axial dipole field caused Earth’s magnetosphere to exhibit strong nondipolar characteristics. The dipole axis was severely tilted to the geographic axis by 76°, resulting in a magnetospheric configuration that resembled those observed in outer planetary systems like Neptune (46). Although still displaying dipolar features like a dayside bow shock (47) and a compressed magnetosheath region (48), the substantial geomagnetic tilt resulted in the open-closed field line boundary relocating near the dayside equatorial magnetospheric boundary. This peculiar magnetic arrangement has been further visualized through 3D snapshots of the prehistoric magnetosphere provided in the Supplementary Materials.
Fig. 2. Reconstructed magnetospheric configurations across successive temporal epochs during the Laschamps excursion.
(A) Present-day magnetosphere at Earth. (B to F) Magnetospheric morphologies in the x-z plane (geocentric solar ecliptic coordinates) for temporal epochs spanning the various phases of Laschamps, as delineated in Fig. 1. All configurations were reconstructed under moderately southward solar wind driving conditions at 00:00 UT. White lines trace magnetic field lines, whereas the background contour represents the plasma particle pressure values saturated at 1.5 nPa.

Phase B marked the excursion’s peak alterations to Earth’s magnetospheric structure. By 40.977 ka, the axial dipole strength during this phase was only about 10% of present-day levels. Consequently, the magnetosphere contracted in size, as depicted in Fig. 2D, with the magnetopause—the magnetic boundary of the magnetosphere in the dayside—reaching a meager 2.43 RE (15,498 km) from Earth’s surface. On the nightside, the magnetospheric field lines were restricted to ∼32.3 RE. This phase also gave rise to powerful nondipolar characteristics. Multiple weak magnetic poles emerged around various geographic locations, as illustrated in fig. S4. These poles created clusters of closed field lines that did not extend beyond ∼2 RE (12,700 km from Earth’s surface) on both the dayside and the nightside, whereas substantial interactions between open field lines were observed. By 40.531 ka, despite a muted dipole strength (∼19% of modern values), the magnetosphere started to show signs of recovery (see Fig. 2E), with a stronger dayside and nightside closed field line region and a discernible bow shock and magnetosheath region against the upstream solar wind. Notably, the dipole tilt was higher during this epoch, offset by the emergence of nondipolar configurations near the southern geographic pole, leading to a further broadening of the open-closed field line boundary.

As Phase C unfolded and geomagnetic conditions began to recover, Earth’s magnetosphere gradually reverted to its dipolar state (Fig. 2F). By 39.9 ka, the dipole tilt had nearly returned to modern levels (∼10°), albeit with a weaker dipole strength. This resulted in a magnetospheric configuration reminiscent of the pre-Laschamps era yet with a smaller dayside presence and an expanded open field line region near the poles. Notably, closed field line regions expanded on both the dayside and nightside, whereas the bow shock and dayside magnetospheric boundary pushed sunward, extending to 6.4 RE (40,820 km). Simultaneously, the nightside magnetosphere enlarged compared to earlier phases (see fig. S5). Toward the latter part of Phase C, there were no notable changes in the dipole tilt angle. Over the subsequent 10,000 years, as the geomagnetic field regained its pre-Laschamps dipole strength, the magnetosphere likely maintained an enlarged open field line region around the poles before gradually shrinking back to the present-day auroral zone.

GEOLOGICALLY RAPID WANDERING OF THE AURORAL OVAL
The Earth’s magnetosphere is constantly interacting with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the surface of the Sun. This dynamic interaction results in the alignment of charged particles with Earth’s magnetic field, which are accelerated in the magnetosphere to precipitate into the upper reaches of the atmosphere (∼110 km). These charged particles, upon collision with neutral atoms within Earth’s atmosphere (9), ignite the ethereal display known as the aurorae or the Northern/Southern Lights. Primarily concentrated around the geomagnetic poles, the aurora finds its most pronounced manifestation near the delineating boundary between zones characterized by open and closed field lines (45). In doing so, it forms a ring-shaped contour surrounding the geomagnetic poles, commonly referred to as the auroral oval. Variations in magnetospheric shape and structure instigate the auroral oval in both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere to fluctuate. In modern times, the auroral oval’s location, structure, and intensity have been frequently affected by varying solar activity during space weather events (49). Space weather studies primarily focus on variations in Earth’s magnetosphere driven by changes in solar wind input to a relatively stable Earth’s magnetic field. In contrast, this study examines variations in Earth’s geomagnetic field under near-constant solar conditions. Building on the magnetospheric variations in the previous section, two substantive changes occurred in the aurora during the Laschamps excursion:
1) With the reduction in geomagnetic dipole moment, the magnetosphere was more compressed. This resulted in the expansion of the polar region encompassed by open field lines and resulted in the subsequent expansion of the aurora (26).

