ADAM, THE DINOSAURS, AND ME
A Personal Essay
The purpose of this essay is to plead that dinosaurs and other fossil animals lived
as mortals before the Fall, and were seen by Adam, and that Adam did not evolve from an
ape.
In 1979 I dug up a dinosaur’s shoulder blade nearly nine feet long. I was a
Brigham Young University faculty member doing research as a vertebrate paleontologist
on a western Colorado mountain. The scapula I discovered was the first of its kind to be
found, and is part of the largest land animal known.
Did Adam see that particular dinosaur before it died? I doubt it. Did Adam see any
of the dinosaurs?
According to the scriptures Adam saw and named all earth animals—which I
believe must include the dinosaurs. I base this conviction on two sources of information:
A) the scriptures; and B) fossils preserved as history in earth’s rocks—which contain
dinosaur bones on every continent.
The number of fossil animals in earth’s surface is astronomical, amounting to tens
of thousands of species (see Appendix B). They are preserved all over the earth in
layered rocks called formations. If stacked, these formations would make a pile several
miles thick. Taken from a Rocky Mountain Geologists publication (1972), a partial list of
western formations, if spread out like tiles in a floor, would cover an area of more than
4,800,000 square miles (see Appendix A).
A) The Scriptures: On Animals
Three accounts of the Creation (Genesis 1:20-27; Moses 2:20-25; Abraham 5:20)
say, variably, that Adam saw and named all the animals. I know the dinosaurs once lived
on the earth, and because each of those three scriptures uses the phrase, “---Adam called
every living creature---,” I also believe they were living as mortal creatures when Adam
saw and named them.
1)---Genesis 2:l9 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and
every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature (italics mine), that was the name thereof.
2)---Pearl of Great Price Moses 3:19. And out of the ground I, the Lord God, formed every
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and commanded that they should come unto
Adam, to see what he would call them; and they were also living souls; for I, God,
breathed into them the breath of life, and commanded that whatsoever Adam called every
living creature (italics mine), that should be the name thereof.
3)---PGP Abraham 5:20. And out of the ground the Gods formed every beast of the field,
and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them;
and whatsoever Adam called every living creature (italics mine), that should be the name
thereof.
Genesis 1:20-23 uses words and phrases clearly referring to mortal existence and
activities: “the moving creature that hath life,” living creatures,” “bring forth abundantly,”
“after their kind,” “after his kind.” The three latter phrases obviously refer to reproduction,
a strictly mortal process on a mortal earth. The phrase, “be fruitful, and multiply” is clearly
a command to reproduce—one which I believe was being obeyed by all life before the
Fall—while Adam was still in a non-mortal state.
20-And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life,
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
2l-And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters
brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God
saw that it was good.
22-AndGod blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas,
and let fowl multiply in the earth" (Genesis I).
I believe God spoke about mortal creatures in the above verses because spirits
could not “---be fruitful and multiply” and, “bring forth abundantly, after their kind---.” It
seems to me he was speaking about mortal reproduction. As far as we know, spirit
creatures cannot reproduce in mortality.
I do not believe the plants and animals had to “fall” from a non-mortal condition
because they were already mortal. No “original sin” was committed by them. They
needed no “free agency” to choose between right and wrong. God did not speak to and
instruct them. They were not warned to abstain from eating the “forbidden fruit.” The
Savior did not die for them; the apostles did not see resurrected plants and animals
“coming forth” on the morning of the first resurrection. They needed no resurrection.
B) The Fossil Record
Should not members of the L.D.S. Church, who aspire to eventually create worlds
of their own, be aggressively interested in the record under their feet? A history of many
events occurring during earth’s creation is contained in the rocks of its crust. Geology is
the study of earth’s structural/mineral history; Paleontology is the study of the fossilized
remains of plant and animal life found in that preserved record. These disciplines ought to
enjoy high priority at the “Lord’s University.” Unfortunately, research there on one of the
world’s largest and most important fossil collection has almost no support. It seems to be
suppressed because of an archaic attitude about the old bugaboo of Organic Evolution. A
pity when Vertebrate Paleontologists have abandoned that theory. This is nothing less
than a tragedy when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only organized
group on earth claiming to know why the earth was created and what its purpose is.
Every location on earth does not contain a complete history of the Creation in its
rocks, but all rocks are part of earth's total history, and they generally correlate with rocks
of the same age on other continents.
