Polystrate Fossils

Since the proposal of the idea of uniformity by Charles Lyell in the early 1800s, geologists have struggled to explain polystrate fossils. A polystrate fossil is a fossil encased not in a single layer of strata but in multiple layers. Uniformity, advocating that the “present is the key to the past,” describes each layer being laid down over extensive periods of time.  The problem with each layer taking so long to form is that most fossils found in these layers would have decayed prior to the forming of the next layer.  Some examples that confirm the idea of rapid fossilization are as follows:

  • Fossil of ichthyosaur, buried and fossilized while giving birth.1
  • Petrified trees are found in scores of places around the world.2
  • Polystrate trees found in France upside down extending through many layers.3

Fossils Found Through Layers of Sediment

Polystrate fossils are found extending through multiple layers of sediment. Many trees have been found fossilized in a vertical position through layers of coal, sandstone, and other sediments. Certainly, the trees would have decayed if millions of years had occurred between the different strata.

Polystrate fossils such as this one are found all over the world. They run through many rock layers proving the rock layers are not different ages as the textbooks teach.

Geologists fail to accept that the only reasonable explanation of polystrate fossils is that the layers formed quickly around plant and animal life before they had time to decay. Seems to correspond with the biblical account of the worldwide Flood, doesn’t it?

  1. Creation Magazine, Dec. 99
  2. Creation Seminar Part #4
  3. Bones of Contention by Silvia Baker, p. 12