2) Rapid variations in the dipole tilt angle over a few centuries enabled the geomagnetic poles to be severely inclined, causing the location of the open-closed field line boundary and, by extension, the auroral oval to wander across the globe.

Figure 3 illustrates the transformative shifts across the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere auroral zones during the excursion. The contoured rows within the figure delineate the auroral energy fluxes, quantifying the sheer magnitude of energy input from energetic charged particles at a distance of 1.5 RE (equivalent to 10,000 km) from Earth’s surface. Concurrently, the approximate positions of the auroral oval and the open-closed field line boundary are mapped at a height of 110 km above Earth’s surface in the subsequent row.
Fig. 3. Visualization of auroral charged particle energy flux variations and corresponding auroral zone wandering during the Laschamps excursion.
Subplots (A to E) depict auroral coverage in the Northern Hemisphere at specified temporal epochs as identified in Fig. 1, whereas subplots (F to J) showcase auroral coverage in the Southern Hemisphere during the same epochs. (Top projection in each subplot) Auroral energy flux contours are represented at 1.5 RE (10,000 km), with values saturated at 10 mW/m2. (Bottom projection in each subplot) The auroral oval (light green) and aggregate open field line zones (dark green) are projected at atmospheric altitudes (110 km) for each epoch, displayed over an orthographic globe projection. Red lines indicate the trajectory of the geomagnetic poles, based on the axial dipole tilt.

As the geomagnetic dipole underwent a simultaneous weakening and tilting during Phase A, the Northern Hemisphere’s auroral oval traversed from the Arctic region through Western Eurasia to Northern Africa, extending further to Northwestern Sahara. Similarly, in the Southern Hemisphere, the auroral oval shifted from the Antarctic sector toward the eastern expanse of Australia and New Zealand. Notably, the open field line region and the auroral oval underwent a substantial expansion, with the auroral poleward boundary broadening from an average diameter of 5610 km at 42.153 ka to an impressive 8167 km at 41.168 ka. For reference, the modern auroral oval has a diameter of <3000 km during nominal solar wind conditions. During Phase B, this expansion intensified significantly, propelled by the drastic reduction in the axial dipole strength and escalating influence of the nondipolar field. Despite a relatively reduced tilt in the oval, vast expanses of both hemispheres were enveloped by expansive open field line regions, unleashing a substantial barrage of auroral precipitation on a global scale. In modern space weather, extreme events can cause the oval region to expand, but only by a fraction of what occurred during the peak reduction in dipole strength. This epoch witnessed a monumental expansion and the probable fragmentation of the auroral oval, attributable to the nondipolar components of the geomagnetic field. As illustrated in Fig. 3C, the aurora assumed a global presence, engulfing sizeable regions of the Earth with both open and closed field lines, thus sculpting a near-Earth space environment unparalleled in history or during any contemporary space weather phenomenon. This anomalous auroral morphology began its gradual restitution by 40.531 ka, marking the onset of Phase C. The protracted progression of globally unstable auroral zones likely persisted for several centuries until, by 39.9 ka, the Earth’s axial dipole reasserted its dominance, confining the aurora to the polar regions, as is the case today.


The authors present compelling evidence linking observable changes in the palaeontological record—specifically in human behaviour—to the geophysical disruption of Earth’s magnetic polarity known as the Laschamps Excursion. The very existence of this palaeontological and geophysical evidence stands in stark contrast to the creationist belief in the Bible as an inerrant account of Earth's history and life upon it.