I know this is true because I discovered fossil specimens correlating the three
continents of South America, Africa, and Antarctica. This correlation was made by
members of the extinct animal families: Dicynodontidea, and Lystrosauridae, of the
Infraorder Dicynodontia (Romer 1956, 1962) which I found in a geologic time named the
Triassic Period in South America and Antarctica. Fossiliferous Triassic rocks on all three
continents contain co-relevant members of this Infraorder.
The millions of square miles of fossiliferous formations in earths crust (Appendix A),
with an aggregate thickness of several miles, contain billions of extinct plant and animal
remains. These fossiliferous formations have been mapped by geologists using surveyed
and well core measurements. Specimens of fossils from these formations can be seen in
thousands of collections in the Americas and Europe. As mortals we will probably never
discover the full extent of the fossil record but it is a preserved history and its many life
forms are known to the Creators. However, this essay is particularly concerned with
dinosaurs, the most fascinating of all creatures.
The three accounts of the Creation do not mention dinosaurs, nor do they mention
frogs, crocodiles and turtles, but the fossilized remains of all four groups are found in
earth’s crust and so are part of the totality of Creation. Also included in this marvelous
ancient record are fossils of plants and animals representing every group presently living
on the earth plus many which have become extinct.
If the Gods created the earth, they created all the animals whose fossil bones are
found preserved in the rocks of its crust. These fossils are not animal remains preserved
in fragments from disintegrated older worlds, as some people have suggested to me. The
preserved history found in rocks of earth's crust is too intercontinentally congruent for any
intelligent person to believe such an explanation---which would only move the question of
dinosaurs back one step; where did they come from to those "older" worlds? Dinosaurs
definitely are a product of this planet.
A scripture deserving serious thought, in view of the extensive fossil record in the
earths crust is in the Pearl of Great Price: Moses 3:5 "---For I the Lord God, created all
things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the
earth---."
According to this scripture all plants and animals, which must include the dinosaurs,
were first created spiritually--which raises the question: when did the dinosaurs and
billions of other fossils live as mortal organisms? One thing seems certain to me, in view
of the tremendous thickness of rocks containing the fossil record, mortal plants and
animals reproduced on earth for a long time before the “Fall of Adam.” There is no other
realistic explanation for such a marvelous record and its recognition would challenge no
Gospel principle. The fossil record displays the glory of God.
Adam lived less than a thousand years as a mortal, a period of time much too
short, it seems to me, for him to see the accumulation of the miles-thick of fossil-bearing
rocks found all over the earth. Those fossils are the remains of mortal animals. Spirit
animals cannot produce mortal bones.
I know dinosaurs are/were real; I have collected more than 125 tons of their fossil
remains and participated in naming a half-dozen new species. They lived all over the
earth sometime during the period when the earth was being prepared for Adam and his
posterity. Everyone is free to apply whatever time-scale to that preparation period he or
she feels the most comfortable with—hundreds, thousands, or many millions of year.
Mortal time is of little consequence in this matter. The important consideration for a
member of the L.D.S. Church is why the earth was created, not the question of dinosaurs,
how the earth was created, or how long it took. Alma tells us, “—all is as one day with
God, and time only is measured unto men.” (Book of Mormon Alma 40:8)
Nothing in the scriptures tells us how much “time” Adam spent in the Garden of
Eden in his first non-mortal state of being. He could have been there for millions of years
(Nibley 1986, p. 73) seeing and naming all the animals, including the dinosaurs. Scriptural
accounts (Genesis 2:20, Moses 3:20) state the naming of the animals occurred while
Adam was in that non-mortal state and “before Eve was given him as a wife,” and thus
before the "Fall".
Genesis 2:20 “And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.”
Mortal Life Before The Fall
Each of the three scriptural accounts of the creation state “---whatsoever Adam
called every living creature,---“ (italics mine). Also, in Moses (Moses 3:19) the statement
appears: “---and they were also living souls;---“(italics mine).
This repeated reference to the word “living” strongly persuades me all the animals
were mortal when Adam, in a non-mortal state-of-being, named them. The vast fossil
record in earth’s surface (Appendix A), which I have seen much of, verifies my belief that
Adam as a non-mortal saw and named mortal dinosaurs. Acknowledging the
undisputable reality of dinosaurs by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would
add glory to the story of Creation and astound the Christian world. The world would want
to know more about the Church that digs up dinosaurs.
