Creationism Refuted - Tree Pollen Record - from 140,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Tree pollen reveals 150,000 years of monsoon history in Northern Australia – News

Droughts in Southeast Asia and increasingly devastating floods in Northern Australia are not random anomalies—they are predictable consequences of climate change, as revealed by a 150,000-year record of monsoon patterns preserved in tree pollen from sediment in Girraween Lagoon near Darwin. This record, meticulously analysed and correlated with evidence of past climate change and ocean currents, offers a stark warning about what lies ahead.

Not only does this research thoroughly dismantle the juvenile creationist fantasy that Earth is a mere 6,000 to 10,000 years old, it also flatly contradicts the myth of a global flood just a few thousand years ago—such a cataclysm would have obliterated the very sediment that preserved this climate history. Moreover, it challenges the simplistic notion that Earth was "finely tuned" for life, since the data show a planet subject to instability and extreme hardship, at times rendering regions locally uninhabitable due to global climatic shifts.

The study, conducted by researchers at James Cook University and Flinders University, demonstrates that shifts in Northern Australia's monsoon patterns coincide with Heinrich events—sudden surges of cold meltwater into the North Atlantic that weaken the Gulf Stream. As the Gulf Stream drives much of Western Europe’s climate by transporting warm water across the Atlantic, its disruption would have profound consequences for Europe as well.

Can you tell me more about these Heinrich events, please. Heinrich events are dramatic climatic episodes that occurred during the last glacial period, named after marine geologist Hartmut Heinrich who first identified them in the 1980s. These events represent sudden and massive discharges of icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean, originating primarily from the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America.

Key Features of Heinrich Events:

1. Ice-Rafted Debris (IRD):
   Heinrich events are identified by layers of sediment in North Atlantic marine cores that contain ice-rafted debris—fragments of rock and other materials carried by icebergs and dropped onto the seafloor as the ice melted.
2. Abrupt Cooling:
   The influx of cold, fresh meltwater into the North Atlantic during a Heinrich event disrupted thermohaline circulation (the so-called Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC), particularly the Gulf Stream. This led to abrupt regional cooling, especially in Europe and North America.
3. Duration and Frequency:
   These events occurred roughly every 7,000–10,000 years during the last glacial cycle (~70,000 to 10,000 years ago), though the exact timing and spacing varied. Each event may have lasted for several hundred to a few thousand years.
4. Global Impact:
   Although triggered by North Atlantic dynamics, Heinrich events had global repercussions. Evidence shows climate responses as far afield as the Indian monsoon, tropical Africa, and South America, where rainfall patterns shifted dramatically. The study you linked to adds Northern Australia to that list, showing that these events influenced monsoons far from their origin.
5. Mechanism:
   The most widely accepted model suggests that internal ice-sheet instability or subglacial processes triggered massive iceberg calving events. These icebergs melted in the North Atlantic, introducing vast amounts of fresh water and lowering ocean salinity. This in turn weakened or shut down deep-water formation, a key component of the global climate system.

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Summary:

Heinrich events are natural examples of abrupt climate change—rapid and severe disruptions to the climate system caused by shifts in ocean circulation. They provide a powerful lesson for today: large-scale climatic systems can change quickly and globally in response to disturbances, especially involving the ocean’s role in heat and moisture distribution.

The team's findings are now published in Quaternary Science Reviews, and are also explained in lay terms in a Flinders University blog post.

Tree pollen reveals 150,000 years of monsoon history in Northern Australia

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Northern Australia’s annual monsoon season brings relief to drought-stricken lands and revitalises crops and livestock for farmers. But a study of 150,000 years of climate records shows that the monsoon is likely to intensify, triggering a higher risk of flooding while worsening the impact of droughts in East Asia.

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Led by Professor Michael Bird, researchers at James Cook University and Flinders University have assessed sediments at Girraween Lagoon near Darwin, revealing a continuous record of monsoon rainfall patterns dating back beyond the last interglacial period.

This research published in the scientific journal Quaternary Science Reviews offers insight into how climate change could alter monsoon patterns across East Asia and Australia.

This is the longest terrestrial record ever produced at the southern end of the Indo-Australian monsoon system, which delivers vital rainfall to millions across the Southern Hemisphere. The record also has implications for the Northern Hemisphere where tens of millions in Asia rely on monsoons for food and their livelihoods.

Our study shows how the two monsoon systems are interrelated over thousands of years and reveals what causes them to change. Our analyses shows that that rainfall in northern Australia is closely tied to sea level changes, which shift the location of the northern coastline by up to 320 km.

These shifts strongly alter local rainfall, with wetter periods occurring when the coastline is closer to the Australian landmass and the oppose effect is prolonged drought in East Asia.

Intriguingly, the research also uncovered what we consider bursts of intense monsoon activity — some lasting less than 10,000 years. These bursts align with Heinrich events — abrupt pulses of freshwater into the North Atlantic from rapidly melting ice linked to the weakening of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean.

Professor Michael I. Bird, first author
College of Science and Engineering
James Cook University
Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

These findings carry a warning from scientists because the Gulf Stream is already weakening due to climate change, and the study suggests this could lead to increased rainfall in northern Australia while contributing to droughts in parts of East Asia.