Far from supporting the notion of a stable, perfectly designed planet fine-tuned for human life and created ex nihilo just a few thousand years ago, findings like these reveal a picture of humanity shaped by environmental pressures on a dynamic—and at times hostile—planet. The overwhelming weight of evidence exposes the biblical narrative as the product of pre-scientific imagination, rooted in the fearful infancy of our species. That belief in its literal truth still persists is, perhaps, the real wonder of the Bible — though it might be better attributed to the enduring power of childhood indoctrination, which at times borders on psychological abuse.

Sunday, 20 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - What Dinosaur Teeth Tell Us About Life 150 million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Original skull of the Giraffatitan from Tanzania.
Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, MB.R.2223

For details, see below.
What Dinosaur Teeth Reveal About Life 150 Million Years Ago | Leibniz Institute

Some 150 million years before the mythical events of ‘Creation Week’—give or take a few thousand years—our distant ancestors were small, nocturnal, rodent-like mammals eking out an existence in a world dominated by colossal reptiles. Among these dominant life forms were the dinosaurs, thriving in a variety of ecosystems and feeding on plants or other animals, depending on their species.

As they ate, they unwittingly left behind a record of their diet etched into the microscopic wear patterns on the enamel of their teeth. Today, with the help of sophisticated analytical techniques, palaeontologists can read these patterns like a diary of prehistoric meals. And with each new discovery, such as the one published by a team led by Dr Daniela E. Winkler of Kiel University, the yawning gap between ancient mythology and modern science widens ever further. Their findings provide yet another decisive refutation of the simplistic narrative crafted by Bronze Age storytellers—later compiled into what some still insist is the inerrant word of an omniscient creator.

This latest blow to creationist pseudoscience comes in the form of an open-access paper, Dental microwear texture analysis reveals behavioural, ecological and habitat signals in Late Jurassic sauropod dinosaur faunas, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

The team focused on the teeth of sauropods—long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs such as Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus — from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation in North America and the Lusitanian Basin in Portugal. Using a method called Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA), they examined the microscopic wear patterns caused by feeding, revealing a fascinating spectrum of dietary strategies and environmental adaptations among different species.

What they found demolishes the notion of sauropods as a homogenous group of giant leaf-munchers. Instead, the microwear textures show distinct differences in feeding behaviour, likely linked to differences in available vegetation and habitat. For example, Camarasaurus appears to have consumed tougher, more fibrous plant material—perhaps conifers—while others such as Diplodocus may have specialised in softer vegetation like ferns or aquatic plants. These variations not only suggest niche partitioning, where species avoid direct competition by diversifying their diets, but also point to distinct ecological zones across the ancient landscapes they inhabited.

Even more telling is the comparison between North American and European sauropods. Despite being closely related, the differences in their dental microwear suggest adaptations to different environmental pressures and available flora, implying behavioural flexibility and evolutionary divergence shaped by their respective habitats.

Such complexity and diversity, preserved for over 150 million years in the microscopic textures of fossilised teeth, are a world away from the simplistic narratives of static 'kinds' created in a single week. Instead, we see a dynamic, evolving biosphere responding to ecological challenges—exactly what we’d expect in a world governed by natural selection and deep time.

Refuting Creationism - Party Time In Iran 1,000 Years Before 'Creation Week' - And The Flood Missed The Evidence

Samples of ancient boar teeth unearthed at the archaeological site of Asiab in the Zagros Mountains.
Credit: Nic Vevers/ANU

Regional 87Sr/86Sr ratios were estimated using data from the Georoc database37 and measurements of modern plants from Ali Kosh29 and interpolated to the wider region using the underlying lithology (following Barakat et al.87).

‘Ultimate dinner party guests’: Dispersed communities attending feast in ancient Iran gifted boars sourced from distant lands | Australian National University

A thousand years before Earth was supposedly created—according to the Bronze Age myths that creationists regard as literal history—people were already feasting in the Zagros Mountains, at a site now known as Asiab in modern-day Iran. Then, in what must have been a strangely selective miracle, around 4,300 years ago—when, according to the same myths, a global flood wiped out all life on Earth—the remains of these ancient feasts remained completely untouched. Like countless other archaeological sites, Asiab shows no trace of the thick silt layer that such a cataclysmic flood would inevitably have left behind.

