Dinosaur Profile: Irritator

It has been a long time since we did a dinosaur profile but, as part of our new year plan, we are going to try to bring these back, at least periodically. In each case, we will be using them not just to talk about the dinosaur itself, but also to discuss a broader concept.   Today’s dinosaur is Irritator, and, as its name suggests, it is a source of irritation both to its discoverer and to us at In His Image.

Irritator is a relatively recent addition to the dinosaur group.  Described in 1996 and placed eventually in the same group as Spinosaurus, Irritator takes its name from the frustration its discoverer experienced when he realized the specimen had been heavily edited to make it appear more interesting to science. Originally, the specimen was classified with raptors, but it was quickly moved into the same group as Spinosaurus. The type specimen was discovered in Brazil then sold to a German museum after being heavily edited.

According to the describers, Irritator was around twenty to twenty-six feet long, and likely weighed in the neighborhood of one to three tons. So in their view, it was probably slightly larger than an average dinosaur. Since it was a type of Spinosaur, it is believed to have had a sail on its back and been a fish eater, at least part of the time. There are differing estimates on the age of the remains since it is impossible to look at the rocks, given the specimen was not dug up by scientists, but it is believed, if it came from the rocks that are claimed, that the specimen is about 110 million years old, at least in an evolutionary view. Because they have jaws that vaguely resemble modern crocodiles,  Irritator has been postulated to eat a general carnivorous diet, consisting of whatever it could impale in its jaws.

Of course, as creationists, we know Irritator is not 110 million years old. It’s only a few thousand years old. We also know that it did not start its existence as a meat-eater since every land animal ate plants in the beginning. Further, it is likely that, presuming Irritator exists (more on that in a moment) it was not created. Instead, Irritator is likely a type of the originally created Spinosaur kind which speciated out prior to the Flood in the days of Noah.

Of course, all of this is assuming that Irritator even exists. Researchers do not have much to work with when it comes to Irritator. In fact, what they have is a few fragments of skull and a couple pieces of the jawbone. That’s it. No spine, no appendages, no sail, nothing else and the few bones they do have are heavily manipulated by their own admission.  Yet they have manufactured a whole new genus out of a few small fragments of bone.  And they call creationists delusional.

Given how badly damaged the bone is, and how it has been manipulated by the fossil collectors who sold it, I have to ask the obvious question: How do they know it isn’t a crocodile skull? They freely admit it resembles a crocodile skull anyway so why are they forcing into a dinosaur mold, particularly when they know it has been altered? I think the answer is likely that no one cares if you find a crocodile skull but the public is fascinated with dinosaurs. If you describe a new dinosaur, you get a lot more publicity than if you describe a new crocodile.  This is not to say it is not a dinosaur skull fragment. It could be.  But, given the evolutionists have no idea where it was dug up, no idea how much damage was done to the original bone, and no idea what the original looked like due to lack of bones, I see absolutely no reason why they made a whole new dinosaur genus out of it.

Unfortunately Irritator style “discoveries” are all too common in paleontology.  We have written previously about Rugops, the genera based on a single skull, but Irritator is even worse, as there is much less skeletal material. Thus while there are over seven hundred named dinosaur species, odds are most of them do not actually exist.  Depending on who you talk to, there could be as many as seventy different kinds of dinosaur that were originally created.  Throughout this year, we will be periodically taking the time to determine the dinosaur kinds.  So stay with us as we move into 2020 if you love dinosaurs like we do!

Do you know what’s going to happen when you die? Are you completely sure? If you aren’t, please read this or listen to this. You can know where you will spend eternity. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us, we’d love to talk to you.