What Did a Teenage Tyrannosaur Eat?

This find marks the first time the fossilized stomach contents of a tyrannosaur have been found. And the dinosaur in question, a young Gorgosaurus libratus, seemed to have had an appetite for “drumsticks”—only the hind legs of two “baby dinosaurs” were found in its stomach (but considering these “dinosaurs” are referred to as “birdlike,” it’s highly likely these teenagers were eating birds, not dinosaurs). It appears it may have ripped off the hind legs and left the rest of the carcass. According to the researchers, this shows young tyrannosaurs were eating smaller, swifter prey than their much bigger parents.

When I saw this news report, I thought of Genesis 1:30:

“And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

You see, God originally created all of the animal kinds to be vegetarian—he gave them “every green plant for food.” Tyrannosaurs weren’t chowing down on birds, baby dinosaurs, or any other meat in God’s original creation. Rather they were plant eaters, like everything else. So Christians who try to add millions of years into the fossil record have a big problem with these kinds of fossil finds!

If that tyrannosaur fossil was laid down millions of years before Adam and Eve sinned, not only do you have (1) death before sin (the fossil is, obviously, the remains of a dead creature) but also (2) evidence of animal carnivory before the fall. You have animals tearing each other apart and eating one another in God’s “very good” (Genesis 1:31) creation—a creation in which God specifically said animals were vegetarian.

You simply can’t consistently add evolution and millions of years into the Bible.

You simply can’t consistently add evolution and millions of years into the Bible. When you try to do so, it’s the Bible that ends up being edited and changed to accommodate man’s fallible ideas. So, rather than changing God’s Word, how can we understand dinosaurs, like this teenage tyrannosaur, starting with God’s Word?

Well, here’s how I teach it to kids. There were seven ages of the dinosaurs (based on the 7 C’s of History):

1. Formed. God created the dinosaurs on day six of creation week, along with all the other land animals and man (all dinosaurs are land animals).
2. Fearless. Dinosaurs, like everything else, were originally “very good.” They were created vegetarian, so they were not a threat to anything, nor was anything a threat to them.
3. Fallen. But Adam and Eve’s rebellion against God brought death and suffering into creation. Creation was no longer “very good”: now it’s broken and marred because of sin. Animals began to eat one another—life was very different in this now groaning world.
4. Flood. Mankind’s wickedness became so great that God sent a global flood in judgment. But God saved Noah and his family, along with two of every kind of the land-dwelling, air-breathing animals (seven pairs of some) aboard Noah’s ark. Since dinosaurs are land animals, representatives (likely smaller, young representatives—like this “teenage” tyrannosaur) of each of the 50–70 dinosaur kinds were present on Noah’s ark. Those not on the ark died in the floodwaters, and many were buried and preserved as fossils. So dinosaur fossils aren’t millions of years old—they’re only about 4,350 years old.
5. Faded. After the flood, for a variety of reasons, dinosaurs began to die out. Fewer and fewer people saw them in person, but the memories of mankind’s encounters with these great creatures are preserved, with various degrees of accuracy, in the many dragon legends around the world. We also may have an eyewitness description of one dinosaur in Job 40: the “behemoth” (likely a sauropod dinosaur).
6. Found. Just a few hundred years ago, scientists began digging up dinosaur fossils and attempting to interpret them, largely within a worldview of evolution and millions of years.
7. Fiction. Because of their worldview, scientists interpreted dinosaurs as creatures that lived and died millions of years ago. And, because of their worldview, most scientists now believe that birds evolved from dinosaurs and, since they’re so closely related, that birds are dinosaurs. This is mere fiction—God created the bird kinds on day five and the dinosaur kinds on day six. It’s also fiction that dinosaurs died out due to an asteroid strike. That asteroid hit earth during the flood, when two of every kind were safe on Noah’s ark. So why did dinosaurs die out? Probably the same reasons creatures go extinct today—human overhunting, loss of habitat (perhaps due to many plants that flourished in the pre-flood world going extinct after the flood), and climate change (climates have been changing since the flood, most dramatically with the post-flood ice age).

Dinosaurs aren’t a big mystery. We just have to start with the framework for history God has given us in his Word.

Dinosaurs aren’t a big mystery. We just have to start with the framework for history God has given us in his Word.

Get More Answers on Answers News

This item was discussed today on Answers News with cohosts Rob Webb, Bryan Osborne, and Dr. Jennifer Rivera. Answers News is our weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on our Answers in Genesis YouTube channel and posted to Answers TV. We also covered the following topics:

• Spiritual . . . but not religious?
• Plant or turtle fossils?
• Pregnant men?
• And more!

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Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.