Polystrate fossils

by Tas Walker

There are many examples of fossils that cut across multiple strata—hence the name polystrate fossils.

An old print showing fossil trees that appear to be in a position of growth at Nant Llech in the Swansea Valley, South Wales, UK. The trees are now preserved outside Swansea Museum. From Derek V Ager, The New Catastrophism, Cambridge University Press, Fig 4.5, p. 48, 1993.

Polystrate fossils provide conclusive evidence that they could not have been buried slowly over many thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. Polystrate fossils point to rapid burial.

This is how Derek Ager, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University College of Swansea, trained under strict Lyellian uniformitarianism, describes these fossils.

‘If one estimates the total thickness of the British Coal Measures as about 1000 m, laid down in about 10 million years, then, assuming a constant rate of sedimentation, it would have taken 100 000 years to bury a tree 10 m high, which is ridiculous.

'Alternatively, if a 10 m tree were buried in 10 years, that would mean 1000 km in a million years or 10 000 km in 10 million years (i.e. the duration of the coal measures). This is equally ridiculous and we cannot escape the conclusion that sedimentation was at times very rapid indeed and at other times there were long breaks in sedimentation, though it looks both uniform and continuous.’

Derek Ager was no creationist, in fact he was disparaging of creationists, yet he could see, in spite of his training, that the geological evidence pointed to rapid sedimentation and burial.

Further, although sedimentation looked 'uniform and continuous', he assumed that there had to be 'long breaks in sedimentation'. Why? To preserve the idea that the earth is millions of years old—in spite of the evidence.

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