3p1, 3p2, 3p3 values with 1/3 = 33%). Similarly periodicity was tested for every 4th, every 5th, and every 6th boundary. This test is similar to the one used by Raup and Sepkoski (1984) to identify a 28-million-radiometric-year periodicity in mass extinctions. The results of this periodicity test are found in Table 2. The largest deviations from non-periodicity for NLSSS peaks are every five boundaries starting with boundary 1 (3.8 times the value expected in non-periodic data) and every six boundaries starting with boundary 4 (3.6 times the value expected in non-periodic data). Visually, this is seen by NLSSS peaks at boundaries 10, 16, 21 (and 26) lying very close to every 5th boundary beginning with boundary 1 (1, 6, 11, 16, 21 [and 26]), as well as every 6th boundary beginning with boundary 4 (4, 10, 16, 22). A visual inspection of peaks in species diversity (column B, Table 1) below boundaries 3, 5, 9, 13, 15, 18, and 22 may also indicate species diversity peaks in every 3rd stratigraphic unit. These observations seem to offer sufficient warrant to at least further investigate periodicity in future studies. Since studies of this nature should operate on more data, we recommend using a coarser taxonomic measure (e.g., of genera and/or families). This should substantially increase the available data since many fossils in the Precambrian-Cambrian zone are identified no more precisely than the genus, or even family. Demonstrating periodicity in the Precambrian-Cambrian NLSSS data, however, does not automatically demonstrate any sort of periodicity in time or process. With respect to time, the good news is that the International Commission on Stratigraphy is attempting to make all stratigraphic units of a given level (all stages, all series, etc) roughly the same length, albeit in radiometric years. The bad news is that the finest globally defined stratigraphic units currently defined in the Precambrian-Cambrian zone are erathems in the Archean, systems in the Proterozoic, and stages in the Cambrian. The result is that the stratigraphic units between boundaries 1-25 decrease in radiometric length by two orders of magnitude. In fact, a majority of that decrease occurs between the Precambrian and Cambrian. The four Archean (erathem) units average 375 million radiometric years in length, the ten Proterozoic (system) units average 225, and the ten Cambrian (stage) units 5.6. It is not immediately evident how radiometric time is to be converted to true time. Thus, it may be difficult demonstrating that periodicity in NLSSS data is actually periodicity in time. With respect to periodicity of process, the different stratigraphic units of the Precambrian-Cambrian zone may have resulted from very different processes operating at very different periods of earth history. If the pre-Flood/Flood boundary is at boundary 13, as suggested by Austin and Wise (1994), fossils between boundaries 13 and 25 were buried in the Flood. If the oldest Precambrian fossils were buried in the Day 3 Regression, as suggested by Wise (1992), the lower part of the Precambrian-Cambrian zone was formed in the Creation Week. It may also turn out that some of the Precambrian-Cambrian zone sediments were formed after the Creation Week and before the Flood. Thus some Precambrian-Cambrian zone fossils may have formed as part of God’s creative activity in the Creation Week, some through more ‘normal’ processes of antediluvian times, and some as part of God’s judgment during the Flood. Thus, it may be difficult demonstrating that periodicity in NLSSS data translates to periodicity of the same process or processes. Periodicity in time or process may or may not be demonstrated in NLSSS data. However, significantly high and low NLSSS values still suggest non-uniformity of process. It might be that they point to different processes operating at different times (e.g., Creation Week versus antediluvian versus Flood processes). Or, they may indicate similar processes operating at different rates—again, e.g., at different times of earth history. Or, if they are found to occur within a single catastrophic event—such as during the Day 3 Regression or the Flood—they may point to processes capable of separating different cohorts of organisms into different strata. Or, they may point to a combination of these possibilities (and perhaps other possibilities we have not yet considered). In any case, the variable NLSSS values of the Precambrian-Cambrian zone should be examined more carefully. 3. The pre-Flood/Flood boundary In the creation model, we would expect the pre-Flood/Flood boundary to be located in the lower part of the stratigraphic column. Furthermore, in theory, either the species diversity data of column B in Table 1 or the NLSSS data of column C in Table 1 could—in principle, anyway—be used to identify the pre-Flood/Flood boundary in at least two different ways. Regarding the species diversity data, creationists have long believed that the Flood involved a marked increase in the burial rate of organisms (over whatever the burial rate of organisms was in pre-Flood times). Unless the catastrophism of the earliest Flood was so great as to destroy the organisms—and thus leave no fossils—creationists would expect a marked increase in numbers—and diversity—of fossils at the beginning of the Flood. However, the species diversity in the lowest stratigraphic units of our planet (column B in Table 1) do not show consistently low values (of the pre-Flood world) previous to a sudden increase to consistently high values (of the Flood). The diversity below boundaries 1-7 is consistently low (as might be expected of the pre-Flood world), and the diversity above boundary 26 is consistently high (as might be expected of the Flood). However, boundaries 8-25 show rises and falls in diversity unexpected in most views of the Flood and the world previous to it. Ad hoc explanations could be devised to explain such things in the antediluvian world (e.g., periods of pre-Flood catastrophism to explain diversity highs) or during the Flood (e.g., sections of pre-Flood ocean floor lacking organisms to explain diversity lows). But in actuality, PBDB species diversity data does not permit the pre-Flood/Flood boundary to be located any more precisely than somewhere between boundaries 8 and 25. Regarding the use of NLSSS data to identify the pre-Flood/Flood boundary, creationists almost universally believe that the early Flood involved considerable transport. The geographic ranges of pre-Flood organisms are usually assumed to be constant or changing very slowly between the Creation and the Flood. Thus, if fossils formed in successive layers in the pre-Flood world, species found in one layer should be found in the next layer in the same geographic locality. Thus if fossilization occurred over the course of antediluvian times, NLSSS values would be high in pre-Flood sediments. On the other hand, if the early Flood was as catastrophic as creationists usually assume, species would be carried from where they lived in pre-Flood times to be buried in very different locations. Pre-Flood fossils of a species would not be expected to be in the same geographic location as the earliest Flood fossils of that same species. We would expect zero or near-zero NLSSS values for the pre-Flood/Flood boundary. However, once a species has been picked up by the Flood waters, WISE and RICHARDSON Biostratigraphic continuity and earth history 2023 ICC 617
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