Long before the advent of agriculture, when humans still lived in scattered bands of hunter-gatherers, people gathered at Asiab for a communal feast. The exact reason—whether religious ceremony, marriage, funeral, or some form of tribal leadership event—can only be guessed at. But what is clear is that guests travelled long distances over mountainous terrain, bringing with them the carcasses of wild boar. These animals, dangerous to hunt and not commonly pursued by hunter-gatherers in the region, appear to have held special significance. Their presence suggests that hunting and transporting them was a display of prowess or status, perhaps reserved for prestigious guests.

This conclusion comes from a team of palaeontologists who examined the microscopic wear and isotopic signatures on the teeth of wild boar recovered from the site. (For more on how this technique works, see the AI information side panel.)

The international team, led by Dr Petra Vaiglova of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University (ANU), has just published their findings open access in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Saturday, 19 July 2025

Creationism In Crisis - Neanderthals With Different Cullinary Styles - 50,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

[left caption]
[right caption]

Specialty of the house: Neanderthals at two nearby caves butchered the same prey in different ways, suggesting local food traditions
Cut-marks on a bone found at Amud.
Image by the authors, supplied by Anaëlle Jallon.
More embarrassment for creationists comes in the form of new evidence that Neanderthals were butchering and cooking meat in two caves in what is now Israel. Not only did this occur some 40,000 to 50,000 years before creationists believe the Earth was created, but it also shows that Neanderthal culture had diversified into distinct culinary traditions—even among populations inhabiting neighbouring areas.

The most damning evidence against creationist claims is, of course, the very existence of such archaeological remains. According to the biblical narrative of a global, genocidal flood just a few thousand years ago, this evidence simply should not exist. Such a cataclysm would have erased any trace of it—or at best buried it beneath thick layers of chaotic silt, jumbled together with fossils of plants and animals from distant land masses in no coherent stratigraphic order.

The evidence for Neanderthal cultural diversity comes from researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who studied remains in the nearby caves of Amud and Kebara, located just 70 km apart.

What they found was a marked difference in how the two Neanderthal groups butchered their prey, including whether they processed the carcasses at the kill site or transported them back to their caves for preparation. There also appear to be differences in how the meat was cooked.

The researchers’ findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.

Thursday, 17 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - A Flint Arrowhead Embeded In A Human Rib Is Hurting Creationism

Flint arrowhead embedded in a human rib, found at the Roc de les Orenetes site (Queralbs, Ripollès).
Credit: Maria D. Guillén
/ IPHES-CERCA

Archaeological excavation work in June at the Roc de les Orenetes site (Queralbs, Ripollès).
IPHES-CERCA
Arrowhead embedded in a human rib reveals prehistoric violence in the Pyrenees over 4,000 years ago

Around the time creationists claim Earth was undergoing a global flood — a mass genocide by drowning, supposedly enacted by a deity - a belief based solely on the origin myths of a Bronze Age Middle Eastern pastoralist tribe — people in the Pyrenees were engaged in violent conflict, using bows and arrows. Unlike biblical mythology, this insight is grounded in tangible evidence: a human rib bone with a flint arrowhead still embedded in it. Remarkably, the injury had healed before the individual died, suggesting they survived the attack for some time. The rib was found in a mass grave at Roc de les Orenetes (Queralbs, Girona), alongside the remains of several others, many of whom showed signs of trauma from blunt or sharp weapons, particularly to the head and upper body.

The timing of this violence — dated to between 4,100 and 4,500 years ago — is problematic for biblical literalists. If the Genesis flood had truly occurred as described, these remains should either have been destroyed or buried beneath a thick layer of flood-deposited silt, mixed with the remains of animals and plants not native to the region. Alternatively, one must believe that just a few years after a supposed global reset that reduced humanity to eight survivors, their descendants had multiplied sufficiently to form warring groups in the mountains of what is now northern Spain.

And yet, these individuals show no sign of having heard of Noah, his family, or the god who allegedly saved them. There’s no indication of the monotheistic religion supposedly preserved aboard the ark. If the flood story were true, the moral lesson it was intended to deliver seems to have been forgotten almost immediately, everywhere except among a small group in the Canaanite hills.

