DINOSAURS, 1; APE-MEN, 0

We need to distinguish very carefully between the myth of ape-men and the reality of dinosaurs. As we have seen, dinosaurs are real creatures of God's creation. They are creatures about which we know much. In contrast the ape-man idea is truly a myth, a fictitious idea.

Evolution considers the so-called "Lucy" skeleton to be one of the best evidences for human evolution, yet Lucy is only forty percent complete. This means that sixty percent of this skeleton is missing! Dinosaur bones have been found by the thousands and by the truckload, and some totally complete skeletons have been found.

Unlike the mythology of ape-men, dinosaurs truly did exist. The big ones are gigantic testimonies to God's creative power. They are very impressive examples of God's might. Job 40:15-24 in fact has a description of a very interesting creature called behemoth. Commonly identified as an elephant or a hippopotamus, the description of behemoth is more consistent with a large water-dwelling dinosaur, something perhaps like an apatosaurus (brontosaurus). For instance, the description of behemoth in Job chapter 40 says it had a tail like a cedar.

Elephants and hippopotamuses do not have thick tails like cedars, but anatomical reconstructions of dinosaurs indicate that many of them had very thick tails. Their tails were strengthened by many tendons so their tails could serve as support like another leg. This is not the small tail of an elephant or hippo! Job 40:19 says behemoth was "the chief of the ways of God" -- the mightiest animal God made. The largest dinosaur known is brachiosaurus with a weight at full growth of about 100 tons and a height of forty feet.

Job chapter 41 describes another fascinating creature called leviathan. Job 41:18-21 describe leviathan as being able to breathe fire. Were it not for evolution's claim that dinosaurs died out long before human history, leviathan and also behemoth would no doubt be widely recognized as dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs remain testimonies to God's power to create, God's power to control His creation, and God's power to judge His creation when the sin of man demanded it during the Flood. Dinosaur extinction is a reminder of death, not evolution. It reminds us of the curse of sin in causing extinction (see Note 10). Of all living things, the big dinosaurs remind us most of the death caused by sin, and also of the immense creative power of God.