When and where did dinosaurs live? Infographics. Prehistoric animals ... in our time Are dinosaurs left in our time
When dinosaurs come to mind, do you imagine big gray monsters that are completely extinct? Well, then you definitely believe in the related myths! Study the information that historians have shared on this subject in order to dispel all misconceptions once and for all.
Myth: Dinosaurs are extinct
Of course, the dinosaurs died out en masse sixty-five million years ago, this was due to the fact that a huge asteroid crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula. However, not all have disappeared. Modern birds are descendants of dinosaurs, paleontologists say. Bats are a good analogy. The bat is an unusual mammal that has gained wings and the ability to fly. The bird is an unusual dinosaur that did the same. There are more species of birds than other animals, so dinosaurs are still alive and there are a lot of them.
Myth: Dinosaurs were scaled lizards
There are thousands of dinosaur fossils covered in feathers. In addition, there were dinosaurs with down. Feathers helped dinosaurs regulate their body temperature, so it was important feature for small creatures like velociraptors. Large herbivores also had wool, for example, like mammoths. In a word, it is impossible to say that all dinosaurs were equally covered with scales.
Myth: Dinosaurs were cold-blooded
Scientists can tell from the microscopic structure of dinosaur bones that they grew fast enough. Only animals like birds or mammals, with fast metabolisms and stable body temperatures, can grow like this. It also explains why dinosaurs had feathers for thermal insulation, although there are no exact details about their body temperature. It is unlikely that the metabolism of such creatures was identical to the metabolism of modern birds or mammals, nevertheless, their blood was definitely not cold.
Myth: They were all grey-green
In fact, the dinosaurs were quite colorful. Paleontologists can determine what color some of them were because well-preserved feathers have been found containing certain cells. The pigment was stored in them, and the exact color of this pigment can be determined from their structure. This is an amazing discovery! Previously, such technologies did not exist, and one could only make assumptions.
Myth: All dinosaurs were gigantic
Of course, the largest dinosaur skeletons were the first to attract the attention of fossil hunters. However, modern paleontologists find dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes. Some of the creatures were as large as a passenger plane, while others were as small as a dove.
Myth: Fossils of most species have been found
Researchers have identified more than seven hundred species of extinct dinosaurs, but this is only a small part of their real number. Fossils are discovered all the time, every week they find the new kind dinosaurs. This is because paleontologists are now working all over the world. Science is advancing rapidly, and the amount of information about dinosaurs is constantly growing, there is still much to be learned.
Myth: Mammals appeared when dinosaurs became extinct
Mammals evolved from cynodont reptiles, which looked like scaled rats. These creatures lived on the planet two hundred million years before the dinosaurs. Mammals split into marsupials and placentals when the Jurassic was on and dinosaurs flourished. Then the size of mammals was small. After the disappearance of most dinosaurs, the number of mammals began to increase.
Myth: All large reptiles were dinosaurs.
Flying reptiles like pterosaurs or swimming reptiles like plesiosaurs were not dinosaurs, although they lived during the same period and also died out en masse. These animals are often confused with dinosaurs, although they are related to different categories. Only birds should be considered real dinosaurs.
Myth: Dinosaurs moved very fast.
Some dinosaurs were fast, like raptors, while others were slow, like big creatures with long necks. By the way, recent studies have shown that tyrannosaurs moved at about the same speed as humans.
Myth: Tyrannosaurs moved vertically
Tyrannosaurus skeletons were previously placed in museums in this way, however, it was found that their body was rather horizontal. Now in popular culture the wrong image is widespread.
Not a myth: tyrannosaurs were terrifying predators
In the 1990s, a theory emerged that tyrannosaurs weren't that tough after all, and that they simply ate carrion. This theory turned out to be erroneous - scientists are now confident that tyrannosaurs were excellent at hunting. Triceratops bones have even been found with T. rex teeth marks that have healed.
Myth: Tyrannosaurs preyed on Stegosaurus
In fact, there is more time between these species than between humans and tyrannosaurs. Stegosaurs lived about one hundred and fifty million years ago, and tyrannosaurs - sixty-seven million years ago.
Myth: Dinosaurs were a failed experiment in evolution.
This is a completely unfounded stereotype: dinosaurs were not a failure of evolution, they had no problems with either intelligence or movement. They did not die out because of their shortcomings, after all, they were creatures that ruled the world for one hundred and fifty million years. At the same time, man has existed for only about two hundred thousand years, and the first ancestors of man appeared only seven million years ago. Dinosaurs are thriving even now - just listen to the birds singing outside the window to remember this.
As it turned out, almost all dinosaurs known to science, even such popular ones as Velociraptor or Tyrannosaurus, actually could look different than they are usually represented.
Until the middle of the 20th century, these ancient reptiles were shown as lethargic and clumsy animals. But then the researchers found that dinosaurs led a very active lifestyle. This radically changed the idea of them, and released on the screens in 1993, "Jurassic Park" helped to approve this opinion.
Over the past 20 years, thanks to new discoveries in China and the use modern technologies the idea of what dinosaurs looked like no longer seems so reliable even for the most studied reptiles. As it turned out, many of them had plumage, and all over the body.
Velociraptor
Even at the end of the last century, paleontologists suggested that dinosaurs from the Velociraptor family were feathered. Researchers increasingly came across the remains of an early representative of this species - a dromaeosaurid with full wings.
2007 brought a big sensation. American researchers found on the forearm bones of the remains of a velociraptor plumage landing sites. This discovery was another convincing proof that the reptile was winged.
Indeed, the depiction of the Velociraptor in Jurassic Park was heavily altered. In fact, the dinosaur, enlarged in the film to the size of an adult, was no larger than an ordinary turkey.
Archeopteryx
History shows this animal as a transitional link between reptiles and birds. But new discoveries have shown that Archeopteryx may actually be the forerunner of Velociraptor. Disputes between the followers of the two theories have been going on for several decades.
Archeopteryx is considered one of the earliest dinosaur species, but this is rather arbitrary. According to the English paleontologist Steve Brucett, it is impossible to accurately create an evolutionary tree that includes birds and reptiles.
Triceratops
This huge dinosaur is one of the most popular among lovers of ancient reptiles. But even they, as it turned out, are not so well studied.
In 2009, researchers John Scannella and John Horner published an article that made a sensational assumption. In their opinion, Triceratops was a small version of the less studied Torosaurus. Since then, there has been a heated debate about which of the dinosaurs was larger.
Brontosaurus
This dinosaur is shown in "Jurassic Park" as a huge clumsy beast with a very long neck. But for a whole century, all scientists thought that in fact it never existed.
The first time the remains of a brontosaurus were presented to the public, it was just a fake. In fact, it was an artificial composition consisting of an Apatosaurus skeleton and a Camarasaurus head.
But in 2015, new studies were conducted. They showed a significant difference between Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus fossils. This indicated that this reptile could indeed exist. The difference between these two species is mainly in size.
tyrannosaurus rex
The bloodthirsty image of this most terrible predator of the Jurassic period is also under threat. As the feathered revolution in paleontology progressed, some researchers wondered if Tyrannosaurus had feathers. Until recently, more than 50 fossilized T-Rex skeletons were carefully examined, and nothing of the kind was found on any of them.
But in 2004, a primitive tyrannosauroid was found in China, covered in feathers. In 2012, another sensational discovery was made - the discovery of Yutyrannus. This predator, being a relative of the tyrannosaurus rex, was covered with long feathers. So it's worth thinking about the real appearance of the most terrible predator of all time.
Stegosaurus
Around this dinosaur at one time there were many different speculations. According to one of the opinions, the stegosaurus had an additional brain in the small pelvis, since the main thinking organ, located in the tiny head, could not cope alone. In fact, this cavity in the reptile could contain glycogen, which is necessary for the regulation of energy.
There were also different opinions around the alleged plates on the back of the stegosaurus. According to the most common, these were a kind of "solar panels" for regulating the body temperature of a cold-blooded reptile. But there is no evidence for this version. It is also believed that the spikes and plates helped the stegosaurus to identify fellow tribesmen and identify opponents.
Pachycephalosaurus
Although this dinosaur is not one of the most popular reptiles of the Jurassic period, it is well known for its head, which it used as a battering ram.
Usually representatives of this species are described as constantly fighting with the help of hard foreheads of predators.
In fact, paleontologists strongly doubt this use of the hard pachycephalosaurus skull. After studying the structure of the tissues of the skull, the researchers came to the conclusion that such a shield on the head would not have coped with a really strong blow. Most likely, it was intended to attract the attention of individuals of the opposite sex during mating games.
Ankylosaurus
This dinosaur looks like a medieval heavy knight thanks to its thick armored plates all over its body. Even the deadliest fangs of a Tyrannosaurus rex could not overcome this defense.
As it turned out, it's not about the thickness. Thanks to the research of the German paleontologist Thorsten Scheier, it turned out that the armor of the ankylosaurus is quite light and thin. Its strength lies in a special complex combination of collagen and bones, reminiscent of materials such as Kevlar or fiberglass.
According to Scheyer, this shell structure allowed him to be extremely durable in all directions. So the ankylosaurus is more reminiscent of a modern soldier in body armor than a knight in armor.
Spinosaurus
This dinosaur played a key role in "Jurassic Park" - it was his writers who chose it for a deadly fight with a tyrannosaurus rex. The choice was clear - with a length of more than 15 meters, the Spinosaurus is almost three meters longer than the T-Rex. At the same time, the reptile has a long jaw strewn with sharp teeth, and there is a bizarre crest on its back.
The structure of the Spinosaurus remained a mystery until recently, since skeletal fragments found in the desert regions of North Africa testified to its existence. In 2014, the American paleontologist Nizar Ibrahim discovered new remains of this reptile. They made it possible to state definitively: Spinosaurus is the only known aquatic dinosaur. It had small hind limbs suitable for swimming and a crocodile nose, and in body structure it resembled early amphibians.
Pterosaur
In fact, these birds of prey are not dinosaurs at all, but this fact is often forgotten. Pterosaurs, or pterodactyls as they are most often called, are one of the groups of flying reptiles. And their sizes were quite different.
The largest pterosaurs were azdarchids - winged giants, equal in height to giraffes. Their wingspan is truly impressive - up to 10 meters. They can safely be called the most big birds of all times.
At the same time, there were very tiny pterosaurs. So, the wingspan of a non-mycolopter was only 10 centimeters.
Today we will talk about one of the most mysterious phenomena on the planet - about the life and death of dinosaurs, about the period when they lived.
