Nautiloids and the Canyon

Not too far down past the famous Redwall Cavern (a photo of which will be shown in a later posting) lies the tributary cleft known as Nautiloid Canyon. It is aptly named, because there are clearly visible fossils of nautiloids all over the canyon floor. And what are nautiloids? They are squid-like creatures with long, cone-shaped shells. A photo of one is shown here, illustrated by Professor Steve-Steve, the panda. The water helps show the outline of where the fossil is. (Note also to the picture's lower left. You'll see that Dr. Alan Gishlick has silver-painted toenails!)

Steve Austin (stone cold?) of the Institute for Creation Research notes that the nautiloid fossils are, more or less, pointed in a uniform direction. This, he says, indicates that the fossils were laid down in a moving current of water. It's almost as if the cone-shaped bodies acted like weather-vanes, indicating the direction of flow.

First, what has this observation got to do with evolution or creationism? The answer is, absolutely nothing! Austin maintains that evidence of a current being present bolsters the argument that the Grand Canyon's sedimentary layers were laid down by a moving flood and not a stationary ocean. But Oceans have currents too. Even if the nautiloids do show a directional flow (which they only barely do), so what? The Canyon's layers were put down by stationary pools, slow accumulations, as well as the occasional catastrophe.

Eric