This discovery joins a growing list of archaeological findings that contradict the flood narrative. Far from showing a global cataclysm, the archaeological record reveals continuous human habitation before, during, and after the time the flood is supposed to have occurred—with no signs of interruption, no replacement by a Near Eastern culture, and no characteristic flood-deposited sediment layer.

It’s almost as if the global flood never happened. Not only is there no geological or archaeological evidence supporting it, but what evidence we do have consistently contradicts it. This find from the Pyrenees is yet another example.

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - Wooden Tools - From 290,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Reconstruction of wooden tools in use
AI generated image (ChatGPT4o)

A wooden tool is excavated from the site in China.
Photo: Bo Li.
2025 | Oldest wooden artefacts ever found in East Asia reveal plant-based diet of ancient humans - University of Wollongong – UOW

The childish notion of creationism took another battering today with the announcement that an international team of researchers, including University of Wollongong archaeologist Professor Bo Li, has unearthed a set of wooden tools in south-west China dating to approximately 300,000 years ago. That places them a full 290,000 years before creationists believe the Earth was formed, situating their manufacture and use within the 99.9975% of Earth’s history that occurred before the so-called ‘Creation Week’.

This date significantly predates the appearance of anatomically modern humans outside Africa. The exact identity of the archaic hominins who made and used these tools is uncertain — possibly early Denisovans, Homo heidelbergensis, or perhaps H. erectus. What we can say with confidence is that these hominins stand in stark contradiction to the Bronze Age origin myths recorded in the Bible, which many creationists insist are literal historical accounts.

The usual creationist response to such findings is to reject them outright as fabrications, the result of flawed methodology, or deliberate deception. However, the dating of these artefacts relies on a technique refined by Professor Li called electron spin resonance (ESR), which measures the time elapsed since the artefacts were buried. (See the side panel for further details.)

Thursday, 3 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - Ancient DNA From Before Noah's Flood Shows Genetic Diversity

Final facial depiction of the Nuwayrat individual.

Reconstruction of the potter's face
Geographic location of the Nuwayrat cemetery (red dot), and the previously sequenced Third Intermediate period individuals from Abusir-el Meleq (purple diamond).

Credit: Adeline Morez Jacobs.
Researchers sequence first genome from ancient Egypt | Crick

According to the biblical narrative, the entire human population of Earth was reduced to just eight related individuals around 4,000 years ago, following a global, genocidal flood — a flood which, curiously, left no trace.

Now, as is almost invariably the case, new scientific evidence is entirely inconsistent with that narrative. The genetic analysis of an individual who lived and died in Egypt between 4,500 and 4,800 years ago shows that he was approximately 80% North African, with the remaining 20% of his DNA tracing to the vicinity of Mesopotamia.

Historical evidence also shows that, long before the supposed global flood, agriculture-based civilisations had been established in both Egypt and Mesopotamia. These societies had already formed trading networks and cultural connections, and left behind artefacts — including stone structures and buried remains — which would have been completely obliterated by the kind of flood described in the Bible.
Pottery vessel in which the Nuwayrat individual was discovered.

Image: Garstang Museum of Archaeology, University of Liverpool.
More telling still is that, by 4,500 years ago, the human population — which, according to the biblical account, had only recently descended from a single family via incestuous inbreeding — had already diversified to the point that measurable genetic differences existed between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian populations. This diversity is what made such DNA analysis possible in the first place.

The analysis of this individual’s genome — the oldest Egyptian DNA recovered to date — was carried out by researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), UK. They have just published their findings, open access, in Nature.

Wednesday, 2 July 2025

Refuting Creationism - Evidence of Humans In America 13,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Human footprints at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, reported in 2021, show that human activity occurred in the Americas as long as 23,000 years ago – about 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. A new U of A study supports the 2021 findings.
Courtesy of David Bustos/
White Sands National Park

