Meet some of my fossils and rocks
Each of these fossils/rocks from my collection tells a specific story
Bolete mushroom
This is a very rare mushroom fossil with obvious stem, cap, and gill structures. It was discovered >60 years ago by a farmer near Palmer (South Australia) ploughing their paddock. It has been identified by a fungi specialist as a Bolete mushroom. It looks identical to those that exist today, and its relatively small size (8cm diameter) and lack of insect damage suggests that it may have lived for only two days before being rapidly buried and preserved.
Mushroom fossils are very rare because they are fragile and subject to insect attacks. It is very possible that the mushroom grew after the initial 150 days of the Flood when the waters began to recede. During the chaotic period as the waters receded the mushroom was rapidly buried and preserved by sandy sediment.
Red obsidian
This eyecatching obsidian is volcanic glass with a non-crystalline structure and conchoidal fracture features. It was collected from Mount St Helens in 1980 after the devastating volcanic eruption earlier in that year.
This rock has a known age through reliable witnesses, and it is traceable to a very significant event that has enhanced scientific understanding. The Mount St Helens' erruption has shown how thick layers of sediment can be formed in hours and how deep erosion gullies can form in hours or days. It has also shown how coal can form rapidly, and how trees can acquire polystrate positions in sedimentary layers as found in the fossil records. This directly contradicts evolutionary claims that such structures need millions of years to form.
Dinosaur footprint
This is a genuine three-toed footprint of a therapod dinosaur preserved in mudstone. It was certified by the Australian Dinosaur Museum (Canberra, ACT) as a footprint of a Grallator dinosaur obtained from France.
The therapod three-toed footprint links me to a fascinating collection of extinct reptiles that included tyrannosaurus rex and allosaurus. While many dinosaurs appear limited to certain regions or countries, Grallator fossils are found throughout the world and on every continent (excepting Antarctica to date). The spread of Grallator throughout the world points to a small, mobile creature that was able to roam a single connected land mass that was first formed on day 1 of the creation week. The preservation of a footprint speaks of a very rapid burial process that would have occurred in the first 150 days of the Flood.