THE FOSSIL "MICRO-WORLD"

This brings us to our last evidence of rapid fossilization -- the existence of microscopic details. Normally an organism begins to degrade within seconds after its death, yet even the chromosomal and genetic designs of some organisms have been preserved and studied under the microscope.

Likewise, petrified wood -- mentioned above -- was often preserved so rapidly that even the structure of the individual cells is discernable. The cell structure of petrified wood from the Petrified National Forest in Arizona has been studied microscopically. It has been said of such specimens that they reveal intricate cellular detail, and that such detail would require the rapid infiltration of minerals (see Note 10). In other words, the fossilization was preceded by quick infiltration of chemical-rich water into the living specimen, so that preservation was rapid and thorough all the way down to the microscopic level.

It is clear that the actual physical evidence shows fossilization is not a slow process requiring eons of time. The very existence of fossils, plus the catastrophes surrounding their formation, their burial under tons of sediments, the quick preservation exceeding the decay time of even the most delicate mud prints, body parts, and microscopic details -- all these show that fossils formed rapidly under abnormally extreme conditions, and not slowly under normal conditions.

The real data of paleontology are not compatible with the interminable geologic ages of evolutionary philosophy. They are compatible only with the cataclysmic Flood of Noah as described in Scripture.