It is hard to imagine that the land we walk on now, where grass grows, trees, where everything is filled with high-rise buildings, cars, construction sites, dirt ... (a person does not even dispute his power over the earth) dinosaurs once walked and in the same way, like a person today, many millions of years ago they considered the earth only theirs. Once upon a time, dinosaurs were the owners here ... and along the streets where cars, buses, people walk today - ancient lizards proudly walked: Ti-rexes, Archeopteryxes, Titanosaurs, Compsognats, Spinosaurus, Corythosaurus, Dromiosaurids, Theropods, Archeoceratops, Velociraptors, etc. d.
There are even versions that there were no dinosaurs ... And completely proven versions. Scientists who study antiquity hold both the opinion that dinosaurs are a fact of the past and the opinion that they never existed. However, in this article we will consider the version of the death of dinosaurs, based on the fact that they existed.
Today we can observe dinosaurs in sets of children's toys, models reproduced by designers, scientists, archaeologists, paleontologists in museums such as the Jurassic Park, the city of ancient lizards, etc.
Dinosaurs became the heroes of science fiction films, literary works, their image, which exists only in consciousness, disappeared from the face of the earth many millions of years ago, excites the minds of mankind until now. What is the secret of such attractiveness - it is unclear, perhaps, as usual - a long-forgotten past with cruel heroes makes the blood run cold much more than invented ghosts with wings.
Dinosaurs lived on Earth more than 100 million years ago, according to other versions - they died out about 60 million years ago. Dinosaurs began to be called dinosaurs in 1842 after the designation of the remains of ancient lizards so found by an English biologist. Dinosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth more than 60 million years before the appearance of man. The first skeletons and bones of dinosaurs were discovered in 1822, after a couple of decades they were given the appropriate name and began to more actively deal with the mystery of their life and death.
One could doubt their existence, but the remains of these mysterious animals are still regularly found at archaeological excavations, the length of the found skeletons reaches several tens of meters. These are reborn lizards, reptiles, today the likeness of dinosaurs is representatives of lizards, crocodiles, sea creatures.
Most dinosaurs lived in a part of the planet with a hot climate, in Australia, the USA, Africa, China, especially many skeletons were found in Nevada, Australia, America. The remains of many dinosaurs were collected and recreated in reconstructions into a project of a whole dinosaur (in skeleton form) and exhibited in museums and parks. There are exhibition complexes with dinosaurs in a copied form (for example, the Jurassic Park Museum) with images of dinosaurs recreated using modern technologies (how they looked like they were established from the remains found using special programs).
“Dinosaurs (lat. Dinosauria, from other Greek δεινός - “terrible, terrible, dangerous” and σαῦρος - “lizard, lizard”) - a superorder of terrestrial vertebrates that dominated the Earth in the Mesozoic era - for more than 160 million years, from the Upper Triassic period (approximately 225 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (66 million years ago), when most of them began to die out during the large-scale extinction of animals and many plant species in a relatively short geological period stories.
Dinosaur fossils have been found on all continents of the planet. Currently, paleontologists have described more than 500 different genera and more than 1000 various kinds, which are clearly divided into two orders: ornithischians and lizards uh".
Attention: “more than 500 different genera and more than 1000 different species have been described, which are clearly divided into two orders: ornithischians and lizards” (although some scientists make corrections: about half are named incorrectly, and a hundred duplicate others). That's how many species existed in two orders of dinosaurs, representatives of each species from several tens to several hundred thousand.
The main groups of dinosaurs: Ankylosaurs, Ceratops, Dino-birds, Ornithopods, Raptors, Hadrosaurs, Pachycephalosaurs, Theropods, Stegosaurus, Sauropods.
The brightest, most notable representatives of dinosaurs:
For example, the largest dinosaurs in size:
Sarkohuz - a huge reptile of the Cretaceous period, lived in Africa. In appearance, this is a big, big crocodile, more than 15 meters long, weighing from 14 tons, today's crocodiles would look like his cubs. He ate other dinosaurs, fish.
In the photo Sarkohuz
Shantungosaurus is a huge representative of ornithischians, the first remains were found in China. Body length about 15 meters, weight 15 tons.
Liopleurodon is not only one of the largest, but also one of the most scary dinosaurs, a group of reptiles. Length from 14 to 29 meters.
Shonisaurus - fish lizard, ichthyosaur, 15 meters long, weight 30-40 tons.
Pictured is Shonisaurus
Spinosaurus - height 16-18 meters, weight 7 tons.
Diplodocus is a peace-loving dinosaur, herbivore, a representative of the lizards, was 10 meters tall, 28-33 meters long, weighing 20-30 tons, had a very a long tail, small skull.
In the photo Diplodocus
And now about the real giants:
Sauroposeidon - length about 31 meters, weight more than 60 tons, height 18 meters, herbivore.
Futalognkosaurus - body length about 32-3 meters, height 15 meters, weight 80 tons.
Amphicelias- body length 40-65 meters, weight about 155 tons (!!!). Herbivorous.
Pictured is Amphicelias
Well, one of the most cruel predators - ti-rex (or tyrannosaurus) - had a body length of 12-13 meters, a weight of 9-10 tons. Feed on other dinosaurs.
There were even suggestions by scientists that dinosaurs lived for some time on Earth along with the first people. Such thoughts of scientists were connected with the fact that drawings of dinosaurs made by man were often found on rock inscriptions. How did a person know and draw these animals if he missed them by 60 million years?? After all, it was difficult to find skeletons then, without having the equipment and tools for excavation, and even more difficult to recreate a full-fledged look and image of dinosaurs that died out millions of years ago. However, there were suggestions that the drawings were lizards. Nevertheless, scientists who examined them more carefully assure that dinosaurs are there.
And here's another thing - scientists found footprints of dinosaurs, somewhere right paths, casts were transferred to museums ... What traces could be left if the Earth was burned by asteroids, then a tsunami passed, and everything just had to burn out the merciless sun and time ??
But they find some paw prints ... Maybe then they come up with bones?
So, let's finally move on to the main issue of the outcome of the life of dinosaurs, to their death. Dinosaurs died out 60-80 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, why this happened - physicists, astronauts, paleontologists, archaeologists give a lot of hypotheses.
The main version of the extinction of dinosaurs, which, according to scientists, lived on earth for more than a hundred million years and died out more than 60 million years ago, is a series of asteroids falling to Earth, a powerful explosion as a result, a fire, then a tsunami. Almost all living things or the bulk of animal species were wiped off the face of the Earth.
An asteroid or comet fell near the Mexican island of Yucatan, as a result of the impact, most of the animals died out. The main arguments in favor of this hypothesis are the coincidence of the time of extinction of many species of dinosaurs and the period of formation of the crater.
Chicxulub - presumably a consequence of the fall of an asteroid about 10 km in size about 65 million years ago.
This hypothesis was put forward by the American physicist Luis Alvarez in 1980. The asteroid impact raised a cloud of dust, produced an explosion, awakened dormant volcanoes, somewhere it is mentioned about the onset of an asteroid winter, as well as the following after a sizzling fire from an explosion on greater territory continents with a hot climate and a tsunami wave that captured a significant part of the planet, covering the land for hundreds of meters, or even more.
A more plausible version is that such a powerful explosion and fire in seconds destroyed vast territories and animals located on them and a tsunami that covered the earth for hundreds and thousands of meters after was caused by the fall of several asteroids, meteorites.
In films that project, imitate the last hours of the life of dinosaurs, the death of animals is shown, they talk about their fear, panic. Of course, this is already too much, since we don’t even know the exact reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs, we know these animals only from recreated models and that there are doubts whether they existed, and we are already fantasizing about what the dinosaurs “thought” before death.
After the double defeat of the earth, animals survived in a small number, and there were no dinosaurs among them. Their skeletons remained forever imprinted in the layers of the planet, the first remains began to be found in the 20th century, perhaps they were found earlier, but they were not identified as the remains of ancient pangolins.
“Among many other versions is an increase in volcanic activity: a giant outpouring of magma between 68 and 60 million years ago.
A number of scientists believe that the dinosaurs were exterminated by the first predatory mammals, destroying the clutches of eggs and cubs; could also be affected by a sharp drop in sea level, a sharp jump magnetic field Land and other factors.
Hypotheses of changes in the vegetation of the earth, an increase in flowering plants and the extinction of the herbivorous species of dinosaurs in connection with this, then the extinction of the carnivores due to the depletion of the "edible" stocks of all, are considered. Changing of the climate(continental drift) - for example, the slightest fluctuations led to problems hatching cubs from eggs - they died, atmospheric change- damage to the layers of the atmosphere due to volcanic activity or the fall of the same asteroid, a decrease in the amount of air and the extinction of all life.
« Another hypothesis for the extinction of dinosaurs is a significant increase in the volcanic activity of the Earth. Most often, scientists refer to the Deccan Traps plateau, which is located in India and is covered with igneous basalt two kilometers thick. Its age is determined at 60-68 million years.
However, as scientists suggest, during the long process of the onset of "winter" on the planet (due to long volcanic activity), dinosaurs could adapt and survive, as crocodiles did.
According to a new theory (2016) - the dinosaurs at the time of the fall of the asteroid were already on the path of extinction, that is, the role of the impact of a celestial body on the Earth was a secondary cause of the death of animals. The trend towards extinction of species was outlined as early as 80-75 million years ago. Moreover, scientists cannot establish the exact reasons for this, perhaps the split of supercontinents, climate change, an increase in the number of predators, etc.
From the editor. In this collection, we place several articles that will help readers dispel the myth that the existence of dinosaurs does not fit into the Christian picture of the world.
Rev. Barsanuphius of Optina:
"The Chinese and Japanese legends about the existence of dragons are by no means fantasies or fables, despite the fact that European naturalists, along with ours, deny the existence of these monsters. So, in the end, everything can be denied, simply due to the fact that it doesn't fit our understanding."
(Cell notes. Quoted from the book:Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose).The Creation of the World and the First Old Testament People. Moscow, Publishing house "Russian pilgrim", 2004))
About dinosaurs
In a discussion about the Biblical doctrine of creation, one of the most frequently asked questions concerns the following: “What about the dinosaurs?”
As an introduction to a Christian perspective on this issue, we recommend Dinosaurs (1991, third edition, 2000) and The Real History of Dinosaurs (1991), both by Dr. Mac Baker.
There are many thoughts and little known facts regarding dinosaurs, which have found their way into a number of creationist sources:
1. Like the fossil finds of other animals, the appearance of fossil dinosaurs has the character of suddenness in fossil records, without the presence of evolutionary predecessors or transitional forms corresponding to their various genera. See Russell M. Grigg, "Dinosaurs and Dragons" (Creation Ex Nohilo, vol. 14, no. 3); Ken Ham pp. 19, 114 The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved.
