Ted Holden's World

The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy

This article contains a map of the continental positions in the Jurassic, roughly the time in which the "supercontinent" of Pangaea existed (or the most recent occurrence of such a supercontinent). The point of this illustration is to assess the implications of Ted Holden's modified Velikovskyian-style model (see his webpage). Ted is not too clear about how his "Golden Age" (I hope I got the terminology right) matches conventional geologic time, but he does place two constraints:

Large dinosaurs were present
Pangaea existed (i.e. all the continents were grouped into one "supercontinent")

that suggest the conventional geologic time periods he is considering. They must be in the early part of the Mesozoic, probably Triassic or Jurassic, since large dinosaurs were only present in the Mesozoic, and Pangaea was together in the Triassic, but beginning to rift apart. By Jurassic, the continents were still close together, but by the Cretaceous, the Atlantic Ocean (for example) was formed from the southern tip of S. America to Greenland. However, to explain the presence of huge dinosaurs in the Cretaceous that "could not exist in today's gravity" (according to Ted's model), perhaps the Cretaceous should be included too?

Anyway, I do not mean to suggest that Ted's "Golden Age" corresponds to the approximately 245 to 144 million years ago range of the Triassic-Jurassic, because, obviously, the time scale of Ted's model is substantially different.

The purpose of the exercise is to allow comparison of geologic data to the predictions of Ted's model, in the proper geographic context. So the paleogeographic map shown below is roughly the geometry we can use for the comparison. Ted has said the model he is proposing has Pangaea continental positions, so here they are.

I have plotted the locations of the proposed geographic pole of Ted's model - approximately over the Afar Triangle region of east Africa. I have also added the locations of several dinosaur localities to demonstrate that they occur very close to the "paleoequator" of his model. Note that as the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods continue, the Atlantic Ocean continues to spread, and the angular distance between the Afar Triangle and the Cretaceous localities becomes greater - to the point that they would lie in the "dark" hemisphere of Ted's model.

Selected localities:

Jurassic Morrison Formation, Utah and Wyoming
Late Triassic and Early Jurassic Fundy Group, Nova Scotia
Late Cretaceous Judith River Formation and Edmonton Group, Alberta
Late Cretaceous, North Slope, Alaska
Late Cretaceous Bylot Island, along Baffin Bay
Cretaceous, north-central China

Paleogeography: Smith, A.G., Hurley, A.M., and Briden, J.C., 1981. Phanerozoic paleocontinental world maps. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, p.1-102. ISBN 0-521-23258-9

I chose the polar projection because it is easier to visualize the angular distances. The map is centred on the mid-Jurassic paleopole (as determined by paleomagnetic inclinations).

I leave the interpretation of the data, or detection of flaws in the comparison, to you. I welcome comments, especially from Ted.