This isn’t just ancient history. It is a window into the rainfall patterns that are emerging today. Our data suggest that the weather trends we’re witnessing like the drying in China and wetting in northern Australia could accelerate if the Gulf Stream continues to weaken, so we need to be ready for that scenario.

It’s not surprising. Decreasing rainfall in parts of the east Asian summer monsoon region has been identified in rainfall records since the 1960s, while increasing rainfall has been evident in north-western Australia since the last century, accelerating since the 1950s. Our new data suggest that further weakening of the Gulf Stream could reinforce these trends even more in the future, with consequences for both regions.

We need to put this impact into context because this region extends from China through Southeast Asia, the maritime continent, and western Indo-Pacific warm pool on the Equator, to Australia. The region is home to almost a billion people and five terrestrial Biodiversity Hotspots.

Professor Corey J. A. Bradshaw, co-author.
Global Ecology | Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu
College of Science and Engineering
Flinders University,
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Publication:

Bird, Michael I.; Brand, Michael; Comley, Rainy; Hadeen, Xennephone; Jacobs, Zenobia; Rowe, Cassandra; Saltré, Frédérik; Wurster, Christopher M.; Zwart, Costijn; Bradshaw, Corey J.A.
Quaternary Science Reviews (2025) 366 109504. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109504

Highlights

• 150 kyr n-alkane δ2H and pollen record of monsoon strength from northern Australia.
• Coastline position strongly influenced local hydroclimate.
• Monsoon intensity broadly anti-phased with East Asian Summer Monsoon.
• Short (∼2–10 kyr) periods of dramatically increased monsoon intensity also occur.
• Short periods of increased monsoon intensity align with Heinrich events.

Abstract
Nearly two thirds of the world's population depend on monsoon rainfall, with monsoon failure and extreme precipitation affecting societies for millennia. Monsoon hydroclimate is predicted to change as the climate warms, albeit with uncertain regional trajectories. Multiple glacial-interglacial terrestrial records of east Asian monsoon variability exist, but there are no terrestrial records of equivalent length from the coupled Indo-Australian monsoon at its southern limit — Australia. We present a continuous 150,000-year lacustrine record of monsoon dynamics from the core monsoon region of northern Australia based on the proportion of dryland tree pollen in the total dryland pollen spectra and the hydrogen isotope composition of long chain n-alkanes. We show that rainfall at the site depends strongly on sea level, which changes proximity of the coast to the site by 320 km over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. Long-term trends in rainfall are broadly anti-phased with the east Asian monsoon modulated by coastal proximity. The record also contains multiple, short intervals (∼2 to < 10,000 years) of large changes in tree cover (from 5 to 95 % tree pollen over 3000 years in one instance). Changes in tree cover are frequently but not always, accompanied by synchronous large changes in the other hydroclimate proxies. While these wetter periods cannot be easily ascribed to orbitally induced changes in insolation or coastal proximity, they are correlated with most Heinrich events. This relationship implies that strong asymmetry in inter-hemispheric monsoon rainfall might be one outcome of the current weakening in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, through a reduction in oceanic heat transfer from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere.

1. Introduction
The dominant feature of climate across most of the tropics and subtropics is a seasonal reversal of the prevailing winds across the Equator, resulting in a wetter summer season and a drier winter in each hemisphere. At an annual scale, the ‘global monsoon’, approximated hydrologically by the zone of maximum rainfall associated with the intertropical convergence zone, oscillates between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres (An et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2017). This oscillation is driven by the annual cycle of maximum insolation between each hemisphere (Deininger et al., 2020), leading to anti-phased summer rainy seasons in each (Eroglu et al., 2016; Deininger et al., 2020). Agriculture and ecosystems across the tropics and subtropics depend on monsoon rainfall (An et al., 2015), and so growing populations and climate change increase vulnerability to any change in monsoon dynamics (Zhang et al., 2018; Martinez-Villalobos and Neelin, 2023). Indeed, drought associated with monsoon failure, as well as monsoon-related flooding, have driven major demographic changes in prehistory (e.g., Cook et al., 2010) and the recent past (Li et al., 2011; Qian et al., 2012; Wang et al., 2015.1).

The monsoon system that affects the largest land area and human population is the east Asian summer monsoon north of the Equator, coupled by cross-equatorial airflow to the Indo-Australian summer monsoon south of the Equator (Li and Li, 2014) (Fig. 1). This region extends from China through Southeast Asia, the maritime continent and western Indo-Pacific warm pool on the Equator, to Australia. The region is home to almost a billion people and five terrestrial biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al., 2000).

Fig. 1. Location of Girraween Lagoon in monsoonal north Australia. Also shown are the Sunda and Sahul continental shelves, with areas landward exposed at times of lower sea level, and the major pathways for water and heat transport between the Pacific and Indian Oceans via the Indonesian throughflow. Approximate boundaries of the true and ‘pseudo’ monsoon domains and directions of wet season airflow are in yellow (Suppiah, 1992). Insert shows the approximate dominant flows of the east Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and the Indo-Australian summer monsoon (IASM). Additional locations mentioned in the text are: 1 and 2: speleothem stable isotope records from KNI-51 and Ballgown Cave, respectively (Denniston et al., 2017.1); 3: marine core geochemical record of runoff and dust flux (Zhang et al., 2020.1; Pei et al., 2021; Sarim et al., 2023.1); 4: speleothem isotope record from Flores (Scroxton et al., 2022); 5 and 6: Woods and Gregory ‘megalakes’, respectively (Bowler et al., 1998, 2001; Fitzsimmons et al., 2012.1). Base image data: Google © 2023 Maxar Technologies. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)