2. Dinosaurs are not usually arranged among fossil finds as if they died of natural causes, but their most typical arrangement suggests a catastrophic death, often unusually cruel. They definitely had to die in a short time, their remains are found under sedimentary rock, because not only are they abundant burials, but in many cases the primary bone material and epithelium were fossilized with sufficient safety. Exists a large number of massive dinosaur graveyards around the world. As writes Dr. Henry Morris, "The burial of so many huge creatures literally strongly suggests some form of disaster."
All of this is obviously taken as evidence that the dinosaurs died out during Noah's flood. For data collected from around the world, see The Genesis Flood. John Whitecomb and Henry Morris, pp. 98-99; That Their Words May Be Used Against Them. Henry Morris, pp. 266-72; The Real History of Dinisaurs. Mace Baker, pp. 31-39; Dinosaurs. Mace Baker, p. 156; "Exceptional Soft-Tissue Preservation in a Fossilised Dinosaur" (Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, vol. 12, pp. 8-9; The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved. Ken Ham, pp. 58, 135); and the video The Footsteps of Leviathan, produced by American Portrait Films.
3. Evolutionists have long disputed the extinction of dinosaurs around the world, but in this case they still have not provided an adequate theory for discussion. Most creation scientists agree that the main reason for the death of the dinosaurs was the radical change of the world between what it was in the time before Noah's Flood and the world, the conditions of which were formed after the Flood. For those interested in a discussion that considers these or those reasons, we recommend Dinosaurs by Design. Duane Gish, pp. 76-77; The Real History of Dinausars. Mace Baker, p. 57; The Great Dinosaurs Mystery Solved. Ken Ham., pp. 67-68; and Dinosaurs, the Lost World, and You. John D. Morris, p. 33.
4. The recent discovery of well-preserved (unfossilized) dinosaur bones and Tyrannosaurus rex bones, which turned out to contain blood cells, pointing to the fact that dinosaurs could not have died out seventy million years ago, as evolutionists claim. See Margaret Helder "Fresh Dinosaur Bones Found" (Creation Ex Nihilo, vol. 14, no. 3); The Great Dinosaurs Mystery Solved. Ken Ham, pp. 14-16, 108-9; Davis, Liston and Whitemore The Great Alaskan Dinosaurs Adventure; as well as the video film The Footsteps of Leviathan by American Portrait Films.
5. Since the fossil finds represent those animals that perished during Noah's Flood, the question of whether any dinosaurs were preserved in Noah's Ark presents a certain difficulty, which cannot be answered from the results of the study of fossil remains. We should rather turn to the oldest literature and the earliest narratives of human history after the flood. Evolutionists are unable to explain the "dragons" described in the sources of the most ancient cultures throughout the world, many of which contain startling details about dinosaur-like creatures. Creationists explain this as referring to the species of dinosaur that survived the Flood (the term "dinosaur" itself was not known until 1841).
In the Old Testament, dragons - dinosaurs - (in Hebrew - tannim) are mentioned twenty-one times. The most important reference is found in the book of Job, where chapters 40-41 describe in detail the majestic lizard dinosaur that "turns its tail like a cedar." For a thorough examination of references to dinosaurs in the Bible, we recommend: The Real History of Dinosaurs. Mace Baker, pp. 8-49; The Biblical Basis of Modern Science. Henry Morris, pp. 350 - 59. See also Dinosaurs by Design. Duane Gish, pp. 82-83; and The Remarkable Record of Job. Henry Morris, pp. 115-25.
Creationists have collected a wealth of evidence from historical literature and art that indicates that dinosaurs coexisted alongside humans. Unfortunately, all this material has not been systematized in a single anthological work, and thus, we can only collect individual facts from a number of sources. These include: "Dinosaurs and Dragons" by D. Lee Niermann (Creation Ex Nihilo Tchnical Journal, vol. 8, no. 1); "Dinosaurs and Dragons" by Russell M. Grigg (Creation Ex Nihilo, vol. 14, no. 3); That Their Words May Be Used Against Them. Henry Morris, pp. 251-61; After the Flood. Bill Cooper, pp. 130-61; "The Early History of Man, Part 1: Living Dinosaurs from Anglo-Saxon and Other Early Records". Bill Cooper (Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal "house 6, no. 1); The Real History of Dinousaurs. Mace Baker, pp. 51-62, 86-88; The Great Dinosaur Mystory Solved. Ken Ham, pp. 28 - 33, 119-21, 137, and "Messages in Stone" by Denis L. Swift (Creation Ex Nihilo, vol. 19, no. 2) The story of St. George the Victorious and the dragon presented by Duane Gish in Dinosaurs by Design, p. 80 -81 One of best introductions This item is a video of The Great Dinosaurs Mystery, written and directed by Paul Tailor.
The question of how dinosaurs (presumably their babies) could have assembled into an ark has been dealt with fairly well by Russell M. Grigg in his article "Dinosaurs and Dragons", Mace Baker in The Real History of Dinosaurs, p. 28, and Ken Ham in The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved, pp. 52-58.
(From the book: "Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose). Genesis: the creation of the world and the first Old Testament people. Appendix 5, compiled by Hieromonk Damaskin (Christensen). M., Edition of the Brotherhood of St. Herman of Alaska (Platinum, California, USA) and the Valaam Society America. 2004).
To the question:
It was with great pleasure that I read your answer to the question about the theory of evolution. But then the question arises: how Orthodox Church relates to paleontology, to paleontology as a science, and to what paleontologists find? The question arose from the answer of a nun who firmly stands on the fact that "God created the earth and all life on it in 6 days", and dinosaurs with their million-year history have no place in this graph.
Dmitry, editor of the magazine "Paleo World"
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
Dear Dmitriy! The question concerns the scientific status of paleontology. We can solve it only when, at least in general terms, we consider the distinctive properties of classical science and compare it with paleontology. A characteristic feature of science is the objectivity and objectivity of knowledge. Its categorical apparatus and methods were formed in relation to the study of a specific given object. That's why structural units scientific knowledge is scientific fact(accurate and complete empirical description of the object under study) and theory(logically ordered knowledge of the properties of the object under study). The result of the work is the construction of an ideal model of the object. The adequacy of this model is experimentally tested. Representatives of logical positivism, as a criterion for demarcating science and non-science, put forward the principle verification(lat. verificatio - confirmation). Karl Popper showed the insufficiency of this principle. He proposed as a demarcation criterion the method falsifiability(lat. falsus - false): only that theory is scientific, which can be fundamentally refuted by experience. “The dogma of meaning or meaning and the pseudo-problems it generates can be eliminated if we take as the criterion of demarcation falsifiability criterion, that is, at least asymmetric or unilateral solvability. According to this criterion, statements or systems of statements contain information about the empirical world only if they have the ability to collide with experience, or more precisely, if they can. check systematically, that is, subject (in accordance with some “methodological decision”) to checks, the result of which May be their refutation ”(K. Popper. Logic and the growth of scientific knowledge). Further work in the field of the logic of science showed that the principle proposed by K. Popper is a variant of the verification principle. So, the criterion of science is a system of knowledge that can be confirmed or refuted. To what extent does paleontology meet the logical criteria of science? The first thing that attracts attention is the extremely narrow empirical base. The past world that paleozoology is trying to scientifically explore is presented in the form of traces - insignificant fragments. Instead of an analytical description - reconstruction. The resulting knowledge always turns out to be hypothetical (a hypothesis is an unproven statement or assumption). Proposing hypotheses is a necessary step in the formation of scientific knowledge. But if a certain hypothesis is fundamentally unverifiable, if it can neither be proved nor refuted, then it will never have the status of scientific knowledge. Since paleontology acquires knowledge by the method of reconstruction, the dependence of conceptual constructions on the worldview of the researcher is great. In any science, the axiological (value) aspect is inevitable. However, in classical science it is not decisive in the formation of concepts. Not so in paleontology. The main methodological principles in it depend on the worldview of the scientist. It doesn't devalue scientific papers paleontologists. It all depends on how true the worldview of the researcher is. This can be clearly seen by referring to the history of paleontology. Its founder, J. Cuvier (1769-1832), connected the talents of the great scientist with the Christian faith. He fully shared the biblical teaching about the creation of the world: "Moses left us a cosmogony, the truth of the provisions of which is confirmed in the most amazing way from day to day." J. Cuvier introduced the concept of type in zoology. He established the principle of "correlation of organs", which made it possible to reconstruct the structure of many extinct animals. He did not recognize the variability of species. Jean-Louis Agassiz (1807–1873), a prominent Swiss zoologist, Jean-Louis Agassiz (1807–1873), a follower of J. Cuvier, who did a lot for the development of paleontology, was also an opponent of evolutionism. He was a Christian. Exploring nature, J. L. Agassiz could make sure that: "The world is the most obvious proof of the existence of a personal God, the Creator of all things and the Provider of the world." Other prominent paleontologists of this period, A.D. D'Orbigny in France, A. Sedgwick and Richard Owen in England, were opponents of evolutionism.
