Extinctions During the Last Cycle

The Florida fossil beds at Vero and Melbourne proved - by the artifacts found there together with human bones and the remains of animals, many of which are extinct - that these fossil beds were deposited between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago. From observations on beaches in numerous places all over the world, Daly concluded that there was a change in the ocean level, which dropped sixteen to twenty feet 3,500 years ago. Kuenen and others confirmed Daly's findings with evidence derived from Europe.

Dropped Ocean Level

Dropped Ocean Level, R.A. Daly observed that in a great many places all around the world there is a uniform emergence of the shore line of 18 to 20 feet. In the southwest Pacific, on the islands belonging to the Samoan group but spread over two hundred miles, the same emergence is evident. Nearly halfway around the world, at St. Helena in the South Atlantic, the lava is punctuated by dry sea caves, the floors of which are covered with water-worn pebbles, now dusty because untouched by the surf. The emergence there is also 20 feet. At the Cape of Good Hope caves and beaches also prove recent and sensibly uniform emergence to the extent of about 20 feet.

Dating of Previous Shift

Marine terraces, indicating similar emergence, are found along the Atlantic coast from New York to the Gulf of Mexico; for at least 1,000 miles along the coast of eastern Australia; along the coasts of Brazil, southwest Africa, and many islands in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. The emergence is recent as well as of the same order of magnitude, (20 feet). Judging from the condition of beaches, terraces, and caves, the emergence seems to have been simultaneous on every shore. In (Daly's) opinion the cause lies in the sinking of the level of all seas on the globe. Alternatively, Daly thinks it could have resulted from a deepening of the oceans or from an increase in their areas. Of special interest is the time of the change. Daly estimated the sudden drop of oceanic level to (have occurred) some 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.

The Ivory Islands

In 1797 the body of a mammoth, with flesh, skin, and hair, was found in northeastern Siberia. The flesh had the appearance of freshly frozen beef; it was edible, and wolves and sled dogs fed on it without harm. The ground must have been frozen ever since the day of their entombment; had it not been frozen, the bodies of the mammoths would have putrefied in a single summer, but they remained unspoiled for some thousands of years. In some mammoths, when discovered, even the eyeballs were still preserved. (All) this shows that the cold became suddenly extreme .. and knew no relenting afterward. In the stomachs and between the teeth of the mammoths were found plants and grasses that do not grow now in northern Siberia .. (but are) .. now found in southern Siberia. Microscopic examination of the skin showed red blood corpuscles, which was proof not only of a sudden death, but that the death was due to suffocation either by gases or water.

Myth and Folklore Remains

'Nothing' perhaps but the few survivors who were able to carry the tradition of this cataclysm to us today. Myths relating to the falling sky may be found amongst not only the Celts, but the Lapps of Finland, Eskimos of Greenland, the ancient peoples of Mexico, China, Tibet, the tribes of Samoa, and those of eastern and western Africa. Obviously not all life that was left on earth perished during this series of cataclysms, but accounts of those who did are plentiful.

Plato

Plato wrote in his dialogue, The Statesman (Politicus): 'I mean the change in the rising and the setting of the sun and the other heavenly bodies, how in those times they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and they used to rise where they now set..'

Extintictions in Cycles

Radiocarbon analysis by Libby also indicates that plants associated with extinct animals (mastodons) in Mexico are probably only 3,500 years old. Similar conclusions concerning the late survival of the Pleistocene fauna were drawn by various field workers in many parts of the American continent. Suess and Rubin found with the help of radiocarbon analysis that in the mountains of the western United States ice advanced only 3000 years ago.