The Indo-Australian summer monsoon represents the dominant source of rainfall in northern Australia, although atmospheric teleconnections to other sources of global interannual climate variability, particularly El Niño-Southern Oscillation, contribute to rainfall variability (Sharmila and Hendon, 2020.2; Heidemann et al., 2023.2; Gallagher et al., 2024). The Indo-Australian summer monsoon in northern Australia also exhibits its own internal dynamics, due in approximately equal measure to local oceanic (sea surface temperature, evaporation, and wind) and terrestrial (land cover, soil moisture, evaporation, and wind) influences on rainfall (Yu and Notaro, 2020.3; Sekizawa et al., 2021.1; Heidemann et al., 2023.2; Sekizawa et al., 2023.3). While the east Asian summer monsoon is dominant due to the large, high-altitude Asian landmass, the internal dynamics of the Indo-Australian summer monsoon can also drive variability in east Asian winter monsoon rainfall in southern China, suggesting close linkages (Yu and Notaro, 2020.3; Sekizawa et al., 2021.1; Heidemann et al., 2023.2; Sekizawa et al., 2023.3).

Terrestrial speleothem oxygen isotope and pollen records (e.g., Ma et al., 2023.4; Chen et al., 2023.5) spanning one or more glacial-interglacial cycles have demonstrated periods of enhanced/(reduced) east Asian summer monsoon rainfall at times of higher/(lower) Northern Hemisphere insolation and distinct, weak monsoon intervals, some of which are coincident with Heinrich events (Cheng et al., 2009, 2016.1). However, equivalent long terrestrial records from the southern end of the Indo-Australian summer monsoon in northern Australia are conspicuously absent.

Proxy records of terrestrial runoff have been derived from marine records off north-western Australia and are correlated with east Asian summer monsoon records (Pei et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2020.1; Sarim et al., 2023.1) (Fig. 1). However, those records are potentially confounded by the adjacent wide continental shelf that introduces an effect of sea-level change at orbital timescales on the delivery of runoff-derived sediment to the core locations. The locations are also likely affected by the large changes in land-sea distribution in the maritime continent that modify heat and mass transfer through the Indonesian throughflow upstream of the core sites (Lee et al., 2019). On land, a discontinuous speleothem time series of oxygen isotope has been generated covering the last 40 kyr (1 kyr = 1000 years) from northern Western Australia (Denniston et al., 2017.1), a location that is under the influence of the ‘pseudo’ monsoon (Suppiah, 1992; Gallagher et al., 2024) where airflow originates in the eastern Indian Ocean, rather than from equatorial regions to the north (Fig. 1).

In the arid interior of Australia, sediments from the former Woods and Gregory ‘megalakes’ (now small, ephemeral bodies of water) show that large perennial water bodies existed, dominantly during periods in Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 around ∼ 50 ka ago, MIS 5 around 100 ka ago, as well as earlier (Bowler et al., 1998, 2001; Veth et al., 2009.1; Fitzsimmons et al., 2012.1). These megalakes were fed by monsoon rain falling into south-draining catchments, with drainage divides at least 300 km south of the modern north Australian coast (Fig. 1). Kati Thandi-Lake Eyre in central Southern Australia receives water from the core monsoon area (and other regions), but it also contains a record of megalake periods through MIS 5 to ∼ 116 ka ago and from 65 to 45 ka ago (Cohen et al., 2022.1).

The existence of interior megalakes, orders of magnitude larger than today's, implies past periods of higher monsoon rainfall penetrating these arid interior catchments (Wyrwoll and Valdes, 2003). Debate on the drivers of megalake-filling events has centred on the relative importance of sea level, sea surface temperatures, and Northern Hemisphere ‘push’ versus Southern Hemisphere ‘pull’ of monsoonal rain into the continental interior, as well as the role of vegetation feedbacks in augmenting moisture transfer inland (Wyrwoll and Valdes, 2003; Liu et al., 2004; Miller et al., 2005; Pitman and Hesse, 2007; Marshall and Lynch, 2008; Wyrwoll et al., 2007.1, 2012.2).

Here we present multiple, absolute-dated proxy records of sedimentological, hydroclimatic, and vegetation change over the last 150 kyr from a sediment core obtained from the core monsoon region of northern Australia, the Girraween Lagoon (Fig. 1). This record enables an assessment of the timing of variation in monsoon strength in the Indo-Australian summer monsoon domain that can be compared with records of east Asian summer monsoon strength and tropical hydroclimate. Together, this enables an assessment of the drivers of variability in the Indo-Australian summer monsoon.

The detailed sedimentary record from the Girraween Lagoon in Northern Australia, which includes evidence of Heinrich events spanning the last 150,000 years, presents a serious challenge to young Earth creationist claims. These events, triggered by massive iceberg discharges into the North Atlantic and linked to widespread climatic shifts—including monsoon disruptions in Australia—can be correlated across multiple geological archives worldwide. This implies a stable, continuous, and datable sequence of climatic change that extends far beyond the 6,000 to 10,000 years typically allowed by biblical literalists.