With the appearance in 1859 of C. R. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", "evolutionary paleontology" begins to take shape. Darwinism is not a science. It was a kind of ideology that turned out to be in great demand in the face of growing mass disbelief. The terms "Darwinist", "Darwinism", "struggle for existence" in a short time became known in all sections of the population. The name of Darwin in those decades gained such popularity as no other scientist had. N.Ya. Danilevsky, a scientist and original thinker, in his major work “Darwinism. Critical study "(St. Petersburg, 1885 - 1888, vols. 1-2) accurately noted that not sciences, but philosophical systems are called by the name of a person: "Darwin's teaching has captured the minds of scientists of all specialties, the entire educated and semi-educated society, and will not remain, and does not even remain without a strong influence on people who are completely uneducated. What is the reason for this extraordinary phenomenon? If we delve deeply, we will find it already in the name itself, which the common voice of both the scientific world and the public gave to this doctrine, calling it Darwinism... Indeed, not a single direction given to any branch of the positive sciences, or a combination of them, no matter how important and fruitful it may be in itself - neither given by Copernicus to astronomy, nor Galileo to physics, nor Lavoisier to chemistry, nor Jussier to botany, nor Cuvier zoology - have not been called and are not called Copernicism, Galileism, Cuvierism, etc. , i.e. philosophy, where such an appeal own name the author of a philosophical doctrine into a common noun to refer to an entire philosophical system is quite common. Everyone says Cartesianism, Spinozism, Schellingism, Hegelism to designate the philosophical doctrines whose creators were: Descartes, Spinoza, Schelling, Hegel. Thus, if we rank Darwin's teaching among the philosophical teachings, then the anomaly noticed by Mr. Timiryazev will disappear; it turns out that Darwin's teaching was called Darwinism, not because of its special qualitative superiority and perfection, in comparison with other teachings in the field of positive knowledge, but because of the general character of this teaching, completely independent of its internal dignity, the character by which it is, as it were, withdrawn from the realm of the positive sciences, and belongs to the realm of philosophy. Is our assumption justified in practice, can the character of a special philosophical worldview be attributed to Darwin's teaching? Such a character not only can, but must necessarily be attributed to it, because this teaching contains a special worldview, the highest explanatory principle, not for any particular, even the most important, but for the whole world-building, explaining the entire field of being. "(Darwinism, vol. 1, Introduction). A paradoxical situation arose: although paleontology refuted Darwinism every decade, it itself became more and more captive to this philosophy. And paleontology refuted Darwinism by showing the absence of transitional forms. If Darwin's teaching were correct, there would have to be millions of transitional forms. Darwin himself realized that this undermined his hypothesis. He said that paleontology is still young, it has to discover these forms that confirm evolution. What do we have a century and a half later? Here is the opinion of scientists: “We are of the view that there are no intermediate links at all that could convincingly confirm evolution from the simplest living beings to complex ones. This point of view is not new - on the contrary, this fact belongs to the category of "open secrets" in paleontology. And, despite this, for many decades they have been trying to preserve the classical evolutionary model and, 100 years after Darwin, they hope, like he did in his time, to find convincing evidence of the evolutionary process - intermediate links. Based on untold millions of explored fossils, scientists have to date cataloged over 250,000 species of fossil animals that are on display in museums around the world. And among them it is impossible to meet a single indisputable intermediate link. In the last decade, the scientific community has witnessed how these hopes (that intermediate links in the chain of evolution will still be found), apparently, finally collapsed ”(R. Juncker, Z. Scherer. History of the origin and development of life) . I will give an assessment of another representative of science: “Over the past century, the number of remains recovered to the surface has increased hundreds of times, but the picture that was at the time of Darwin has not changed at all and not a single species of animals or plants that could be called intermediate has ever been was found. The “rows of development” (mouse - horse) now shown to the public in museums are simply selected fragments of creatures of completely different species. Some species, which at one time were considered to be long-extinct intermediate forms, for example, lungfish, lobe-finned fish, have been found living at the present time and exactly the same as they were previously found in the layers of the earth. Recently, it has been experimentally proven that the dog is NOT descended from the wolf, as has been constantly claimed, but that these are two different, albeit close, species. Particularly intensive searches were (and are) for the fossil remains of human ancestors, which were put forward as Pithecanthropus, Neanderthal, Piltdown Man, Sinanthropus, Java Man, and more recently Australopithecus. Without going into details, it can be said with complete certainty that the presented skeletal fragments (most often separate bones of the skull) of all the mentioned “ancestors” belong either to monkeys and other animals, or people close to modern ones, or are more or less successful fakes. The most famous forgery is the "Piltdown Man", which for more than forty years was considered throughout the world as the most evidential link between ape and man, until it was established that the bones found were falsified by mechanical and chemical processing of fragments of the skeletons of monkeys and people, their grouping and burying in land in the area where the excavations were carried out by an English amateur archaeologist ”(Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences G.A. Kalyabin. A mathematician’s view of Christianity and science in a historical aspect). It is enough to recall the history of the so-called. Pithecanthropus. Young Dutch military doctor Eugene Dubois in 1891 on the island of Java in the valley of the river. Bengavan, near the villages. Trinil at a depth of 1 meter found the 3rd molar, similar to a human, and at a distance of one meter from it, at the same level, the upper part of the skull. In 1892, 15 meters from this place up the river, he found a femur, very similar to a human one. Subsequently, another molar was found. All this, according to Dubois, belonged to the same individual - a humanoid ape. Only at the end of his life, Dubois admitted that the upper part of the Pithecanthropus skull actually belonged to a large gibbon.
About dinosaurs. Recognition of the existence of reptiles up to 30 m long on Earth does not in the least contradict the biblical teaching about the creation of the world. One of the largest dinosaurs, Diplodocus, was about 28 meters long. The size of individual individuals of the blue or blue whale reaches 30-33 m, and the weight is up to 130-150 tons. Dinosaurs do not fall out of the taxonomy. They belong to the class of reptiles, a subclass of archosaurs. There are four orders of archosaurs: lizard dinosaurs, ornithischian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and crocodiles. Why doesn't the Bible say anything about dinosaurs? We have no basis for a categorical statement. Indeed, there is no word for this, because it appeared in 1841. The concept of "dinosaur" was introduced by the English zoologist and paleontologist Richard Owen (1804-92), combining two Greek words deinos (terrible) and sarius (lizard). However, there are descriptions of huge animals in the Bible. We cannot rule out that this is about a large dinosaur: “like a monster in the seas, you throw yourself in your rivers, and muddy the waters with your feet, and trample their streams” (Ezek. 32: 2); “from the root of the serpent will come an asp, and its fruit will be a flying dragon” (Is. 14:29). But even if not about dinosaurs, then this is because the Bible is not a book on zoology, but a divinely revealed Holy Scripture about the ways of our salvation. The most unacceptable in the works on dinosaurs are dates. It is surprising how confidently it is asserted that they began to exist 220 - 230 million years ago, they flourished 160 million years ago, and they disappeared 65 million years ago. All this is fantasy. This is refuted by the data of a relatively young scientific discipline - molecular paleontology. I'll give you an example. In the state of Montana in 1990, the remains of a tyrannosaurus rex were found. It was studied by a group led by University of North Carolina lead researcher Mary Schweitzer. Tyrannosaurus Rex bones were not fossilized. They contained blood cells. This clearly proves that the dinosaur did not live "65 million years" ago, but only a few thousand years ago. How unreliable the accepted methods of dating can be judged by some examples. A study was made of a dacitic lava flow formed in 1986 in the new dome of the San Helens volcano (Washington State). Dating showed from 0.35 to 2.8 million years. In fact, the lava was formed in 1986, i.e. 10 years ago. “Uncertainty in the input data leads to uncertainty in the results. Thus, many different samples of lava rocks from the Hawaiian Islands, the occurrence of which is documented in 1800-1801, according to the potassium-argon method, give an age of 160 x 106 - 2 x 109 years, while their true age reaches 166-167 years ”(P . Juncker, Z. Scherer. History of the origin and development of life).
How to explain the continuing monopoly of evolutionism in biology? The spirit of the times, which is characterized by mass disbelief. Doctor of Physics and Mathematics sciences, prof. V.S. Olkhovsky explains: “Why is this doctrine so tenacious? What are the reasons for its persistence? There are many. First of all, this is a hypnotic effect, force of habit and residual conformity after a long monopoly of this doctrine in state curricula secondary schools and universities in many countries. And this monopoly was due over a hundred years ago to the fact that the doctrine of evolutionism became the anchor of the salvation of the weakening secular humanism, generated by the illusions of the Enlightenment and scientism, and then a number of currents of atheistic ideology and ideology New Era, despite the fact that a number of prominent scientists have subjected the theory of universal evolution to serious doubts and scientific criticism. The thought of the Creator saves a person from the hypnosis of evolutionism, because it is impossible for a true scientist, penetrating into the secrets of this world, not to see the mind-amazing wisdom in its structure. “I believe in God as a Personality and, in all conscience, I can say that I have not been an atheist for a single minute of my life. While still a young student, I resolutely rejected the views of Darwin, Haeckel and Huxley as helplessly outdated views” (A. Einstein).
Dear Dmitriy! It took so long to talk about evolutionism because many paleontologists still remain captive to this atheistic philosophy. I wish you and your journal that their works confirm the idea of one of the most prominent representatives of paleontology, J.L. Agassiz: "Science is the translation of the thoughts of the Creator into human language."
I. Popov
Are all dinosaurs extinct?
archaeological finds
Many archaeological finds indicate that dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans.
One of the most striking discoveries was made in 1982 in the Paluxy River Valley in Texas (USA). Here, the water that rose after heavy rains washed away part of the sedimentary rocks, exposing the limestone layer, whose age should have been 108 million (!) Years. On the surface of the layer, a lot of dinosaur paw prints and ... human feet were found. Double prints were also found when dinosaurs stepped on top of a human footprint, and vice versa - a person stepped on a footprint already left by a dinosaur. Scientists were forced to admit that these traces are the same as those of modern man. Year after year, massive expeditions set off to the Paluxy Valley. The list of finds is constantly updated, and the most sensational of them are fossilized human teeth and a finger from the same geological layer.
In recent years, paleontologists have been surprising themselves more and more often by discovering “fresh”, that is, not yet petrified dinosaur bones. And on July 7, 1993, a group of researchers from Newcastle University succeeded in isolating undecomposed protein from such bones. But the protein decomposes very quickly - it is unlikely that it could have survived for more than five thousand years. ...
Fantasies or facts?
So, people not so long ago were well acquainted with dinosaurs. There is no nation that does not retain the memories of giant dragons and monsters.
Let us remember the miracle of the Holy Great Martyr George about the snake. ... The prophet Daniel, the Great Martyr Theodore Stratilat († 319) also fought with dragons [“The courage of the holy warrior became known to many after he, with the help of God, killed a huge serpent that lived in the abyss in the vicinity of the city of Euchait. The serpent devoured many people and animals, keeping the whole neighborhood in fear ”(“ A Handbook for a Clergyman, vol. 2, p. 601)] and other saints of God; this is told in their lives.
In the chronicles of the Canterbury Temple (Great Britain), it is noted that on September 16, 1449, near the village of Little Conrad, many residents observed a fight between two giant reptiles. American researchers managed to recognize almost all types of fossil giants in the rock paintings of the Indians. And what about the Russian Serpent Gorynych, familiar to us from childhood? In the chronicles of Western European peoples there are many references to all kinds of dragons.
In the Celtic chronicles, King Moridd was swallowed in 336 BC by the giant monster BELUA, "like a large fish swallows a small one." British chronicles tell of many places in what is now Wales that were once inhabited by the monsters AFANK and CARROG and were named after these creatures. One of the last Afanki was killed in 1693 by Edward Lloyd on the Conway River. Dragons also occupy a considerable place in the Scandinavian epic. The Volsunga saga glorifies the feat of a warrior named Sigurd, who defeated the monster FAFNIR. Fafnir moved on four legs, dragging a heavy body along the ground. Knowing that the skin on the back of a fafnir is invulnerable to a sword or a spear, Sigurd dug a hole on the path through which the monster went to the watering hole, and, sowing in it, struck the monster crawling over him in the belly.
