G, Table 1). Considering total NLSSS increases, even over multiple boundaries, there were 6, with total increases of 746%, 72%, 204%, 90%, 122%, and 845% (columns D and E, Table 1). There were also 6 such %NLSSS increases (176%, 59%, 470%, 222%, 160%, 429%: columns G and H, Table 1). Five boundaries show NLSSS decreases of 50% or more over the previous boundary (column D, Table 1), and three show %NLSSS decreases of 50% or more (column G, Table 1). Considering total NLSSS decreases, even over multiple boundaries, there were 5 (60%, 58%, 68%, 82%, and 53% (columns D and E, Table 1). There were also 4 such %NLSSS decreases (86%, 68%, 62%, and 78%: columns G and H, Table 1). Thus, even when NLSSS data is normalized to the number of species in the preceding stage—i.e., as %NLSSS data—the rises and drops in NLSSS data are substantial. As indicated above, substantial changes in NLSSS and %NLSSS values suggest non-uniformity of process. Investigation of these data in the Cenozoic zone may provide insight into surges in post-Flood catastrophism and/or surges in post-Flood diversification. B. The Ordovician through Mesozoic zones (boundaries 25-94) With the pre-Flood/Flood boundary in the first NLSSS biostratigraphic zone, and the Flood/post-Flood boundary in the fifth, the second through fourth NLSSS biostratigraphic zones (boundaries 25-94) were deposited in the Flood. 1. Possible sea-to-land pattern From at least the time of Clark (1946), creationists have suggested that the oldest animal fossils were marine because the Flood began its burial of organisms in the earth’s oceans. This suggests that the first-order biostratigraphic zonation of Flood sediments might separate a lower marine zone from an upper terrestrial zone. At the same time, since the ark was not designed to carry marine organisms, and marine fossils are found at every stage of the Flood, marine organisms must have been buried throughout the entire Flood year. Thus, the upper terrestrial zone must contain marine fossils as well as terrestrial fossils. If we assume that burial processes of the Flood were similar between the upper and lower zones, the upper zone might differ from the lower zone only in the addition of terrestrial organisms. When terrestrial and marine organisms are not distinguished, the second zone may only differ in total species diversity. It strikes us that in Figure 1 the 2nd and 4th NLSSS biostratigraphic zones look similar, except that the 4th has higher amplitude peaks. In fact, the sums of the stage-level species diversity (column B, Table 1) in the 4th zone is 3.4 times that of the 2nd zone, and the sums of the NLSSS values (column C, Table 1) in the 4th zone is 2.9 times that of the 2nd zone. We would like to suggest that the 4th (Mesozoic) zone is the above-mentioned ‘terrestrial’ zone (containing both terrestrial and marine organisms), and the 2nd (Ordovician-Mississippian) zone is the above-mentioned ‘marine’ zone (containing only marine organisms). We would expect that if terrestrial and marine taxa were evaluated separately, the marine taxa will be similar in both pattern and diversity between the 2nd and 4th zones, and the terrestrial taxa will be restricted to the 4th zone, but show a similar NLSSS pattern as the marine taxa in both the 2nd and 4th zones. If the 2nd and 4th zones are the ‘marine’ and ‘terrestrial’ zones of the Flood, the 3rd zone would logically represent Flood sedimentation as the ocean began inundating the land. Three other considerations suggest that might be true. First, considerable sand might have been located at or near pre-Flood shorelines—such as in the form of beach sand and/or sand dunes. If so, then considerable sand deposits would have been swept away and deposited by Flood waters as the Flood first moved onto the land. The extensive sand deposits of the Permo-Triassic around the world are not only of the right nature for these deposits, but they date from the 3rd NLSSS biostratigraphic zone. Second, Wise (2003b) hypothesized that the pre-Flood ocean was home to a continent-sized floating forest biome. Early Flood turmoil might have ripped off and buried the most fragile components of the outermost perimeter of the floating forest (beginning with the fragile plants of the Silurian). However, as long as the floating forest biome was located in deep water, it would probably have remained largely intact. No matter how large the waveform, as long as the wave did not crest, the floating forest could probably deform to, and ride out the waves. It was likely to have been when the floating forest was brought into contact with the edge of the continent that it was systematically torn apart and its components buried. This would likely have been as the Flood began transgressing the land. Floating forest organisms are deposited from the upper Silurian into the lower Triassic, with the greatest bulk of them in the Carboniferous. This suggests that the Flood began transgressing the land somewhere between the upper Silurian and lower Triassic, and most likely somewhere in the Carboniferous. This measure of the transgression of the land occurs within or just before the 3rd NLSSS biostratigraphic zone. Third, the greatest diversity of floating forest organisms is in the Pennsylvanian through Permian. Such a large diversity from a single ecosystem might explain the consistently large NLSSS values in the 3rd NLSSS biostratigraphic zone. Thus, we suggest that the Pennsylvanian-Permian NLSSS zone represents the Flood’s initial inundation of the land. We predict that when the organisms of Flood rocks are separated into floating forest organisms versus ‘true’ marine organisms versus ‘true’ land organisms, the true marine signature will remain unchanged through all Flood sediments. We also predict that the true land signature will be absent up until somewhere in the Pennsylvanian-Permian zone, and remain unchanged thereafter. 2. Biostratigraphic pulses in Flood sediments NLSSS peaks are located at boundaries 28, 31, 34, 36, 38, and 44 in the Ordovician-Mississippian zone, boundaries 58, 60, and 62 in the Pennsylvanian-Permian zone, and boundaries 67, 72, 80, 88, 90, and 93 in the Cenozoic zone (column C, Table 1). %NLSSS peaks are located at boundaries 28, 30, 33, 38, 44, 46 in the Ordovician-Mississippian zone, boundaries 53, 57, 60, 62 in the Pennsylvanian-Permian zone, and boundaries 67, 69, 71, 77-78, 80, 82, 84, 87, 90 in the Cenozoic zone (column F, Table 1). In spite of what might appear to be regularity in the data, our periodicity test (see above) does not suggest periodicity in Flood sediments (see Table 2). Even if the peaks and valleys do not show periodicity, though, like the sediments of the Cenozoic, the peaks and valleys do seem to be substantial. Nineteen boundaries show NLSSS increases of 50% or more over the previous boundary, and eleven of those more than doubled (column D, Table 1). Eighteen boundaries show %NLSSS increases of 50% or more over the previous boundary, and twelve of those more than doubled (column G, Table 1). Considering total NLSSS increases, even over multiple boundWISE and RICHARDSON Biostratigraphic continuity and earth history 2023 ICC 621
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