Earliest evidence of humans in the Americas confirmed in new U of A study | University of Arizona News
Fig. 3. Alkali Flat east escarpment.
(A) WHSA Locality 2 (view east) (Fig. 2B) with exposure of alluvial beds and palustrine beds along the escarpment. Stratum 1 is exposed in the foreground (comprising the eastern margin of Alkali Flat), but in this photo, it is dried out and covered with a thin sheet of eolian gypsum sand. The finely bedded sands and muds of Stratum 2A comprise the low escarpment in the middle ground, expressed by the thin, horizontal ledges formed by differential weathering of the stream beds. The trench exposing human tracks in Stratum 2A is at the left.
Fig. 1. Field area setting.
The northern Tularosa Basin showing the area of the White Sands (“Gypsum Sand Dunes”), the Alkali Fat deflation basin, modern Lake Lucero, and present-day Lost River, which drains southwest across the distal piedmont until it is buried by the gypsum dunes (see also fig. S4). The 1204-m contour line approximates the proposed extent of paleolake Otero (15). It was likely more extensive given the >4 m of lake beds at “G.” The two field areas (red dots) are as follows: “G” is the area of Gypsum Overlook, the Central study area, and WHSA Locality 2; “Loc 1” is a stratigraphic section along the west margin of Alkali Flat. The brown pattern at G is the area of exposures of deposits linked to paleolake Otero and overlain by truncated Holocene dunes (31). The inset shows the location of the White Sands and the Tularosa Basin within New Mexico [based on figure 1 in (31)].

Image credit: X. Gong and A. Cowart, University of Wisconsin Cartography Lab.
Vance T. Holliday et al.(2025)
The Bronze Age Middle Eastern authors of the Bible clearly knew little of the world beyond a few days' walk from their homes in the Canaanite Hills. The world they described — and the stories they invented to fill the vast gaps in their knowledge — contained nothing unfamiliar to them. They had no way of knowing the true age of the Earth or the Universe, which they imagined to be fixed and immobile. They knew nothing of the history of living or extinct species, nor of the compelling evidence for common ancestry stretching back hundreds of thousands, even tens of millions, of years. And they were entirely unaware of the existence of other peoples living in distant lands, across vast oceans on other continents.

It should come as no surprise, then, that they got so much wrong, and that their writings omitted nearly everything science has since revealed about human origins. We now know that Homo sapiens diversified from archaic ancestors in Africa and gradually spread across the globe—migrating over land bridges now submerged by rising sea levels and eventually reaching the Americas.

Almost all of this is well-established in modern science, with the only significant uncertainty remaining around the precise timing of the first human colonisation of the Americas from Siberia. Bible literalists attempt to sidestep this discrepancy between the scientific evidence and the biblical narrative by postulating, without any supporting evidence, that the Bible was authored by an omniscient creator god. They argue that any contradiction with scientific findings must be due to mistaken interpretation, not error in the Bible. In essence, their reasoning runs: “The Bible was written by an all-knowing god because the Bible says so—therefore, any conflicting evidence must be wrong.” Instead of critically examining the claims of Bronze Age hill farmers, they demand that science must bend to fit ancient, unsubstantiated assertions.

One striking example of the scientific evidence at odds with biblical literalism is the recent confirmation that human footprints discovered at White Sands National Park, New Mexico, are 23,000 years old—some 13,000 years older than biblical literalists believe the Earth itself to be.

These footprints were discovered in 2021 and initially dated to 23,000 years ago — 10,000 years earlier than the previously accepted earliest human presence in the Americas. While this early date was controversial, a team led by Professor Vance Holliday of the University of Arizona’s School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences has now re-evaluated the evidence and confirmed the original finding.

The team has just published their findings, open access, in Science, with an explanation in an official University of Arizona news release.

Sunday, 29 June 2025

Refuting Creationism - Why Modern Humans Took So Long To sucessfully Leave Africa.

Humans learned to thrive in a variety of African environments before their successful expansion into Eurasia roughly 50,000 years ago.
© Ondrej Pelanek and Martin Pelanek

Humans learned to thrive in a variety of African environments before their successful expansion into Eurasia roughly 50,000 years ago.

© Ondrej Pelanek and Martin Pelanek>
Before Dispersing out of Africa, Humans Learned to Thrive in Diverse Habitats

Despite what creationist dogma requires its adherents to believe, anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens) were present in Africa for a considerable time before following their archaic ancestors, H. erectus and possibly H. heidelbergensis, out of Africa and into, primarily, South Asia. One find, reported in 2017, suggested that H. sapiens were in Morocco, North Africa, as early as 315,000 years ago. Yet they don’t appear to have made a successful migration out of Africa until about 50,000 years ago.