Creationist claims of a recent, global, catastrophic flood—often tied to the story of Noah—are also incompatible with this evidence. A flood of such scale would have scoured landscapes, disrupted or homogenised sedimentary layers, and left a very different geological signal. Instead, the sediments in Girraween Lagoon preserve a finely layered and uninterrupted record of environmental conditions, including pollen and isotopic data, spanning well over 100,000 years. Such a record simply could not survive the violent upheaval proposed by a recent global deluge.

Furthermore, the evidence of repeated, severe climatic disruptions also undermines the notion that Earth was perfectly created and "finely tuned" for life. The Heinrich events were episodes of extreme instability, during which entire regions became uninhabitable or suffered ecological collapse. This shows Earth’s climate system as dynamic and often harsh—not the static, life-friendly world one might expect from an intelligent designer. In short, the geological and climatological evidence paints a picture of an ancient, evolving Earth shaped by natural processes—one that flatly contradicts creationist dogma.

Refuting Creationism - The Mass Extinction 252 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Dr Zhen Xu on fieldwork in China.

Image credit: Zhen Xu

Pre-extinction tropical rainforest seed fern, Gigantopteris, (giant leaves)

Dr Zhen Xu.

New fossils reveal climate tipping point in most famous mass extinction | University of Leeds

Creationists claim that Earth is only a few thousand years old and that it was created perfectly and finely tuned for life—brought into existence without ancestors, from nothing, by means of supernatural command. Their evidence for this extraordinary claim rests on the beliefs of Bronze Age pastoralists who imagined Earth as small, flat, and covered by a solid dome. These ancient myths were eventually written down, bound up in a book later declared by people with a vested interest, to be divinely inspired and historically accurate.

Science, by contrast, presents a very different picture. Far from being a perfect and finely tuned haven for life, Earth is a dynamic and often hostile planet. Life persists here not because conditions are universally benign, but because a small number of organisms have evolved to thrive within narrow environmental niches. Throughout Earth’s long history, global conditions have periodically tipped into extremes so severe that they triggered mass extinction events. Unlike creationist claims, these conclusions are supported by tangible, testable evidence.

One such event—known as the Great Dying—occurred around 252 million years ago, relatively recent in the planet’s \~4.5 billion-year history. This catastrophe, the most severe extinction event known, was likely triggered by intense volcanic activity that caused a rapid and sustained rise in global temperatures. The resulting climate shift led to the collapse of tropical forests, which in turn reduced the planet’s capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon, driving further warming. This cascade of ecological breakdown led to the loss of most marine species and widespread collapse of terrestrial ecosystems.

The outcome was a planetary heatwave that lasted for approximately five million years.

New evidence for the role of rainforest collapse in both the onset and the recovery from the Great Dying has been presented by an international team of scientists, led by researchers from the University of Leeds and the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. Their findings are detailed in a recent paper published in Nature Communications and summarised in a news release from the University of Leeds.

Creationism Refuted - How The Survivors of a Mass Extinction Evolved Into Dinosaurs

Euparkeria capensis, a small, 60 cm long reptile from the early Triassic period (245 - 237 million years ago).

Credit: Taenadoman, 2011
via Wikimedia Commons
CC A-SA 3.0

Triassic reptiles took 10,000 mile trips through “hellish” conditions, study suggests - University of Birmingham

Contrary to the child-like naivety and carefully cultivated ignorance of creationists, Earth is not — and never has been — a paradise perfectly designed for life, let alone tailor-made for humans. In reality, the vast majority of Earth's history — around 99.9975% of it — took place long before creationists believe the planet even existed, during which time the environment has frequently become so hostile that mass extinctions wiped out the majority of living species. Life as we know it today descends from the lucky few that managed to survive and adapt to radically altered conditions.

One of the most devastating of these extinction events was the end-Permian climate catastrophe, during which one group of reptiles — the archosauromorphs — managed to endure. From this resilient lineage emerged the dinosaurs, who would go on to dominate the planet until they too were annihilated by a cataclysmic meteor impact 66 million years ago.

While palaeontologists have long known about the survival and evolutionary significance of archosauromorphs, a lingering mystery remained: how did they manage to disperse across vast "dead zones" of the tropics, where temperatures were thought to be lethally high? A new study by researchers from the University of Birmingham and the University of Bristol has now shed light on this question. Their findings have been published, open access, in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Refuting Creationism - How We Know The Bible Was Made Up By Ignorant People

Reconstruction of life in 'Green Arabia'

AI-generated image (ChatGPT4o)

The lush past of the world’s largest desert - Medias - UNIGE

The brown traces represent the beds of ancient streams, organized in dendritic drainage networks that are now abandoned.

© Antoine Delaunay/Guillaume Baby/Abdallah Zaki

While the biblical authors drew heavily from earlier Mesopotamian myths — most notably adapting the flood narrative from the Epic of Gilgamesh — they appear to have had little understanding of the broader historical and environmental context of the region. Recent research highlights a striking omission: the rich prehistoric past of the Arabian Peninsula, just to the south of Mesopotamia.

Far from being an eternal wasteland, the Arabian Peninsula was once a verdant, fertile region. Between approximately 11,000 and 5,500 years ago, it featured extensive river systems, lush vegetation, and a large freshwater lake. This environment supported human settlement and migration, acting as a corridor out of Africa rather than the barrier it is today.

