Day 5: K-Pg versus the Cambrian

Once upon a time, the world changed forever.  Actually, it has happened many times.  But in popular culture, few events are comparable to the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.  This event is called the K-Pg Extinction.  K stands for Cretaceous, derived from the German word for chalk as seen in the gleaming white Cliffs of Dover, one of the marvels of God's creation.  Pg stands for Paleogene meaning "ancient-generations" and referring to original kinds of modern animals to exist after the demise of the dinosaurs.

The K-Pg extinction was triggered by an astroid impact that left a thin layer of iridium, an element rare in the earth but abundant in astroids, throughout the whole world.  Three-quarters of earth's species vanished from the fossil record at this boundary.  This layer is dated at 66 million years ago, marking an awe inspiring demonstration of God's destructive power.

In stark contrast is the Cambrian Explosion.  In ocean sediments dated to 541 million years ago, most major phyla of animals alive today suddenly appear in a dramatic display of God's creative power.

Many Christian apologists have pointed to the Cambrian Explosion as a testimony of God's work in creation and some have correlated it to the Fifth Day of the creation narrative in Genesis 1.  See this link for a comparison of views.

Genesis 1:20-23 (ESV)

20 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”
21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

Drawing a link between the Fifth Day and the Cambrian Explosion is common in creation science apologetics, but invites the following criticisms:

• Only cyanobacteria and algae are present before the Cambrian and they are poor stand-ins for the vegetation, seed plants, and fruit-bearing trees created on the Third Day.  This makes the order of events seem out of sequence.
• The creatures that first appear during the dramatic Cambrian Explosion largely disappear due to a series of global extinction events before birds ever grace the skies.
• With the notable exception of horseshoe crabs, few of the creatures that appeared during the Cambrian Explosion would be recognizable to people today.  Following this logic, it would be odd for God to reveal to the Hebrew people the time of creation of creatures they would never encounter.

For reasons such as those sited above, the Ages of Joy creation model seeks to find a more fitting parallel between the  Fifth Day and the events in the geologic record.  To be fair, when the dramatic creation miracles of the Cambrian were first described in detail by science, there were many unanswered questions about the origins of birds and fish.  At the time, pointing to the Cambrian Explosion as an example of Fifth Day miracles made some amount of sense.  But in recent years, several discoveries motivate a change in thinking.

• New Age of Fishes initiated by the Cretaceous−Paleogene mass extinction (2015)
• Explosive Radiation of Bird Species After Dinosaur Demise based on this article (2017)
• The delayed rise of present-day mammals (2007)
• The Placental Mammal Ancestor and the Post–K-Pg Radiation of Placentals (2013)

As you can see, these are truly recent discoveries.  Sifting through these articles and following up with even more recent analysis tells the following story when integrated with Scripture:

• And there was evening (Genesis 1:19a)
• The Deccan Traps in India erupt for tens of thousands of year forming one of the largest volcanic features on Earth.  This causes global environmental stress.

• May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! (Psalm 104:31-32)

• An astroid rich in iridium strikes the Gulf of Mexico, forms the Chicxulub crater, and causes global devastation and triggers additional volcanic outflow from the Deccan Traps.
• Ash and dust choke out all photosynthesis and plants die everywhere
• Global forest fires burn down all trees
• In an event of truly Biblical proportions, Earth says "good night" to 75% or more of species as they vanish forever, many dying of starvation.  God "hides His face" and does not "give them their food".

• These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (Psalm 104:27-29)

• God harvests the Earth, preserving only those kinds that He wishes to shelter
• And there was morning, the fourth day. (Genesis 1:19b)

• And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”  (Genesis 1:20)

• The "Age of Ray-Finned Fish" ensues as God creates a vast array of the dominant kinds of fish in the oceans today.  There is an explosive radiation of new bird species as God creates birds to fill the skies.

• When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:30)

• Placental mammals exist, but are small insectivores for quite some time.  There is a substantial delay before mammals ascend to a dominant position.  In the meantime, birds and fish re-fill the ecosystems of the vacated earth.

• 21 So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
  22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:21-22)

• And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. (Genesis 1:23)

While there is much more that can be written about these events, this narrative argues for the K-Pg Extinction event to mark the evening and morning of the Fourth Day.  The Cambrian Explosion then, still regarded as a miracle of God's handiwork, is not a Fifth Day event.  The Cambrian fauna, like the dinosaurs after them, where amazing creatures that God created to live on Earth for a while, but which He eventually replaced.

The passages from Psalm 104 cannot be proven to directly correspond to the K-Pg extinction event, but they do serve as an example of how God worked in the history of Earth before resting from His work of creating and filling the Earth.