Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.  The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a “reasoned, logical defence” for young-earth creationism by Ken Ham, the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum.  The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century.  Unlike typical museums and science centers, the Creation Museum leaves out data that are critical to a modern perspective on the history of the earth and its inhabitants.

The following assertions from the Creation Museum’s exhibits highlight the contrast between the themes presented there and the scientific record.

The Earth’s sediments were deposited by a single biblical Flood. False. In fact, the sediments in the vicinity of the Creation Museum alone are more than 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) thick, which would have required flood waters at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) deep, churning at maximum turbidity.  To provide a sense of scale, 75% of the mass of the Earth’s atmosphere is within 11 km (4 miles) of its surface and many satellites orbit at 150 kilometers (92 miles).  Furthermore, sedimentary rocks form in a variety of original settings, including lakes, streams, tidal flats, and coral reefs in addition to flood deposits.  Some sediments preserve footprints and other structures that can only have formed on land, not beneath swirling flood waters.  The Earth’s sedimentary record could not have come from a single global flood. 

Scientific evidence is compatible with dinosaurs and other long-extinct animals living side-by-side with people until they perished in Noah’s great Flood.
False.  The paleontological evidence, including tens of thousands of human fossils and hundreds of thousands of dinosaur fossils, is not compatible with the two groups coexisting.  Dinosaurs are never found in the same layers as human fossils, even though more recent extinct animals, such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats, are found with humans.  The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that large dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus, became extinct millions of years before humans appeared.

The earth isn’t as old as paleontologists say. 
False.  The Creation Museum asserts that the earth is much younger than scientists claim, and that radiometric dating is an unreliable technique used by paleontologists.  However, radiometric dating uses the same physics that underlies x-rays, CT scans, and nuclear energy.  If radiometric dating does not work, neither should CT scanners or nuclear power plants.  Radiometric dates indicate that the Earth is more than 4 billion years old.  They also show that T. rex lived around 67 million years ago, and that modern human remains only exist in rocks that are younger than 200 thousand years old.

Intermediate fossils between groups of plants and animals are missing from the fossil record.
False.  Over the past 150 years, paleontologists have discovered a tremendous number of fossil animals and plants that show characteristics intermediate between “major” groups – including between dinosaurs and today's birds, between the first land animals and their aquatic ancestors, and between humans and earlier apes.  Whale and manatee fossils document the transition from land-living creatures with front and hind-legs to water-living creatures with fins.  Fossil snakes with legs have been discovered.  Dinosaurs with feathers are now well documented.  The first backboned animals have been discovered where scientists predicted they would be found based on our understanding of the history of the earth.

According to the Creation Museum, the history of life is short, sin-ridden, and laden with moral imperatives.  In contrast, the paleontologist’s account is long, full of curious episodes, and laden with discoveries of new kinds of animals, plants, and environments.  The fossil record invites people to use their unusual minds to question, to reason, and to wonder at life’s remarkable variety.

Send a letter to your senator and representative TODAY! It is urgent that SVP members from the United States write their legislators in Washington in support of the Paleontological Resources Protection Act. Read the informative report from Ted Vlamis (Chair, SVP Government Affairs Committee) about the status of the legislation. Model letters are included for you to tailor and send to your Senators and Representative. I strongly urge you to write these letters soon, so that this legislation can finally be passed. Thank you.
--Catherine Badgley, President SVP

The abstract submission system and call for all awards for the 67th annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology closed May 15, 2007, at Noon Central Time. Contact the SVP business office if you have any questions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2007

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology on the Creation Museum

Professional paleontologists from around the world are concerned about the misrepresentation of science at the newly opened Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.  The Creation Museum has been marketed to the public as a “reasoned, logical defence” for young-earth creationism by Ken Ham, the President and CEO of Answers in Genesis, which runs the Creation Museum.  The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, a world-wide scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology, contends that the museum presents visitors with a view of earth history that has been scientifically disproven for over a century.   

The Creation Museum’s fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive, include a vast number of scientific errors, large and small.  These errors range from implying that the Earth’s sedimentary rocks were deposited by a single biblical Flood, to claiming that humans and dinosaurs lived alongside one another, to denouncing the reality of transitional fossils. 

"Ken Ham is not recognized as a scientist or educator among experts in the fields of geology and paleontology, and his views on the interpretation of Biblical texts are extremist. Visitors to his ‘museum’ may arrive knowing little about these sciences, but they will leave misled and intellectually deceived,” said Dr. Kevin Padian, Professor and Curator, University of California, Berkeley and President of the National Center for Science Education.

The fossil exhibits at the Creation Museum discount the last 150 years of paleontological and geological discovery.  Not only are transitional fossils, including snakes with limbs and dinosaurs with feathers, abundant in the fossil record, but radiometric dating allows paleontologists to pinpoint the timing of major events in the ancient history of the earth.

For example, Tyrannosaurus rex existed over 65 million years ago, whereas modern humans didn’t show up on the scene until 200 thousand years ago.  They never walked side by side.  The Creation Museum neglects to include this critical data in its analysis of the history of life on earth. “Most of us in the public view museums as places to get the latest information on scientific discovery.  In this case, the Creation Museum is using the disguise of science museums and centers without including an iota of science inside,” said Dr. Kristi Curry Rogers of the Science Museum of Minnesota. 

“That’s the real danger of such a place – undermining the basic principles of science, eroding the public's confidence in science, and causing a general weakening of science education in the country,” commented Dr. Glenn Storrs of the Cincinnati Museum Center. 

Dr. Catherine Badgley, a professor at the University of Michigan and president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, remarked, “according to the Creation Museum, the history of life is short, sin-ridden, and laden with moralizing imperatives.  In contrast, the real fossil record shows that this long history is brimming with discoveries of new kinds of animals, plants, and environments, inviting people to use their unusual minds to question, to reason, and to wonder at life’s remarkable variety.”

Founded in 1940, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is the leading North American scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology.  The society has 2,200 members from 40 countries; members include professionals, students, artists, preparators, and others interested in vertebrate fossils. The purpose of the society is to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology, including the history, evolution, comparative anatomy, and taxonomy of vertebrate animals, as well as the field occurrence, collection, and geological context of fossil vertebrates. The society is also concerned with the conservation and preservation of fossil sites.  It publishes The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a leading journal in the field.

Contacts
Professor Catherine Badgley
President, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Museum of Paleontology
1109 Geddes Rd.
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
email: cbadgley@umich.edu
Phone: 734-763-6448

Professor Kevin Padian
President, National Center for Science Education
Department of Integrative Biology & Museum of Paleontology
University of California, Berkeley CA 94720-3140
E-mail: kpadian@berkeley.edu
Phone: 510-642-7434

Professor David Polly
Executive Committee Member, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geological Sciences
1001 E. 10th Street
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN  47405
E-mail:  pdpolly@indiana.edu
Phone:  813-855-7994

Professor Christopher Brochu
Executive Committee Member, Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geoscience
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
E-mail: christopher-brochu@uiowa.edu
Phone: 319-353-1808