The biblical narrative, especially in Genesis, reflects a parochial worldview, lacking any apparent awareness of the dramatic environmental transformations that shaped the region. The latest findings, published by an international team including researchers from the University of Geneva, show that around 8,000 years ago, a gradual shift in Earth’s orbit triggered a weakening of the monsoon systems. This climatic change led to severe aridification, culminating in the desertification of the region and the disappearance of the once 42-metre-deep lake.

What was once a cradle of biodiversity and human migration is now the Rub’ al-Khali or "Empty Quarter"—one of the most inhospitable deserts on the planet. The contrast between this rich prehistoric reality and the narrow scope of the biblical texts speaks volumes about the limited horizons and historical understanding of their authors.

Refuting Creationism - A Mass Extinction of Plants Due To Climate Change - 5,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Flora and fauna in Siberia at the last glacial maximum

AI-generated image (ChatGPT4o)

Image of Lake Ilirney during field work in Chukotka, Russia

Photo: Alfred Wegener Institute / Luise Schulte.

Single view - AWI

10,000 years or so before creationism's little god created the small flat planet with a dome over it, thinking it was a universe, as described in the creation myth in the Bible, there was a mass extinction due to global climate change. In addition to the loss of the Ice Age megafauna, such as the woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, cave lions, etc. over most of Eurasia and North America when temperatures rose at the end of the last glaciation, we also lost a lot of the Ice Age-adapted plants.

But, because plants tend not to fossilise so readily as the bones of large mammals, we didn't know until now, just how extensive this loss was, and more importantly, what a similar rise in temperatures is going to mean for the extant flora.

To redress this gap, a team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Germany, have analysed DNA recovered from plant remains in the sediment of lakes in Siberia and Alaska. In doing so, they have discovered how the temperature affects the way plants interact, tending to support one another in cold weather and competing with one another in warm weather. A rise in ambient temperature meant increasing competition and loss of mutual support.

Refuting Creationism - Scientists Discover What Caused Earth's Climate Cycle To Change A million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Rig used for obtaining core samples of seabed sediment

The pattern of glaciation and warmer spells changed about 1,000,000 years ago.

Deep ocean clues to a million-year-old Ice Age puzzle revealed in new study – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Like almost all of Earth's history, a sudden change in the cyclic pattern of climate change occurred in that long, pre-Creation period. To be precise, 700,000 to 1 million years ago the pattern of glaciation and interglacial warm spells changed from a 41,000 year cycle, due to changes in the degree of tilt in Earth's rotation (axial precession), to one of about 100,000 years with no obvious change in axial precession or external causes such as solar radiation. This is known to climatologists and geologists as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT)

Given the conviction of creationists that their putative designer god created Earth perfectly tuned for them to live on, it will probably be disturbing to learn that Earth's pattern of climate can change radically over the long term, and not caused by anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases but by perfectly natural processes that don't need the interference of a magic deity to explain them. On top of this all happening before they believe Earth was created out of nothing as a small flat planet with a dome over it, there is much here for creationists to ignore and for their cult to lie about.

Refuting Creationism - Ancient Deluges - In Australia, 90,000 years Before 'Creation Week'

Pinnacles at Nambung National Park

Picture: Matej Lipar

Pinnacles at Nambung National Park

Iron nuggets in the Pinnacles unlock secrets of ancient and future climates - News at Curtin | Curtin University, Perth, Australia

For another o todays casual and incidental refutations of creationism, we have news about the climate in Western Australia, 90,000 years before creationists little god magicked up a small flat planet with a dome over it, according to the book of Bronze Age creation myths that creationists have mistaken for a science textbook.

Of course, when everything else about Earth's history occurred in the 99.9975% of its history that occurred before the mythical 'Creation Week', this will come as no surprise to anyone who is not functionally illiterate with the thinking ability of a slow 9year-old.

Refuting Creationism - Meteor Strikes Show Earth is NOT Perfectly Designed for (Human) Life!

A surface geology map of the proposed Massive Australian Precambrian-Cambrian Impact Structure.

Credit: Daniel Connelly

A potential 370-mile-wide crater in Australia, known as MAPCIS, may reshape our understanding of Earth’s geological history. Researchers found geological evidence, including shocked minerals and melt rock, suggesting a massive impact at the end of the Ediacaran period. (Artist’s concept.)

Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Australian crater could offer fresh insight into Earth’s geological history - VCU News - Virginia Commonwealth University

It's a sign of their parochial ignorance that creationists believe their magic designer created Earth to be a perfect planet for them to live on. This notion fails to take into account the fact that, for many people, especially in the technologically under-developed parts of the world, life can be a struggle against disease, natural disasters, a lack of water and famine.

It also fails to take into account the record of natural disasters of a cosmological origin such as meteor strikes that have caused sudden mass extinctions in the vast length of time before creationists believe Earth was 'perfectly' created as a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East.

Geologists from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), have identified the remnants of one such massive impact crater in the heart of Australia, measuring some 370 miles across. This impact is believed to have occurred toward the end of the Ediacaran period of Earth’s history, some 540 million years ago.

Refuting Creationism - Earth May Have had A Ring System 486 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

An asteroid disintegrates under tidal forces as it approaches Earth

AI generated (ChatGPT4o)

Artist's impression.