The hero of the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf (495-583), the grandson of King Gretchel Beowulf, in 515 defeated the monster GRENDEL. Grendel's life expectancy exceeded 300 years, and at the end of her monster was several times higher than a man, whom he had no difficulty swallowing. The skin on his torso could not be pierced with a sword or spear. The giant monster moved quickly and silently on its hind limbs, while the front ones were small and frail and hung helplessly in the air. What is not a reliable description of a tyrannosaurus rex? Beowulf, who knew the most vulnerable sides of the enemy, cut off the weak front paw of the Grendel in close combat, after which the beast died, bleeding. And no wonder - the blood pressure of a Tyrannosaurus rex must be considerable to supply oxygen to its head held high. Almost all types of fossil reptiles can be recognized in the dragons of the poem.
These are just some of the evidence for dinosaur encounters from European sources. And how many of them are still in Indochina and Japan, in Northern and South America, in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East? And all sources testify that not so distant ancestors of our contemporaries were "personally" familiar with dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs in the Bible
“Here is a behemoth,” says the Lord God to the righteous Job, “whom I created, like you; he eats grass like an ox; behold, his strength is in his loins, and his strength is in the muscles of his belly; turns its tail like a cedar; the veins on his thighs are intertwined; his legs are like copper pipes; his bones are like iron rods; it is the top of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring his sword near him; the mountains bring him food, and there all the animals of the field play ... behold, he drinks from the river and does not hurry; remains calm, even though Jordan rushes to his mouth ... ”(Job., ch. 40).
The huge beast described here is called in Hebrew - BEHEMOTH. Experts are inclined to believe that in this place Holy Scripture we are talking about a giant reptile such as diplodocus. (According to scientists, diplodocus are the largest dinosaurs and, in general, the largest of all animals that have ever lived on earth; these giant herbivorous lizards reached a length of 30-40 meters, and their weight was up to 70 tons [the weight of about twenty elephants] and more.) In 1993, the British Museum even made some corrections to the model of the Diplodocus skeleton. In particular, the tail of the monster, previously dragging along the ground, is now depicted as swinging in the air.
Further in the Book of Job (ch. 40-41) is a description of the largest of the marine creations - the sea monster LEVIATHAN, the identification of which with a crocodile or with the largest known modern marine animal - a whale - will, of course, be naive.
“Can you,” the Lord God asks Job, “pull out Leviathan with a hook and grab his tongue with a rope? Will you put a ring in his nostrils? Will you pierce his jaw with a needle? will he beseech you much, and will he speak meekly to you? Will he make an agreement with you, and will you take him forever as your slave? will you play with him like a bird ... can you pierce his skin with a spear and his head with a fisher's spear? ... won't you fall from one glance of him? There is no one so brave who would dare to disturb him ... I will not keep silent about his members, about their strength and beautiful proportion. Who can open the top of his garment, who can approach his double jaws? Who can open the doors of his face? the circle of his teeth is horror; his strong shields are splendor; they are sealed, as it were, with a firm seal; one touches the other closely, so that even the air does not pass between them; one with the other lie tightly, grappled and do not move apart. His sneezing shows light; his eyes are like the eyelashes of the dawn; flames come out of his mouth, fiery sparks jump out; smoke comes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot or cauldron. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes out of his mouth. Strength dwells on his neck, and terror runs before him. The fleshy parts of his body are firmly united among themselves, do not flinch. His heart is as hard as stone and as hard as the bottom millstone. When he rises, the strong men are in fear, completely lost in horror. The sword that touches him will not stand, neither the spear, nor the javelin, nor the armor. He regards iron as straw, copper as rotten wood. The daughter of the bow [arrow] will not put him to flight; sling stones turn to chaff for him. The mace is considered by him as a straw; he laughs at the whistle of a dart. There are sharp stones under him, and he lies in the mud on sharp stones. He boils the abyss like a cauldron, and turns the sea into a boiling ointment; leaves behind a luminous path; the abyss looks gray. There is no one like him on earth; he is made fearless; looks boldly at everything high; he is the king over all the sons of pride (according to another translation, “the king of all wild animals” [Compare the proverb from ancient Chinese books: “The king of forest animals is a tiger, the king of sea animals is a dragon, and the king of forest plants is ginseng” (In S. Likharev, "Medicines from the garden", Saratov, 1993, p. 7)])".
According to these signs, as experts believe, you can recognize the largest of the fossil marine reptiles - the Kronosaurus. But is it possible to breathe fire? Let's remember how many legends there are about fire-breathing dragons. The Welsh brachinus beetle, the bombardier beetle, can fend for itself by firing a jet of hot gas at its offender. Known living beings (fish, insects) capable of emitting light and electrical discharges. And in the bone cranial crests of some hadrosaurs (in particular, Parasaurolopus), systems of hollow passages are found that connect in the nasopharynx, which could well perform the same function as in a small beetle.
Not inferior to Leviathan in terms of the number of references in the Hebrew text of the Bible (five times in three books) is another large reptile - RAAV. Moreover, Scripture makes it clear that, despite the awesome appearance and size, this animal is very lazy and easily vulnerable. This gives the authors of biblical texts a reason to use his name figuratively, in particular, meaning Egypt (as, for example, in Ps. 86, 4). Even now we often use allegorically the names of some animals (fox, snake, bear, donkey, lamb...). However, we can do this only because our interlocutors are well aware of both these animals themselves and their habits. Otherwise, we simply would not be understood. So, at that time, Rahab did not yet need the Red Book. This word does not mean anything to our contemporaries, and in the synodal Russian text of the Bible it was once translated as insolence (Job 26, 12 [In one of the modern translations of the Bible into English language(“The Bible in Today's English”, 1976) in this place is: “monster Rahab”]), once - as a power (Is. 30, 7 [Here is a typical example. In the synodal text of the Book of Isaiah, verse 7 of the chapter 30 looks like this: "For the help of Egypt will be in vain and in vain; therefore I said to them [says the Lord]: Their strength is to sit still." (The meaning of the last expression is not entirely clear.) However, in the translation of the Old Testament (from Hebrew into Russian ), carried out by Archimandrite Macarius (Glukharev, † 1847; his works were published in the journal Pravoslavnoye Obozreniye for 1860-1867 and were of great help to the subsequent synodal edition of the Bible in Russian), this place in the prophet Isaiah reads like this: “ And Egypt will help in vain and in vain, therefore I call it: Ragav-gem-shavet (i.e. they are brave, sitting at home. - Approx. Archim. Macarius) ". Thus, the expression used by the Lord" ragav-gem-shavet ”, which the translator reproduced in the original sound, was apparently a saying among the Jews - about ostentatious strength and imaginary courage, when someone is like the monster Rahab, but only sitting in his house. And in the modern translation of the Bible into English (“The Bible in Today’s English”, 1976), it is even simpler: “The help that Egypt gives is useless. So I have nicknamed Egypt, "The Harmless Dragon", - i.e. harmless, harmless dragon]), and in the other three cases left without translation.
The record holder for the number of references in the Bible among the names of ancient reptiles (twenty-nine times in twelve books) - and also, perhaps, the main contender for the right to be called the Hebrew equivalent of the modern word "dinosaur" - is FANNIN. The word "fannin" has the same root as the word "leviaFAN"; leviathan is a kind of fannin (this word, apparently, is also etymologically connected with FA-f-Nir from the Scandinavian epic and aFANk from the Brythonic chronicles).
In the synodal Russian translation of the Holy Scriptures, fannin is called differently: a dragon, a serpent, a sea monster, a crocodile, a great (large) fish, a hyena, a jackal. There are fannins curving, there are straight running. Some of them live in the water, some in the desert, some like to populate abandoned cities. Many of them can make loud sounds - wheezing, howling, roaring; some have a good sense of smell. There are poisonous varieties of fannins, and in terms of strength their poison is comparable to that of asps. Fannins are powerful and intimidating, and some of them are even able to swallow and then regurgitate a person. Apparently, the word "fannin", as well as the word "dinosaur" (which is translated from Greek as "terrible lizard"), refers to a very diverse group of reptile species, which are not ordinary snakes.
And the “ordinary” snakes in the Bible (nakhash and saraf) are far from always ordinary. What kind of creature, for example, can designate flying snakes that can nest, lay eggs, breed and take care of it? Some researchers tend to see in them the designation of flying reptiles.
In the 14th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel we read: “There was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians honored him. And the king [Cyrus (the Persian king Cyrus II the Great conquered Babylon and Mesopotamia in 539 B.C.)] said to Daniel: Can you not say about this that he is copper? behold, he is alive, and eats and drinks; you cannot say that this god is not alive; so bow down to him. Daniel said: I worship the Lord my God, because He is the living God. But you, king, give me permission, and I will kill the dragon without sword and rod. The king said: I give you. Then Daniel took resin, fat and hair, boiled it together and, making a lump out of it, threw it into the mouth of the dragon, and the dragon sat down. And Daniel said, “Here are your holy things!”
The above description is striking in its simplicity and everyday authenticity of details. A technique similar to that used by the prophet Daniel was not so long ago used by the Eskimos when hunting for a polar giant - polar bear. The baleen rolled along with the fat in a lump and was thrown to the beast, which immediately swallowed it. In the stomach of the animal, the fat melted, and the mustache, straightening, pierced it. Daniel could also have used horsehair or something similar for the same purpose. At the same time, it is clear from the text that this method of fighting dragons was perfectly familiar to Daniel.
Archaeological data also cast doubt on the possible assertion about the mythical nature of this plot. Indeed, the cult of dragons was widespread in ancient Babylon. Their images, found on various objects and structures, can be easily identified with certain varieties of now extinct reptiles. So, for example, the paws of the dragon, decorating the famous Ishtar Gate, are very reminiscent of the bird-toed feet of the iguanodon.
Encounters with dinosaurs?
Dozens of dinosaur species inhabited the Earth until recently. Why don't they meet people now? Christian scholars cite a number of reasons. Here are some of them.
First, there were not so many dinosaurs. Secondly, not all of the species modeled by scientists actually existed. Brontosaurus, for example, has been removed from the Carnegie Institution and is no longer mentioned in Donald Gluth's New Dictionary of Dinosaurs (1982). There are only a few types of giant lizards that really lived on earth. First of all, these are brachiosaurs, tyrannosaurs, diplodocus and allosaurs.