The question is: what took us so long?

Aside from the need for favourable climatic conditions — providing habitable routes with sufficient food and water for hunter-gatherers — new research suggests that the delay may also have been due to a simple lack of the necessary skills and experience to quickly adapt to unfamiliar environments. It may have taken that long for humans to spread widely enough across Africa to acquire those crucial adaptive skills. Once we had them, there was little to stop us from using them beyond Africa.

Of course, they would not have been migrating in the sense of deliberately moving into new territory, which would imply a detailed knowledge of geography, but were simply spreading naturally into suitable adjacent areas as their population grew.

This new research was conducted by a consortium of scientists led by Professor Eleanor Scerri of the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany, and Professor Andrea Manica of the University of Cambridge, UK. By analysing a dataset of archaeological sites and environmental records spanning the last 120,000 years in Africa, the team determined that humans began expanding into a wider range of habitats within Africa around 70,000 years ago. Although there had been earlier windows of favourable climate for migration into Eurasia, these attempts appear to have failed. Between 70,000 and 50,000 years ago, however—despite more challenging conditions—the migration that ultimately succeeded took place. All non-African people today are descended from that event.

The consortium has recently published their findings open access in Nature. Their work is also explained in a Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology news item.

Wednesday, 25 June 2025

Creationism Refuted - Now It's Frozen Wolf Cubs From 4,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'


14,000-year-old frozen wolf cubs recovered from permafrost at the Syalakh site, Northern Siberia
Famous Ice Age ‘puppies’ likely wolf cubs and not dogs, study shows - News and events, University of York

The mountain of evidence that creationists must ignore to maintain their belief that Earth is a mere 6,000–10,000 years old—because it says so in a book of Bronze Age mythology—just got a little bigger. A new analysis of the DNA of two frozen canid cubs found in Siberian permafrost confirms they were wolves, not early domesticated dogs as once speculated. The cubs, discovered near the village of Tumat in northern Siberia, are around 14,000 years old and genetically similar to modern wolves.

An analysis of DNA from their stomach contents reveals a mixed diet of meat and plant matter, consistent with the diets of contemporary wolves. Remarkably, some of the meat—specifically skin—came from a woolly rhinoceros, likely a calf, as adult rhinos would have been far too large for wolves to hunt. An earlier study had identified black fur in the cubs, prompting speculation that they might be early domesticated dogs, since melanism is commonly associated with dogs but not typically seen in wolves. However, further genomic analysis showed that these cubs belonged to a now-extinct wolf population that was not ancestral to domestic dogs. This suggests the black fur mutation may have been limited to that specific lineage, contributing nothing to the modern dog gene pool.

The puppies were found at the Syalakh site, the first in 2011 and the second in 2015. The site also contains mammoth bones showing signs of burning and processing by humans. This initially led to speculation that the cubs might have been tame or semi-domesticated wolves associated with early humans. However, that hypothesis can now be ruled out based on the genetic evidence. It is believed that the cubs died when a landslide trapped them in their den shortly after their final meal.

How the wolf cubs came to be fed on the skin of a woolly rhinoceros remains uncertain, but one plausible explanation is that it was scavenged from a kill made by humans.

Sunday, 22 June 2025

Refuting Creationism - How Living Organism's Survived - 700 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Researchers Ian Hawes of the University of Waikato and Marc Schallenberg of the University of Otago measure the physicochemical conditions of a meltwater pond.
Credit: Roger Summons

Pustular microbial mat section such as could have existend in small melt-water ponds.
When Earth iced over, early life may have sheltered in meltwater ponds | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Only by systematically ignoring geological and archaeological evidence can creationists continue to delude themselves into believing that Earth is just a few thousand years old and was perfectly created by an anthropophilic god especially for humans – its supposed “special creation.”

The evidence, however, paints a radically different picture from that childish superstition. Not only was Earth clearly not perfectly created for humans, it wasn’t perfectly created for any life form. And it is far older than creationists assert. In truth, around 600 million years ago, Earth was such a hostile place for life that it was entirely covered in ice. The polar ice sheets had extended until they met at the equator. These “Snowball Earth” conditions led to a mass extinction so severe that it remains something of a mystery how any life survived – especially complex eukaryotic cells.