Oliver Hull

Earth may have had a ring system 466 million years ago - Science

I know I'm always writing about things that happened before creationism's mythical 'Creation Week', but the problem is, almost everything that happened happened then. 99.9975% of Earth's history happened then, for example, and far more of the Universe's, since the Universe is some 3-4 times as old as Earth and an awful lot happened between the Big Bang and the formation of the sun and its planetary system.

And so, true to form, this is about the time 466 million years ago, when, according to the findings of three researchers from Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, led by Professor Andrew G. Thomkins, Earth had a ring system, somewhat like those of Jupiter and Saturn. They believe the ring was composed of the debris of a large asteroid that passed close enough to Earth to be broken up by gravitational tidal forces.

The result was a sudden plunge into an ice age and a period of intense bombardment with meteorites lasting millions of years and producing an otherwise difficult to explain pattern of impact craters.

Refuting Creationism - Climate Change In the Andes From 6,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Llaviucu in Cajas National Park in Ecuador.

Photos by Mark Bush

Bolivian tropical Andean foothills

CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

New study unveils 16,000 years of climate history in the tropical Andes | Brown University

Ask any creationist who is up to date with the latest dogmas as handed down by creation cult leaders, and they'll assure you their magic creator created Earth just a few thousand years ago and fine-tuned it for the existence of life (especially their life, because it had them in mind all along).

The reality, however, is very different: not only is Earth very much older by several orders of magnitude, but it is a dynamic and changing world, not the fixed, unchangeable world that 'fine-tuning' implies. It resembles a system in chaos, where a small change in one part can cause profound and unpredictable changes in another part. This is especially true of the weather, but is no less true of ocean currents, tectonic activity and the composition of the atmosphere.

As though to illustrate this, although refuting creationism was probably far from the minds of the scientists - that is a mere incidental of scientific facts as usual - a team of scientists led by climatologists from Brown University, Providence, RI, USA have analyzed the record of climate change in the Andes over the past 16,000 years (i.e. from 6,000 years before Creationist dogma says the Universe was magicked into existence out of nothing) and shown that major changes were brought about ultimately by the level of atmospheric \(\small \ce{\(\small \ce{CO2}\)}\).

Refuting Creationism - Interactions Between Earth’s Early Life Forms And The Environment - Over 500 million Years Before 'Creation Week'

AI-generated image of what the ocean may have looked like during the Paleozoic era, around 500 million years ago.

AI-generated image of ancient phytoplankton in oxygen rich seawater.

Scientists Untangle Interactions Between the Earth’s Early Life Forms and the Environment over 500 million Years - College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University

One of creationism's problems is that, by insisting the Universe is only 10,000 years old or less, they place 99.9975% of Earth's history in that very long, pre-Creation period when, according to their mythology, there wasn't any history.

This, of course, is trivially easy to refute simply by finding evidence of something that happened during this period, and since almost all of history did, this is not much of challenge.

As I've remarked before, creationism is not a problem for science; science is a problem for creationism - which is why creationists spend almost all their time attacking science and lying about it to get new recruits, while all science need do is produce a few facts now and then - something it does incidentally, without even thinking about creationism.

Creationism in Crisis - How Homo Sapiens Helped Bonelli's Eagle Extend Its Range - 40,000 Years Before Creation Week

Bonelli's Eagle, Aquila fasciata

F. David Carmona

Bonelli's Eagle, Aquila fasciata

F. David Carmona

Early "Homo sapiens" facilitated the establishment of the Bonelli's eagle in the Mediterranean 50,000 years ago - Canal UGR

Not only is there no sign at all that the conversion of leading biologists to creationism's childish fairy tale in place of the scientific Theory of Evolution, that creationist cult leaders have been assuring their dupes is imminent - and has been for the last 50 years or so - it's as though they've never even heard of it. They still keep finding evidence of events that happened ten of thousand, even tens of millions of years before the Universe existed, according to the ludicrous creation myths they are supposedly about to adopt. And those events are frequently evidence of evolution or recent human history.

Imagine a serious, grown-up scientist who has been through university, with so much contrary information at his or her fingertips believing that account of magic creation 10,000 years ago written by ignorant Bronze Age pastoralists yet belonging to the creation cult requires fools to believe such an absurdity.

About 9 months ago while on holidat near Bezier, France, we were driving to Carcassonnes when, about a mile apart, we saw two majestic eagles that neither of us recognised. I now know they were Bonelli's eagles, and I probably have the activities of early Homo sapiens about 40,000 years ago to thank for them being there.

A study led by scientists from the University of Granada (UGR), Spain, shows how the activities of early Homo sapiens in the Iberian Peninsula, 40,000 years before creationists think their god created a universe consisting of a small, flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, may well have facilitated the expansion of the range of Bonelli's Eagle, Aquila fasciata, north of the Mediterranean Basin.

Creationism in Crisis - Dinosaurs Evolved Warm-Bloodedness 180 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Artist’s impression of a dromaeosaur, a type of feathered theropod, in the snow. This raptor was a relative of Velociraptor.

Davide Bonadonna/Universidade

First ‘warm-blooded’ dinosaurs may have emerged 180 million years ago | UCL News - UCL – University College London

Of all the different orders of living organisms' only mammals and birds today are warm-blooded, i.e., they are able to maintain a body temperature, within a certain range of ambient temperatures, by either producing heat or losing it, as necessary.