At first, giant lizards began to simply decrease in size. This is explained, in particular, by the fact that they were degraded under the influence of cosmic radiation, which was no longer retained by the water-steam screen destroyed during the flood.
Before the Flood, as we know from the Holy Scriptures, people lived for a very long time, and after the Flood, life expectancy began to rapidly decline. Noah still lived 950 years, and the forefather Abraham died when he was 175 years old. Joseph the beautiful, the great-grandson of Abraham, lived only 110 years. The life of animals also became shorter. And now let's remember the amazing ability of reptiles - they continue to grow throughout their lives. So it turns out that the earlier the animal died, the smaller it managed to grow.
Large lizards became less and less also because herbivores were the most vulnerable in the new world. The organisms of giant individuals did not cope well with the problem of thermoregulation due to the daily and seasonal variability of ambient temperature (there was no more greenhouse effect after the flood). Plants have become scarce compared to the antediluvian tropics. Large animals had to expend much more effort to feed themselves.
And the last. In a fight with dinosaurs, in most cases, people began to win.
And yet, not all dinosaurs disappeared. The "now living" crocodiles (reaching seven meters in length) and the dragons of Komodo Island (they will be discussed below) can rightly be called dinosaurs ("terrible lizards") that have survived to our time. And, presumably, a considerable number of exotic reptiles are hidden in the depths of the seas and oceans, as well as in other bodies of water (and perhaps in underground void spaces).
There are many good reasons for the "legend of the Loch Ness monster" (plesiosaur). depths. Near the western shore, he noticed movement in the water and immediately turned on the video camera, which recorded the movement of a long dark object under water, heading towards the northern part of the lake. The creature's body remained mostly submerged, but its head popped up from time to time, leaving behind a frothy tail. A few days later, fragments of the shooting appeared in the news bulletins of television programs in many countries of the world. Specialists who examined the film confirmed its authenticity and came to the conclusion that a creature about 15 meters long was moving at a speed of 10 kilometers per hour ”(http://ru.wikipedia.org/.../Loch Ness_monster)]. There are many other testimonies of encounters with sea "prehistoric" monsters, and these testimonies do not stop; and since the First World War, many of them have been documented [see, for example: Euvelmans B. Monsters sea depths// http:// smoliy.ru/lib/000/001/00000100/heyvelmans_chudovisha_morskih_glubin5.htm.]. Perhaps the most significant event recent years was the catch of the Japanese fishing vessel Zuro Maru in the waters of New Zealand: on April 10, 1977, the nets brought a recently dead (the corpse had barely begun to decompose) plesiosaur from a depth of three hundred meters. The find was declared the main scientific discovery year, and in honor of this event, a special postage stamp was even issued. The body length of the animal was about ten meters, weight - about two tons. Perfectly preserved four meter fin. Naturally, the plesiosaur could not live in the depths of the sea in a single copy. Surely there is a whole population of these creatures that avoid meeting with modern rumbling and stinking ships. And only a dead body, accidentally caught in a net, slightly revealed one of the secrets of the deep sea.
And here is the testimony of three Orthodox orientalists - priest Dionisy Pozdnyaev, priest Vitaly Zubkov and N. Lipova: “February 28, 1998 At 8.30 we went to the most revered Hindu holy city of Varanasi [India], where Hindus burn their dead on the banks of the Ganges.<…>We approached the place of burnt offering. Our boatman got nervous. The atmosphere around was oppressive and disturbing. Here we saw in the water the back of a huge animal or fish the size of a large buffalo with a bony fin. Then a head appeared, resembling a gharial crocodile with a high forehead, a long elongated mouth and a thickening at the tip of the nose, similar to an elephant's trunk. A minute later we saw a snake-like tail, similar to a very large boa constrictor with a fin on its tail. The creature was steel grey. The boatman was very frightened and answered our question, chattering his teeth, that this is a dolphin that eats unburned and half-burned corpses, and also sometimes grabs and takes away living people who bathe in the Ganges. He also told us that these "dolphins" have been living here for many centuries. When we asked him if these creatures were connected with the burnt offerings performed on the shore, he spoke like a person in a somnambulistic trance... At the hotel, we asked about "dolphins". The young man answered us that these were not dolphins, but "suis" ... - "the one to whom they bring a gift of death", or "an evil demon to whom they bring gifts" ["Missionary Review". 1998, No. 2. S. 16-18. On the Internet: http://pravaya.ru/faith/13; see also: http://dl.biblion.realin.ru/].
About the lizards of Komodo Island (see photo) in the "Soviet Encyclopedia" [Ed. 4th, 1987], for example, the following information is given: “KOMODS LIMIT, a reptile of this. monitor lizards; the largest contemporary lizard: length St. 3 m, weighs approx. 150 kg. Lives on several islands of the Malay arch. (Komodo, Rinja, Padar and Flores). Digs holes (up to 5 m). Feeds on ungulates, monkeys, carrion. Sometimes attacks people. In the IUCN Red List.
In the material “Dragons of Komodo Island”, published on the site of the publishing house “Around the World”, we read: “The fantastic news that strange land crocodiles, similar to giant monitor lizards, live on the small island of Komodo, circled the world in 1915. Four years before the crashed Dutch pilot made an emergency landing in these places. It was he, having got out of the island lost in the Indonesian expanses, and brought the news of amazing fossil pangolins to Europe. However, he was not immediately believed. This story looked too implausible: so that in the 20th century - yes, a beast not known to science? It took some more time for scientists to understand that the Dutchman's story was not the ravings of a madman, but the real truth.
... small water barriers for dragons are not a hindrance. They easily cross narrow straits and rivers ... They run ... 30 kilometers per hour<…>little dragons easily climb trees ... But over time, having become heavy, the lizards lose their ability to climb<…>The Indonesian government has declared Komodo Island a National Park...
In principle, a large dragon can cope with a person, but there have been no deaths recently. Everything was limited to abrasions, scratches or bites ... The last person to die from the teeth of Komodo dragons was the Swiss naturalist Monsieur Baron. In 1978, he went to Indonesia to get to know the life of mysterious prehistoric creatures. This acquaintance became fatal for him. amateur wildlife lagged behind the group and engaged in independent observations. No one has ever seen a more naturalist. Rescuers who went in search found only his glasses and a camera. Since then, the huntsmen never leave the tourists arriving on the island for a minute and accompany them everywhere. Dragons feel just fine in this park and are not going to die out at all. Recently, their population has even increased and now has about three thousand units ...
According to all the laws of logic, the dragons of Komodo Island should have disappeared from the face of the earth millions of years ago. For some unknown reason, this did not happen ... ”(TV program“ Around the World ”, June 8, 2003).
“Dragons from Komodo Island inject poison into their prey like snakes. Komodo dragons (lizards) ... can fill up even a deer. In food, the monitor lizard recognizes only one thing: meat. But anyone - from wild boars and deer to insects and crabs, without making an exception even for their own offspring. If the size of the prey allows, the monitor lizard swallows it whole, although its sharp teeth and powerful jaws do an excellent job of butchering any carcass, which is not an easy task even for such efficient predators as crocodiles. light”, 19.05.2009).
Archpriest Gleb Kaleda:
Let us consider the reliability and validity of the method of radiocarbon chronology ...
The radiocarbon method was developed in the mid-1950s. W. Libby and is based on the measurement of carbon C14 activity. The latter, according to modern concepts, is formed in the high layers of the atmosphere as a result of the action of cosmic rays on nitrogen atoms N14. Oxidized to C14O2, it enters the general carbon cycle. Due to the good mixing of the atmosphere, the content of the C14 isotope in different geographical latitudes and at different absolute levels is almost the same.
During photosynthesis, C14, along with other carbon isotopes, enters plants. When an organism dies, it stops extracting new portions of carbon from the air. As a result, due to radioactive decay, the ratio of C14 with stable carbon isotopes in his tissues changes. Since the decay rate is a constant value, by measuring the content of this isotope in the total amount of carbon, it is possible to calculate the age of the sample using the appropriate formulas.
The results of such a calculation will be plausible under the following assumptions:
1. the isotopic composition of the atmosphere during the lifetime of the sample was close to modern;
2. the isotopic system of the sample at that time was in equilibrium with the atmospheric one;
3. The isotopic system of the sample after the death of the organism was closed and did not undergo any changes under the influence of external factors of local or temporal significance. These three assumptions are the boundary conditions for the applicability of the radiocarbon chronology technique.
However, there are a number of other factors that globally or locally affect the concentration of C14 in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and plant and other tissues, and therefore complicate and limit the use of the radiocarbon method in chronology.
1. Artificial or natural radio emission. Neutrons released in nuclear and thermonuclear reactions, like cosmic rays, acting on N14, convert it into radiocarbon From 1956 to August 1963, the content of C14 in the atmosphere doubled. A sharp increase in C14 began after thermonuclear explosions in 1962.
2. Changing the strength of the Earth's magnetic field affects the intensity of the bombardment of its atmosphere cosmic rays, which is reflected in the concentration of C14 in the atmosphere and vegetation.
3. Change solar activity also affects the content of C14 according to the inverse relationship.
A relationship between the concentration of C14 and supernova explosions is noted, and the study of historical documents and tree rings showed significant changes in its content over time. Conferences were even convened on the problem of "Astrophysical Phenomena and Radiocarbon".
4. The effect of volcanic gases near their outlets on the specific content of C14 was noted by L.D. Sulerzhitsky and V.V. Cherdantsev.
5. Combustion of fuel has a significant impact on the content of C14 in the atmosphere. Thus, the combustion of a fossil, that is, a very ancient fuel that was formed many millions of years ago, during which radioactive carbon C14 practically completely decayed, leads to a decrease in its specific concentration in the atmosphere (the so-called Suess effect). As a result, due to the combustion of fossil fuels, the concentration of C14 in the atmosphere will decrease by 20% by 2010. And when soot from the combustion of newer products penetrates into ancient objects, the age of the first, determined by the radiocarbon method, turns out to be less than the actual one.
Since it is often very difficult to take into account all the factors that can disturb the state of isotope systems (not only carbon ones), in geology, for example, where isotope chronology methods are used very widely, an entire control system has been developed to obtain reliable methods for determining age. In a number of cases, age calculations using radiochronological methods give clearly absurd values that contradict the entire available set of geological and paleontological data. In such cases, the obtained figures of "absolute chronology" have to be disregarded as clearly unreliable. Sometimes discrepancies in geochronological determinations by different radioisotope methods reach tenfold values.
