Monsters of the deep

Today, the December, 2005, edition of National Geographic hit my post office box. If you get a chance, take a look at its lead article, “When Monsters Ruled the Deep”. You'll be stunned by the pic of an ichthyosaur strapped to the back of an 18-wheel flatbed. The article's teaser says it all: “More fearsome than anything Hollywood could ever dream up, huge reptiles prowled ancient seas — and still prey on our imagination”. One wonders if the writer really meant what he said about Hollywood's best imaginations not being able to create such creatures. Willy-nilly, the point thrusts deep — fabulous, fantastic, fanciful, fearsome monsters once plied the shallow ancient seas. A few lived around the margins of the deeper ocean. They really did exist! Who knows how many of them stole stealthily directly overhead of where you are sitting right now?

Planet Earth during the age of the dinosaurs supported a staggeringly broad array of living things. “Saurs” of all kinds — plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, nothosaurs, ichthyosaurs and others — thrived between about 245 and 65 million years ago, as did numerous other reptiles, amphibians and even mammals. “Godzilla”, which seems set to become a new mascot for fans of extinct creatures, was a crocodile-like creature with a

dinosaur-like head and a fish-like tail that lived about 125 million years ago. Many lived in shallow seas that formed in inland drainage basins over land that has since risen to form a goodly portion of today's continents. People living in Colorado may find it hard to imagine their lofty heights were once at the bottom of such a sea, but it was. Sea's edge harbored another group of saurs — the winged variety known as pterosaurs, or pterodactyls.

Maybe movie makers could conjure up such unbelievable creatures, but forget about expecting natural selection to perform such an amazing creative feat. These sophisticated “Super-Nellies” mock the idea that a small, land-dwelling lizard of some kind could give birth to a semi-aquatic youngster that could give birth to a slightly more aquatic (and bigger) youngster and so on ad infinitum. Instead, they provide yet another insight into the genius and power of the One Supreme Creator. The creation symphony, whose finale celebrates the plants and animals we are familiar with today, had numerous movements lasting millions of years. Genesis One presents but the briefest line sketch on A4 paper of a creation epic of millions of colors stretched across many billboards. Dinosaurs occupied the stage for only about a quarter of the saga. The Dawn to Dusk article, “The First Six Days”, explains further.