In 1979 the president of Brigham young University asked if I could name a dinosaur
after President N. Eldon Tanner, first counselor in the Church presidency. I did so as
Torvosaurus tanneri, a new genus, species of theropod from the Jurassic Period of
western Colorado. It was collected from a fossil bone quarry which at one time had been
covered by rock at least three miles thick easily measured today. It occurs in layers
thousands of feet thick, like a stairway, above the Dry Mesa Quarry in Colorado where I
did much of my work. Anyone can measure it.
Working in fossil bone quarries for nearly thirty years I collected thousands of
bones ranging in size from a length of twelve millimeters (less than a half inch), to a length
of two thousand, five hundred millimeters (nearly nine feet). These specimens represent
more than three dozen unknown animal species (Jensen, BYU Geology Studies 1985)
including several non-dinosaur animals such as flying reptiles, crocodiles, fish, and
mammals.
My discovery of the world’s largest dinosaurs generated a remarkable amount of
international publicity for BYU and the Church, prompting some interesting questions from
non-members. Curious about the (apparent) good relationship of science and religion at
BYU some have asked me: "Why does the Mormon Church dig up dinosaurs when all
other churches stay as far away from evolution as possible?" My answer was always: "We
know why the earth was created; we are interested in how it was done."
Church members, seeing the huge fossil bones I have dug up ask if the bones were
actually part of giant creatures that once lived and breathed on earth as animals of flesh
and bone. My reply: "If they weren't part of Creation, why are their bones found on every
continent including Antarctica?" The answer of course is; they did live here and so are part
of earth's history. Obviously their live presence was unnecessary for the various
dispensations of the Gospel but, as noted, their fossil bones have been of significant value
to the Church's missionary work in this dispensation. They have aroused interest among
people around the world to wonder "what kind of Church digs up dinosaurs?" We send
missionaries out to teach them.
Before retiring from Brigham Young University in 1983 I worked with fossil bones
for 29 years (having received six years training at Harvard University). During those mahy
years I also held various responsible positions in the Church including high councilor and
bishop. Because of this long period of “serving two masters” (religion and science) many
church members, curious about my beliefs, have asked the trite questions about science
and religion: “Did man spring from monkey?” “How old is the earth?” “How do you
reconcile science and religion?”
I have wondered and studied about these questions all of my life after finding
fossils in the mountains of central Utah when I was a teenager. Here are my responses:
Question: Did man evolve from the apes?
This question asks about the origin of Man(kind). To answer it we must first specify
that we are not talking about the origin and evolution of non-humans, we are talking only
about the possible evolution of Man from some lower form of vertebrate life i.e. did Man go
through a process of organic evolution from a group of sub-human primates?
Response: Adam and Eve, placed in the Garden of Eden in a non-mortal state,
were commanded to provide mortal bodies for waiting spirits. But in their non-mortal state
they could not produce mortal bodies, nor were they subject to mortal death. That “nonmortal” condition proves they did not evolve from apes:
AS NON-MORTAL BEINGS ADAM AND EVE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE
OFFSPRING OF MORTAL PARENTS! Mortal beings cannot give birth to non-mortal
children. It is a physiological impossibility. Even our Savior, the Lord God Jesus Christ,
needed a mortal mother to provide him with a mortal body enabling Him to be crucified
and resurrect that body. Adam and Eve had to make the choice to become mortal by
breaking a law, the consequence of which was mortality and death, but as mortals they
could then keep the commandment to multiply and therefrom came our mortal bodies!
For those who may still worry about the threat of Organic Evolution or, on the other
hand, believe it explains the origin of man on earth, Vertebrate Paleontologists are in the
process of abandoning it. Enough is now known about the fossil record to realize it does
not reveal a long process of gradual evolution. One of the new concepts is called
"Punctuated Equilibrium" (Gould & Eldridge 1980; Gould "The Pandas Thumb" 1982) in
which species do not evolve gradually but remain static for long periods of time then,
"bump," new species appear in the fossil record. The scriptures agree, describing a
Creation done in steps, stages, or days, not as a process of gradual evolution.
I'm often asked about cave men. My answer: "if they descended from Adam they
are Man and participate in the Plan of Salvation. If they are not related to Adam they are
only man-like creatures. (L.D.S. Church members ought to teach their children that the
word Man--mankind--has a special meaning in the Church--a meaning not found in the
earth sciences. In the Gospel "Man" means, exclusively, members of the spirit family of
God the Father; whereas, all man-like creatures are nothing more than that--man-like
creatures. If they did not descend from Adam and Eve they are not "Man," and are not
participants in the Plan of Salvation).