In 1989, the accuracy of the radiocarbon method was verified by the British Council for Science and Technology (see New Scientist, 1989, 8). To assess the accuracy of this method, 38 laboratories from different countries peace. They were given samples of wood, peat, carbonic salts, the age of which was known only to the organizers of the experiment, but not to the performers-analysts. Satisfactory results were obtained only in 7 laboratories - in the rest, the errors reached two-, three- or more times. When comparing the data obtained by different researchers and using various variations of the identification technology, it became clear that errors in determining the age are associated not only with inaccuracies in determining the radioactivity of the sample, as was previously thought, but also with the technology for preparing the sample for analysis. Distortions in diagnostics arise when the sample is heated, as well as in some ways of its preliminary chemical treatment.
Everything suggests that age calculations using the radiocarbon method should be treated very carefully, necessarily comparing the results obtained with other data.
Dragons are mentioned twenty-one times in the Old Testament. Some of these references:
Book of Daniel, chapter 14:
23 There was a great dragon in that place, and the Babylonians honored him.
24 And the king said to Daniel, Will you not say of this also that he is bronze? behold, he is alive, and eats and drinks; you cannot say that this god is not alive; so bow down to him.
25 Daniel said, I worship the Lord my God, because he is the living God.
26 But you, king, give me permission, and I will kill the dragon without sword and rod. The king said: I give you.
27 Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and boiled it together, and making a lump of it, he threw it into the mouth of the dragon, and the dragon split. And [Daniel] said, here are your holy things!
28 And when the Babylonians heard of this, they were greatly indignant and rebelled against the king, and said, The king has become a Jew, Vila destroyed and slew the dragon, and put to death the priests,
29 And when they came to the king, they said, Hand over Daniel to us, or we will kill you and your house.
Book of Job, chapter 40:
10 Here is the hippopotamus that I created, just like you; he eats grass like an ox;
11 behold, his strength is in his loins, and his strength is in the muscles of his stomach;
12 turns its tail like a cedar; the veins on his thighs are intertwined;
13 his legs are like copper pipes; his bones are like iron rods;
14 this is the top of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring his sword near him;
15 The mountains bring him food, and there all the beasts of the field play;
16 he lies down under shady trees, under reeds, and in swamps;
17 shady trees cover it with their shade; willows by streams surround it;
18 behold, he drinks from the river, and does not hurry; remains calm, even though Jordan rushes to his mouth.
19 Shall anyone take him before his eyes, and pierce his nose with a hook?
20 Can you draw Leviathan with a fishhook and grab hold of his tongue with a rope?
21 Will you put a ring in his nostrils? Will you pierce his jaw with a needle?
22 Will he beseech you much, and will he speak meekly to you?
23 Will he make a pact with you, and will you take him forever as your slave?
24 Will you play with him like a bird, and bind him for your girls?
25 Will the fishing companions sell it, will it be divided among the Canaanite merchants?
26 Can you pierce his skin with a spear and his head with a fisher's point?
27 Lay thy hand upon him, and remember the struggle: you will not advance.
“For their grapes are from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their berries are poisonous, their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of dragons and the fatal poison of asps.
Deut. 32, 32-33
And I rode at night through the gates of the Valley before the spring of Dragons to the gates of Dung, and I examined the walls of Jerusalem destroyed and its gates burned by fire.
Nehemiah. 2, 13
Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way,
when You crushed us in the land of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death.
... you step on an asp and a basilisk; you will trample on the lion and the dragon.
Ps. 90, 13
... do not rejoice, the land of the Philistines, that the rod that struck you is crushed, for from the root of the serpent an asp will come out, and the flying dragon will be its fruit.
Is. 14, 29
“This is a great and spacious sea: there are reptiles that have no number, animals small and large;
ships sail there, there is this leviathan that you created to play in it.
They all expect You to give them their food in due time.”
Ps. 103, 25-27
On that day, the Lord will strike with His heavy sword, and great and strong, Leviathan, the straight-running serpent, and Leviathan, the curving serpent, and will kill the monster of the sea.
Is. 27, 1
Some examples of battles with dragons described in the lives of the saints
Holy Great Martyr Theodore Stratilat:
Not far from the city of Euchait, to the north of it, there was a desert field, and in it there was a large abyss, inside which lived a huge serpent. When he came out of this abyss, the earth shook in that place; having gone out, he devoured everything that only came across to him, both man and beast.
Hearing about this, the brave warrior of Christ, Saint Theodore, who was then still among the army, without telling anyone about his intention, went out alone against that fierce serpent.
He took with him only his usual weapons, but on his chest he had a valuable cross. He said to himself:
I will go and deliver my fatherland by the power of Christ from this fierce serpent.
When he came to that field, he saw tall grass, got off his horse and lay down to rest. In this country there lived a pious woman named Eusebius. It was a woman aged in years; a few years before that, having asked for the honest body of St. Theodore Tyrone6, who suffered during the reign of Maximian and Maximinus, she buried him with fragrances in her house in Euchaites and celebrated his memory every year. This woman, seeing this second Theodore, a soldier of Christ, called a stratilate, sleeping on this field, with great fear approached him, and, taking his hand, woke him up, saying:
Arise, brother, and quickly move away from this place: you do not know that in this place many suffered a fierce death; So get up quickly and go on your way.
The honest martyr of Christ Theodore, standing up, said to her:
What kind of fear and horror are you talking about, mother?
The servant of God Eusebius answered him:
Child, a huge serpent wound up in this place, and therefore no one can come here: every day this serpent, leaving its lair, finds someone, a man or an animal, and immediately kills him and devours him.
The courageous warrior of Christ Theodore said to this:
The woman, moving away from this place, fell to the ground, crying and saying:
God of Christians, help him in this hour!
Then the holy martyr Theodore, having made the sign of the cross, struck himself on the Persian and, looking up at heaven, began to pray thus:
Lord Jesus Christ, resplendent from the Father's Essence, helping me in battles and giving victory to the opposing ones, - You are the same now, Lord Christ God: so send me overcoming from the height of Your holy one, that I will overcome this enemy - the serpent.
Then, talking with his horse as if with a man, he said:
We know that God's power and strength exist in everyone, both in people and in cattle, so help me, with the help of Christ, that I will overcome the enemy.
The horse, having listened to the words of its master, stopped, waiting for the appearance of the serpent. Then the martyr of Christ, approaching the abyss, loudly called out to the serpent:
I tell you and command you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified voluntarily for the human race, come out of your lair and crawl to me.
The serpent, hearing the voice of the saint, stirred, and immediately the earth shook in that place. Saint Theodore, having marked himself with the sign of the cross, mounted his horse, with which, tormenting and trampling the serpent that had come out, he stood on him with all four hooves.
Then the warrior of Christ Theodore struck the serpent with a sword and, having killed him, said:
I thank You, Lord Jesus Christ, that You heard me at this hour and gave me victory over the serpent!
After that, he safely returned to his regiment, rejoicing and glorifying God. The citizens of Euchait and the neighboring inhabitants, hearing about this, went out to that field and, seeing the serpent killed by Saint Theodore, were surprised and cried out:
Great God Feodorov!
Then many of the people believed in Christ, and especially the soldiers, and all of them, having been baptized, became one flock of Christ, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious:
It is impossible not to mention the glorious miracle of killing the serpent performed by the Holy Great Martyr George near his Palestinian fatherland, in the Syro-Phoenician country, in the city of Beirut, standing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, not far from the city of Lydda, where the body of the holy Great Martyr was buried. The place where this miracle took place is shown to travelers in Palestine. According to the description of the narrators about this miracle, it happened under the following circumstances.
Near the mentioned city of Beirut, near the Lebanese mountains, there was a large lake in which lived a serpent - a destroyer, great and terrible. Coming out of this lake, that serpent kidnapped many people, dragged them into the lake and devoured them there. Many times the people, armed, opposed him, but each time the serpent drove the people away, because, approaching the walls of the city, it filled the air with its destructive breath, so that already from this alone many fell ill and died. Because of this, in that city there was constantly sorrow, sorrow, a cry and great lamentation. Infidel people lived in this city - idolaters, and their king himself lived here.
One day, the inhabitants of that city, having gathered together, went to their king and said to him:
What shall we do, for behold, we are perishing by that serpent?
He answered them:
I will tell you what the gods will reveal to me.
Then the king, according to the teaching of the demons living in idols, the destroyers of human souls, announced to them the following decision: if they do not want to perish all, then let them give food to that snake every day according to the lot of their children, sons or daughters. At the same time, the king added:
When my turn comes, even though I have only one daughter, I will also give her away.
The inhabitants of that city accepted this royal or, rather, demonic advice and gave everything, both important and unimportant citizens, every day to eat one of their sons and daughters to the snake, although they were very sorry and wept for them. The snakes given to be eaten were placed on the shore of the lake, dressed in the best clothes; that serpent, coming out of the lake, snatched them up and ate them.
When the line went around all the people of that city, they came to the king himself and said to him:
Here is the king, according to your advice and decree, we gave our children to the snake. The queue has already bypassed everyone. What are you going to tell us to do now?
The king answered them:
I will also give my daughter, although she is my only one. Then I will tell you what the gods will reveal to us.
Calling his daughter to him, the king ordered her to adorn herself as best as possible; he was very sorry for her and wept for her with all his house, but he could not violate that decree, as if divine, communicated by demons. Preparing to send his daughter to be devoured by a snake, the king looked at her from the height of his palace and, with tears in his eyes, followed her with his gaze.
The maiden, meanwhile, was placed in her usual place, on the shore of the lake. Waiting for the hour of death, in which the serpent, coming out of the lake, will devour her, she sobbed bitterly.
By the providence of God, who wants the salvation of all, who deigned to save that city from death of soul and body, at that time the holy Great Martyr George, a warrior of the King of Heaven, who had a spear in his hand, rode up to that place on a horse.
Seeing a girl standing by the lake and weeping bitterly, he asked her:
Why are you standing here and why are you crying?
She answered him:
Good young man! Run away from here on your horse, so as not to die with me.
The saint said to her:
Don't be afraid, girl, but tell me, what are you waiting for in the presence of all the people looking at you?
The girl answered him:
Glorious young man! I see that you are courageous and brave. But why do you want to die with me? Run away from this place!
The saint said to her:
No, I will not leave this place until you tell me why you are standing here, what you are crying about and who you are waiting for here.
After that, the girl told him everything in order, both about the snake and about herself.
Saint George said to her:
Do not be afraid, girl, for in the name of my Lord, the true God, I will save you from the serpent.
She answered him:
Valiant warrior, why do you want to die with me? Run and save yourself from bitter death. It is enough if I die here alone, especially since you will not save me from the serpent, and you yourself will perish.