It might be thought that this indicates that the ability evolved in a common ancestor but of the ancestors of birds, the evidence suggests that many dinosaurs were cold-blooded like today's reptiles, and mammals are descendants of an earlier, pre-dinosaurian reptiles, so these similar processes for maintaining the body temperature may be more a matter of convergence than common ancestry.

Do mammals and birds use the same method to maintain their body temperature, and if not, how do they differ? Mammals and birds both maintain their body temperatures through endothermy, meaning they generate and regulate heat internally to keep their body temperatures stable. However, there are differences in how they achieve this due to variations in their physiology and behaviors. Here’s an overview of the similarities and differences:

Similarities in Temperature Regulation

1. Metabolic Heat Production:
   • Both mammals and birds generate heat through metabolic processes. This involves breaking down food to produce energy, with heat being a byproduct.
2. Insulation:
   • Both groups have evolved insulating layers to retain heat. Mammals have fur or hair, while birds have feathers. These layers trap air and provide a barrier against the cold.
3. Shivering Thermogenesis:
   • Both can generate additional heat through shivering, which involves rapid muscle contractions that produce heat.
4. Behavioral Adjustments:
   • Both mammals and birds engage in behaviors to manage their temperature, such as seeking shade or shelter, sunning themselves, or altering their activity levels based on the ambient temperature.

Differences in Temperature Regulation

1. Physiological Mechanisms:
   • Sweating and Panting: Mammals often use sweating and panting to cool down. Sweat glands secrete moisture that evaporates, taking heat away from the body. Dogs, for instance, pant to evaporate moisture from their respiratory tract. Birds, on the other hand, do not sweat. Instead, they often rely on a behavior called gular fluttering, where they rapidly move the skin in their throat to increase evaporation and cool down.
   • Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT): Many mammals, especially small ones and those living in cold environments, have brown adipose tissue that generates heat through non-shivering thermogenesis. Birds lack this type of tissue.
2. Heat Exchange Systems:
   • Countercurrent Heat Exchange: Birds have highly efficient countercurrent heat exchange systems in their legs and feet, which minimize heat loss. Blood vessels are arranged such that warm arterial blood warms the cooler venous blood returning to the body, conserving heat. While some mammals also use countercurrent heat exchange (such as in extremities), the systems are particularly pronounced and crucial in birds.
3. Basal Metabolic Rate:
   • Birds generally have higher basal metabolic rates compared to mammals of similar size, which means they produce more heat relative to their body size. This higher metabolic rate is partly due to the high energy demands of flight.
4. Hibernation and Torpor:
   • Many mammals can enter states of torpor or hibernation to conserve energy and reduce body temperature during periods of cold or food scarcity. While some birds also enter torpor, true hibernation is rare in birds. Instead, some birds migrate to warmer regions to avoid cold weather.

Behavioral Differences

1. Migration:
   • Migration is a key strategy for many birds to avoid extreme temperatures. While some mammals also migrate, it is far more common and pronounced in birds.
2. Nesting and Roosting:
   • Birds often build insulated nests or seek out warm roosting spots to maintain body temperature, especially during breeding seasons or cold nights. Mammals, on the other hand, may use burrows, dens, or other insulated shelters.

In summary, while both mammals and birds use endothermic processes to maintain their body temperatures, the specific physiological and behavioral strategies they employ can differ significantly due to their distinct evolutionary paths and physical characteristics.

A team of researchers led by University College London (UCL) and Universidade de Vigo, Spain, scientists has concluded that dinosaurs may have evolved warm-bloodedness as long ago as 180 million years ago, some 50 million years after the first dinosaurs evolved.

They concluded this after relating the evolutionary tree of the dinosaurs throughout the Mesozoic era to climate and geographical changes over the same time period and examining 1000 dinosaur fossils.

Their findings are the subject of an open access paper in the Cell Press journal, Current Biology. Their work is also explained in a UCL news release:

The ability to regulate body temperature, a trait all mammals and birds have today, may have evolved among some dinosaurs early in the Jurassic period about 180 million years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL and University of Vigo researchers.

In the early 20^th century, dinosaurs were considered slow-moving, “cold-blooded” animals like modern-day reptiles, relying on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature. Newer discoveries indicate some dinosaur types were likely capable of generating their own body heat but when this adaptation occurred is unknown.

The new study, published in the journal Current Biology, looked at the spread of dinosaurs across different climates on Earth throughout the Mesozoic Era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230 to 66 million years ago), drawing on 1,000 fossils, climate models and the geography of the period, and dinosaurs’ evolutionary trees.

The research team found that two of the three main groupings of dinosaurs, theropods (such as T. rex and Velociraptor) and ornithischians (including relatives of the plant eaters Stegosaurus and Triceratops), moved to colder climates during the Early Jurassic, suggesting they may have developed endothermy (the ability to internally generate heat) at this time. In contrast, sauropods, the other main grouping which includes the Brontosaurus and the Diplodocus, kept to warmer areas of the planet.

Previous research has found traits linked to warm-bloodedness among ornithischians and theropods, with some known to have had feathers or proto-feathers, insulating internal heat.