Q-How old is the earth? How much time did creation take?
R-This depends on what we mean by “time.” To get an eternal perspective on
“time,” one might ask how much time we spent as spirits in God’s presence before we
came to earth? What kind of clock, or calendar, did we use to measure “time?” I believe
the amount of “mortal time” required to “organize” the earth is of little importance. The
significant point is WHY it was created. No “time” was ticked off by mortal clocks during
our premortal existence; only events are recorded.
Q-How do you reconcile science and religion?
R-John A. Widstoe wrote: “The Church teaches that the laws of nature are but the
immutable laws of the Creator of the universe” (Evidences & Reconciliations 1943). He
sees no conflict. All truth resides with the Creators who have a full knowledge of the
disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, genetics, and all other pursuits of truth we
have given names to, and possibly others we are not yet aware of.
During the past century church leaders in all Christian denominations have felt their
belief in God threatened by the natural sciences which fostered the Darwinian concept
that Man evolved from an ape-like ancestor. A great deal has been written and endless
preachments made combating this perceived threat from “Evolution.” For those who
believe the story of Creation in the Bible and in LDS scriptures, crusades against Organic
Evolution are unnecessary (as previously noted) provided one truly believes those
scriptures. If not, all dialogue collapses as meaningless.
Many theologians (LDS leaders included) have been uneasy about what a study of
earth history does, or may reveal. I know there is nothing to fear. I can always answer
with enthusiasm that my many discoveries while digging into that preserved history have
left me excited rather than uncertain about the Restored Gospel. I find no conflict
between natural and religious histories. I see only beautiful harmony, and am excited
about the amazing things I may learn concerning earth history (if I qualify) after I die.
President Hugh B. Brown, First Counselor to President David O. McKay, assured
me during an interview (October 18, 1961) relating to my acceptance of a non-teaching
faculty position at BYU, and my stated intention to dig up fossils to begin the discipline of
Vertebrate Paleontology there, that I would “---discover no truth that would destroy an
existing truth.”
“You are,” he reassured me, “engaged in a form of revelation from a record in the
earth’s surface. There is nothing to fear; Truth is truth.” As the passing years found me
exploring in far away places I pondered his counsel and came to realize his words
warned; “be sure that what you have IS truth.”
Each expedition I was on explored unmapped places on different continents,
looking for rock formations already studied in other places. Each time we located the rock
layers we sought, the fossil animals we expected to find were there.
On a 1958 Harvard expedition exploring rocks of the Triassic period in the Andes of
South America, I found two skeletons of a new dicynodont; an unusual, three-eyed,
mammal-like reptile (named Ischigualastia jenseni by Dr. Barry Cox of Kings College,
London). This discovery was a clue in my later search in Antarctica for evidence of a
Triassic land connection between Africa and Antarctica. (The first fossil vertebrate found
in Antarctica was named Austrobrachyops jenseni for my discoveries there by Dr. Edwin
H. Colbert, 1973).
Ongoing studies of earth’s deep structure together with continuing discoveries of
fossil animals in its crust, have given the earth sciences a credible public image.
However, paleontologists are among the first to admit that there is no continuous
evolutionary progression in the fossil record to demonstrate an unbroken genealogy of
animal evolution from slime-to-man. In fact, a very prominent investigator, the late Louis
L. B. Leakey, seeking a complete sequence linking apes to man in the fossil record, did
not believe any of the man-like creatures found are ‘Man.” I have a tape of one of his BYU
lectures stating his belief that they are only “man-like ;---developing towards man.”
Theologians seem unwilling to allow paleontologists, who must work without
revelation from God, to assume that all forms of life, fossil and modern, are the result of
some unknown processes of change (which I believe they are, with the exception of Man).
Man is not the end result of any process of evolution. I believe Adam was placed in the
Garden of Eden as a non-mortal, exactly as scriptural accounts relate.
On an expedition to Antarctica in 1969-70 I explored rocks of the Triassic Period in
the wind-blown Transantarctic Mountains where I expected to find fossil animals
duplicating at least one species previously found in Triassic sediments of South Africa and
South America. Suffering a frost-bitten face in 45 below zero I found both.
