Daily Devotional – August 15

Paleontology

Noah took two of every kind of land animal on board the Ark, including dinosaurs. After getting off the Ark, these dinosaurs spread around the world. The ancient histories of many cultures document dinosaur encounters.

Britain’s history contains hundreds of stories about large reptiles called dragons.

• According to one account, a large reptile killed and ate King Morvidus in 336 B.C.
• Just over 100 years ago, elderly Welsh folk told of a colony of winged serpents (pterosaurs?) that lived in the woods around Penllin Castle in Glamorgan. These “winged serpents were the terror of old and young alike…they were described as very beautiful,… looked as if they were covered with jewels of all sorts…when angry, they flew over people’s heads… they were as bad for poultry as foxes...they were terrors in farmyards.”
• In 1405, after an unsuccessful attempt by local archers to kill the dragon with its impenetrable hide, the villagers near Sudbury drove into a swamp a “dragon vast in body with a crested head, teeth like a saw, and a tail extending to an enormous length. Having slaughtered the shepherd of a flock, it devoured many sheep.” After the Flood, people also spread across the Earth, but who would want these terrifying creatures living near their village? Many dinosaurs likely went extinct due to human expansion. When we put on our biblical glasses, it is no surprise to find these types of widespread “dragon” reports. Dinosaurs definitely did not go extinct 65 million years ago!

Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

~ Genesis 8:19

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.