Our analyses show that different climate preferences emerged among the main dinosaur groups around the time of the Jenkyns event 183 million years ago, when intense volcanic activity led to global warming and extinction of plant groups. At this time, many new dinosaur groups emerged. The adoption of endothermy, perhaps a result of this environmental crisis, may have enabled theropods and ornithischians to thrive in colder environments, allowing them to be highly active and sustain activity over longer periods, to develop and grow faster and produce more offspring.

Dr Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, first author
Centro de Investigación Mariña
Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal
Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

And Department of Earth Sciences
University College London, London, UK.

Theropods also include birds and our study suggests that birds’ unique temperature regulation may have had its origin in this Early Jurassic epoch. Sauropods, on the other hand, which stayed in warmer climates, grew to a gigantic size at around this time – another possible adaptation due to environmental pressure. Their smaller surface area to volume ratio would have meant these larger creatures would lose heat at a reduced rate, allowing them to stay active for longer.

Dr Sara Varela, Co-author
Centro de Investigación Mariña
Departamento de Ecoloxía e Bioloxía Animal
Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain.

In the paper, the researchers also investigated if sauropods might have stayed at lower latitudes to eat richer foliage unavailable in colder polar regions. Instead, they found sauropods seemed to thrive in arid, savannah-like environments, supporting the idea that their restriction to warmer climates was more related to higher temperature and then to a more cold-blooded physiology. During that time, polar regions were warmer, with abundant vegetation. The Jenkyns event occurred after lava and volcanic gasses erupted from long fissures in the Earth’s surface, covering large areas of the planet.

This research suggests a close connection between climate and how dinosaurs evolved. It sheds new light on how birds might have inherited a unique biological trait from dinosaur ancestors and the different ways dinosaurs adapted to complex and long-term environmental changes.

Dr Juan L. Cantalapiedra, co-author
Departamento de Paleobiología
Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.

The study involved researchers from UCL, University of Vigo, the University of Bristol and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, and received funding from the European Research Council, the Spanish Ministry of Research, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society.

Highlights

• Warm-blooded dinosaurs flourished in varied climates.
• Dinosaur groups adapted differently to climate, suggesting diverse thermophysiologies.
• Endothermy in theropods and possibly ornithischians evolved by the Early Jurassic
• Sauropod niche conservatism suggests higher thermal sensitivity and poikilothermy.

Graphical Abstract

Summary

A fundamental question in dinosaur evolution is how they adapted to long-term climatic shifts during the Mesozoic and when they developed environmentally independent, avian-style acclimatization, becoming endothermic.^1,2 The ability of warm-blooded dinosaurs to flourish in harsher environments, including cold, high-latitude regions,^3,4 raises intriguing questions about the origins of key innovations shared with modern birds,^5,6 indicating that the development of homeothermy (keeping constant body temperature) and endothermy (generating body heat) played a crucial role in their ecological diversification.⁷ Despite substantial evidence across scientific disciplines (anatomy,⁸ reproduction,⁹ energetics,¹⁰ biomechanics,¹⁰ osteohistology,¹¹ palaeobiogeography,¹² geochemistry,^13,14 and soft tissues^15,16,17), a consensus on dinosaur thermophysiology remains elusive.^{1,12,15,17,18,19} Differential thermophysiological strategies among terrestrial tetrapods allow endotherms (birds and mammals) to expand their latitudinal range (from the tropics to polar regions), owing to their reduced reliance on environmental temperature.²⁰ By contrast, most reptilian lineages (squamates, turtles, and crocodilians) and amphibians are predominantly constrained by temperature in regions closer to the tropics.²¹ Determining when this macroecological pattern emerged in the avian lineage relies heavily on identifying the origin of these key physiological traits. Combining fossils with macroevolutionary and palaeoclimatic models, we unveil distinct evolutionary pathways in the main dinosaur lineages: ornithischians and theropods diversified across broader climatic landscapes, trending toward cooler niches. An Early Jurassic shift to colder climates in Theropoda suggests an early adoption of endothermy. Conversely, sauropodomorphs exhibited prolonged climatic conservatism associated with higher thermal conditions, emphasizing temperature, rather than plant productivity, as the primary driver of this pattern, suggesting poikilothermy with a stronger dependence on higher temperatures in sauropods.

Chiarenza, Alfio Alessandro; Cantalapiedra, Juan L.; Jones, Lewis A.; Gamboa, Sara; Galván, Sofía; Farnsworth, Alexander J.; Valdes, Paul J.; Sotelo, Graciela; Varela, Sara
Early Jurassic origin of avian endothermy and thermophysiological diversity in dinosaurs Current Biology (2024) DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051

Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by Elsevier. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

Dinosaurs have always been a problem for creationists because their existence betrays the fact that the age of Earth as calculated from the Bible geneaolgies is wildly inaccurate by several orders of magnitude, but this paper piles on the agony by showign a clear evolutionary pathway from poikilothermy (cold-bloodedness) to homeothermy (warm-bloodedness) supported by geological, geographical and climatological evidence sometime around 180 million years before the biblical 'Creation Week'.

And it goes without saying that, being biologists, the authors of the paper show no sign of abandoning the TOE in favour of the childish notion of magic creation by an unproven supernatural entity. Indeed, they could scarcely be considered scientists if they included magic and superstition in their explanation for natural phenomena like creationists pseud-scientists are obliged to for contractual reasons.

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