While the maiden was speaking these words to the saint, suddenly a terrible serpent appeared from the lake and went towards its usual food.
Run, man, here comes the kite!
Saint George, having overshadowed himself with the sign of the cross and called on the Lord, with the words: “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” rushed on his horse at the snake, shaking his spear and, hitting the snake with force in the larynx, struck him and pressed to the ground; the horse of the saint trampled the serpent underfoot. Then St. George ordered the maiden to tie the snake with her belt and lead him to the city, humble as a dog; the people, looking with amazement at the serpent drawn by the maiden, turned from fear into flight. Saint George said to the people:
Do not be afraid, just trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in Him, for it was He who sent me to you in order to save you from the serpent.
Then Saint George killed that serpent with a sword in the middle of the city. The inhabitants of that city, having removed the corpse of the serpent outside the city, burned it.
After that, the king and the people who lived in that city believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and received holy baptism: there were 25,000 people who were baptized, not counting women and children. A church, very extensive and beautiful, was subsequently built on that place in the name of the Most Pure Virgin Mary, the Daughter of the King of Heaven, God the Father, the Mother of His Son and the Bride of the Holy Spirit, and also in honor of the holy victorious George, who preserves the Church of Christ and every faithful soul with his help from the invisible devourer in the abyss of hell, and also from sin - as from a deadly serpent, - just as he delivered the mentioned maiden from the visible serpent.
Saints Eugene and Macarius Confessors:
With a joyful spirit they came to Oasim, climbed a certain mountain, and alone began to live on it. The rulers of the country told them:
Brethren, get away from this place, because not far from here lives a fierce serpent that devours everyone who comes close to it.
To this the saints replied:
Show us the cave where this serpent lives.
They were led to the place where the serpent dwelled, and from a distance they showed the cave where it was. Then the saints, on their knees, prayed to God, and suddenly a thunderclap followed from heaven and struck down the serpent. The dead serpent was enveloped in flames and immediately burned down, and the sand that was in the cave burned up with it, and dust rose over the cave in a stormy fetid whirlwind. Seeing such a miracle, the rulers of the country, who were pagans, believed in Christ.
Saint Michael the Warrior:
Thanking God for the granted victory over the Turkish troops, Michael disbanded his detachment and with a few servants set off on his way back to his homeland, to Bulgaria. During this journey, the following miracle happened.
Michael stopped in the Raifa desert, two days' journey from Sinai, for rest. There was a large lake from which a monstrous serpent came out and ate people and cattle.
One of Michael's servants saw smoke from a stop near the lake and, hastily taking provisions for food, went to where the smoke was. There he saw a girl who was sitting in tears and waiting for something. The servant began to question her and listened to her story about the terrible serpent so much that the food he had come to cook was burnt on the fire. When the servant returned to his master, Michael the Warrior asked him why he slowed down and why the food was burnt. Then the servant told in detail everything he had seen and heard from the maiden about the snake.
Saint Michael, having listened to the story, prayed to the Lord God, mounted his horse and rode to the lake, taking only one elder servant.
Arriving at the place, he began to ask the girl why she had come to this place.
The girl first persuaded Mikhail the Warrior to leave so as not to be eaten by a monstrous snake, but, at the insistence of the saint, she told about the custom established in the city in turn to give children to be eaten by a snake.
Amazed by the maiden's story, Michael ordered his servant to go away with the horse and wait afar, while he himself fell to the ground and began to pray to the Lord God. When the saint finished his prayer and stood up, a serpent appeared in the middle of the lake and, raising its head high and striking the water with its tail, began to approach the shore. The saint killed the serpent, but it managed to wound him with a blow from his tail.
However, Mikhail the Warrior continued on his way and returned to his house. A few days later he in peace surrendered his blessed soul to the Lord.
After the death of St. Michael, many signs and miracles began to happen, and healings from the diseases of those who, with faith, turned to him for help.
Everyone loved dinosaurs as a child, and almost everyone just adored Jurassic Park. But not many people know that almost everything that tells us about dinosaurs Mass culture- not true. In this compilation, we have collected the most popular misconceptions about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs were the most big creatures that ever existed on earth 
First, not all dinosaurs were big. Of course, some of them reached quite serious sizes. But these were isolated species. In addition to them, there were many less impressive dinosaurs, the size of a sheep, dog or chicken, for example. The smallest dinosaur known to science weighed about 200 grams. Secondly: you will be surprised, but the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth is our contemporary with you - this is the blue whale. So if you were upset that you could never see a live megaladon, you have every chance of seeing a much larger giant alive.
All dinosaurs lived in the tropics 
This myth stems from the fact that the climate used to be much warmer than it is now. And based on this, some seriously believe that almost all the land was then covered with thick rainforests. In reality, of course, this is not the case. During the existence of dinosaurs, however, as now, there were already deserts, and plains, and ordinary forests, and jungles on Earth, of course. Moreover, over the millions of years that dinosaurs walked on our planet, the landscape, like the climate, has constantly changed. And dinosaurs successfully mastered the entire spectrum of ecosystems.
Dinosaurs were dumb creatures with tiny brains. 
To judge the intelligence of creatures that lived 100 million years ago, of which only petrified remains have survived, is an extremely thankless task. The only thing we can know more or less exactly is the size of their brains. And, of course, it was different for all dinosaurs, both in absolute value and relative to body size. The same Stegosaurus, often ridiculed for its tiny brain, actually had a brain the size of a walnut and weighing about 70 grams. On the other hand, our favorite four-legged friends, dogs, have brains that are about the same size. But dogs weigh a maximum of 100 kilograms, which is 20 times less than a stegosaurus weighed. But the brain of a tyrannosaurus rex, for example, was three times larger than the brain of a dolphin. But in terms of body size, it roughly corresponds to the brain of modern reptiles.
The Jurassic period is the "golden age" of the dinosaurs. 
Well, firstly: the greatest diversification of dinosaur varieties, according to statistical studies, was not in the Jurassic, but in the late Cretaceous period. And secondly: even this obvious diversity is nothing more than an illusion, since it is the rocks of the Late Cretaceous period that are today more studied than the rocks of other periods. mesozoic era. So while with full certainty it is impossible to say when there were more dinosaurs.
Tyrannosaurus Rex is the largest carnivore ever to walk the earth. 
Once again, a myth to which we are entirely indebted to popular culture. The Tyrannosaurus rex has become so often mentioned that it has practically become the personification of the brand in general for all dinosaurs. It’s just that with the word “dinosaur”, most will imagine either a tyrannosaurus rex or a triceratops in their head. So it is precisely the tyrannosaurus rex that is often called the largest and most dangerous of all terrestrial predators known to science. We will return to its danger, but for now let's talk about size. Today it is already absolutely certain that the tyrannosaurus rex was not the largest land predator in history. The largest skeleton found is 12.3 meters long. While the spinosaurus reached 16 meters in length. But these two giants have never met, since the tyrannosaurus rex is “younger” than its competitor by more than 30 million years. And, of course, that all these years, evolution has not stood still, therefore, in many respects, the tyrannosaurus looks like a much more advanced "killing machine" than its more ancient counterpart.
Dinosaurs were a dead end branch of evolution 
The fact that they did not build cities and did not arrange wars for resources does not mean that they were a dead end branch of evolution. Dinosaurs were perfectly integrated into the then environment. They were the dominant species on the planet and, in fact, masters not only of the earth, but also of the air and the sea. Although objectively speaking, neither marine reptiles nor flying pangolins can be called dinosaurs, but still, they were much more related than us and dolphins, for example. And yet. Humans have been evolving for only two million years and have already come close to global crises and the threat of total destruction of themselves. While the dinosaurs evolved perfectly well for 135 million years, and if it were not for global cataclysms independent of them, they might have continued to live to this day.
In the time when dinosaurs lived, all mammals were the size of a mouse. 
No, even then there were much more major representatives order of mammals. Here, however, it is worth immediately making a reservation: depending on what is considered a large size. Of course, if we talk about the size of a mammoth, then, of course, there were no such mammals at the time of the dinosaurs. At all, the average size mammals then did not exceed the size of a modern cat. However, even then, namely about 125-122 million years ago, there were already such mammals as repenomas, for example. It was about 1 meter long, weighed 12-14 kg, and judging by the remains found, it even ate some small dinosaurs.
All dinosaurs lived only in the equatorial region of the earth, and the finds of their remains in temperate latitudes are explained by the movement of the continents 
And again no. Yes, over the millions of years of the existence of dinosaurs, not only the climate changed, but also the landscape of the earth. But many modern finds prove that dinosaurs even lived in Antarctica. In fairness, it should be noted that at that time Australia and New Zealand were connected to Antarctica, forming one polar continent. The climate in those days was naturally much warmer than today, but the dinosaurs who lived there still had to adapt to harsh weather conditions. In summer, the sun shone on this continent around the clock, and polar night reigned for five months of the year. It is possible that predators and herbivorous dinosaurs were in these areas in the summer, and in winter they migrated to warmer climes to the north.
Dinosaurs died out as a result of a meteorite fall 
Contrary to the assurances of many people that this is exactly what happened, this is just one version of what happened. Scientific disputes on the topic of what caused the death of dinosaurs, whether their extinction was sudden or gradual, continue to this day; there is no single point of view. It is known for certain that the extinction of the dinosaurs was only part of the so-called "great extinction" that took place at the same time. Along with the dinosaurs, marine reptiles, flying lizards, many mollusks and a huge amount of small algae died out. In total, 16% of families of marine animals and 18% of families of land vertebrates died. According to one of the widespread theories, the death of dinosaurs could have occurred due to a supernova explosion relatively close to our solar system. Such an event could unleash a deadly shower of gamma rays on Earth, and the X-rays ejected by the explosion could sweep away part of earth's atmosphere, forming a hot layer at an altitude of 20-80 km above the surface of the planet.
Velociraptors could reach speeds of up to 100 km/h 
In general, the real image of the Velociraptor, which scientists managed to reconstruct, is extremely far from what was shown to us in the Jurassic Park franchise. This is largely due to the fact that when working on the film, the basis was the reconstruction of another dinosaur - Deinonychus, which was previously classified as a genus of Velociraptors. But even the Deinonychus in the movie are double their actual size. As for real velociraptors, they were evolutionarily closer to birds, had plumage, were warm-blooded animals, reached a height of 60-70 cm and weighed about 20 kg. At the moment, there is no scientific evidence to think that velociraptors were able to run very fast, hunted in packs (all of their remains found are separate individuals), and even more so, they had some kind of super-developed intellect. All this is nothing more than a fantasy.
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