One of the most common fossil reptiles found in certain Triassic rocks of South
Africa is the genus, species, Lystrosaurus murrayi. I found Lystrosaurus murrai in Triassic
rocks of Antarctica (The New Era, March 1971), proving the two continents were confluent
during the Triassic period. It is biologically impossible for two identical species populations
to develop on well-separated continents. They may be similar, or parallel, but never
identical.
We know the continents of South America and Africa are still drifting apart; we can
measure the separation from a station on the moon. Before my Antarctic work the
common question was: "where is the physical proof Antarctica and Africa were once
joined as a single land mass?" That is no longer a problem. The discovery of Lystrosaurus
murrayi a hundred and fifty miles from the South Pole proved an early Triassic union of
Antarctica and Africa.
The original theory of Continental Drift (now developed into Plate Tectonics) holds
that all earth’s dry land was once contained in a single great land-mass called Pangea.
That mass later divided into Laurasia, and a more southern super-continent called
Gondwana---which later split apart by continental drift into the southern continents as we
know them today.
I looked for evidence of that South American/African union in the foothills of the
Andes and found it in a two-tusked dicynodont, apparently identical to one from South
Africa. I found the same type of tusks in Antarctica. Subsequent expeditions have now
duplicated a half dozen South African species in Antarctica but Lystrosaurus was the
prize.
That proof of continental separation, discovered while BYU (the Church) was
paying my salary, has been of great interest to me. A separation of the continents was
planned, I believe, by the Gods for two purposes: to preserve a choice land for the writing
of the Book of Mormon, a "Second Witness for Christ;" and to provide a favorable
environment for the final dispensation of the Gospel.
The American split from Gondwana preserved a relatively undefiled continent, free
from centuries of man's complex institutions, free from decadent traditions that for
centuries darkened the minds of mankind leaving him wallowing in hostile political and
intellectual environments, suffering an apostasy from the Church established by the
Savior, unable to recognize or embrace the light of truth, should an attempt be made to
restore it.
The Book of Mormon tells us the Lord preserved this land (America ) as a land
"choice above all other lands," (1 Nephi 2:20) but never told us how it was done. It's not
important, but we know from my Antarctic discovery that it was physically separated from
the "old world" by continental drift; a continent plowing through the solid mass of earth’s
crust to a new location? Impossible! But it happened, and geology is now able to
understand and describe how such remarkable events do, and are occurring.
I am excited about the teachings of the Gospel after what I have learned
from my work in the earth’s preserved record. And because of both sources of
information, I know the Gospel is true and look forward to a period in my progression
when I may be able to view Earth’s final role in the Gospel in al of its sublime majesty, as
well as its scientific detail.
©April 5, 1992
James A. Jensen
Provo, Utah
APPENDIX A
An estimate of the extent of certain fossiliferous rocks in the U.S. Rocky Mountains
is made at 4,826,500 square mlles; developed from 234, 14 X 16 inch pages of geologic
maps and data in a massive 17 lb. publication, "Geological Atlas of the Rocky Mountain
Reglon" 1972, by "The Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists." This Publication is the
incredible work of thousands of geologists, the maps being the result of visual and wellcore measurements followed by an exhaustive correlation of data. The table developed
below presents a very small sum of the total fossiliferous rocks in North America, and
does not include the extensive, fossiliferous Tertiary rocks of the Age of Mammals which
chronologically overlay the older rocks. The estimate for an area of 4,826,500 square
miles was arrived at by figuratively unstacking all the layered fossiliferous rocks
(formations) and laying them out conjointly like tiles in a floor. The thickness of
fossiliferous rocks in this sequence was estimated at 4,725 feet, by vertically stacking all
the formations, despite their naturally widespread locations. One marine limestone unit
(not figured) is the Oquirrh formation in north central Utah, 28,000 feet thick, containing
millions of fossil animaIs. Did Adam see and name them? I doubt it very much, but they
are certainly part of the preserved record of earth’s creation.
The beginning of the TERTIARY marks the end of the age of reptiles and the beginning of
the dominance of mammals, although they had beginnings in the Permian. The above
chart does not include Tertiary sediments which would add significantly to the area and
depth of fossil rocks listed above in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic Eras.
APPENDIX B
It has been estimated there are some 100,000 species of fossils (Kay & Colbert
1965) in three Kingdoms: PROTISTA, ANIMALIA AND PLANTAE.
(The above is an abbreviated list of only plants that are of importance in the geological
record. Classification after Kay & Colbert 1965)