Now, a multinational team of researchers led by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found evidence that early life could have survived in small pools of surface meltwater. They reached this conclusion after studying similar meltwater pools on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica. What they found not only showed that single-celled eukaryotes can survive in such conditions, but also revealed that the population of prokaryotes varies according to local environmental conditions

These meltwater pools act as microcosms of diverse environments and demonstrate how local factors shape the distribution of different species – exactly as predicted by the Theory of Evolution. Had the conditions been perfect as creationists insist, there could be no variation in the populations in these pools. Variation only arises because the species need to adapt to different conditions - something that would never be needed in perfectly designed conditions.

The team has just published their findings, open access, in the journal Nature Communications.

Thursday, 12 June 2025

Refuting Creationism - Yes, It's Another Of Those 'Non-Exitent' Transitional Fossils!

Reconstruction of the Burgess Shale concilitergan Helmetia expansa.
Artwork by Marianne Collins.

Holotype of Helmetia expansa USNM 83952, dorsal view. Cross polarized light.

Ancient fossil sheds big light on evolution mystery: solving a 100-year arthropod mystery | Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

A fundamental problem with creationism is that it depends on wilfully ignoring the vast and ever-growing body of contrary evidence. The intellectual dishonesty required to sustain this belief system makes its adherents the subject of ridicule—not just among scientists, but even among many fellow theists. Its prominent proponents, often elevated to near-prophetic status by their followers, are notorious for misrepresenting or outright lying about scientific findings. Unsurprisingly, they are treated with contempt by the scientific community.

One of the more blatantly counterfactual claims in the creationist repertoire is the assertion that there are no transitional fossils, and no evidence supporting the evolution of species from common ancestors. This denialism is essential to preserve belief in the spontaneous, magical creation of all species a few thousand years ago, without any ancestral lineage.

Accordingly, the creationist industry will need to deploy its usual strategies of misdirection and denial in response to a fascinating Cambrian stem arthropod, first discovered in 1918 in the Burgess Shale of Canada. Initially described from a single specimen, this enigmatic fossil has now been thoroughly reclassified thanks to the work of a team of Harvard researchers led by Dr Sarah Losso, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Their analysis, based on 36 newly examined specimens, sheds significant light on early arthropod evolution.

Their findings are detailed in an open-access paper published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, and summarised in a Harvard University news article.

Tuesday, 10 June 2025

Refuting Creationism - A Technologically Advanced Civilisation in the Philippines - 25,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

A map of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Sunda region as it appeared roughly 25,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age, with locations of archaeological sites surveyed by the Mindoro Archaeology Project.
Base Map: www.gebco.net, 2014

A map of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Sunda region as it appeared roughly 25,000 years ago at the height of the last Ice Age, with locations of archaeological sites surveyed by the Mindoro Archaeology Project. The sites yielded artifacts with remarkably similar characteristics despite separation by thousands of kilometers and deep waters that are almost impossible to cross without sufficiently advanced seafaring knowledge and technology.

Base Map: www.gebco.net, 2014.
Philippine islands had technologically advanced maritime culture 35,000 years ago | News | Ateneo de Manila University

It’s shaping up to be another difficult week for creationists. Hot on the heels of news that humans were fighting and killing in northern Italy 7,000 years before the alleged ‘Creation Week’ and ‘The Fall’—events which biblical literalists claim introduced death into the world—comes fresh evidence of a sophisticated maritime culture flourishing in what is now the Philippines 18,000 years before that.

Another significant challenge for the creationist narrative is that, like the skeletal remains found in Italy, this archaeological evidence in the Philippines was not obliterated by the supposed global flood—an essential element of young Earth creationism for which there is no credible supporting evidence.

The discoveries in the Philippines were made by scientists from Ateneo de Manila University, in collaboration with international experts and institutions. Their research reveals early human migration, technological innovation, and long-distance intercultural connections dating back more than 35,000 years. The findings have been published in Archaeological Research in Asia, and are also explained in a news release from Ateneo de Manila University.

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