Clams in Kansas | Paleontology at the ‘Niobrara Formation’ | David Rives



I recently had the opportunity to work on a paleontological dig in western Kansas at a site classified as being part of the Niobrara Formation.

I did not expect to find that as I walked through the formations, I was stepping on thousands of fossilized clams, some in broken fragments, some half shells, some extremely large, up to a foot in diameter, and some which were preserved in their entirety, in a fully closed position.

When clams die, the muscles relax that hold the two shells together, and the clam opens. After a short while, that soft tissue and muscle disintegrates and the two shells break apart, and drift away. But that’s not the case for many of the clams in Kansas (over 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean at 2,500 feet ABOVE sea level).

What would preserve these specimen in the closed position? A rapid event that would have covered the clams with layer upon layer of sediment and soil would explain what is observed.

We find just such an event in the Biblical record. The account of Noah’s flood in Genesis. The fountains of the great deep were opened, and hundreds of feet of sediment would have been stirred up, shifted, and re-deposited, burying millions of creatures around the globe.

I’m David Rives…
Truly, The Heavens Declare the Glory of God.