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  "publishedAt": "2026-03-05T20:30:00.001Z",
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  "tags": [
    "New study finds earliest evidence of big land predators hunting plant-eaters | EurekAlert",
    "published their findings, open access, in the journal _Scientific Reports_",
    "Dmitry Bogdanov",
    "CC BY-SA 3.0",
    "Link",
    "a press release via EurekAlert!",
    "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)",
    "Click for My Books",
    "Tweet Link",
    "Oxfam"
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  "textContent": "\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNew study finds earliest evidence of big land predators hunting plant-eaters | EurekAlert\n\nContradicting creationist claims that death entered the world when Eve's sin somehow transformed a previously perfect world into a fallen one—with the creator god apparently powerless to prevent some other magical entity interfering in its creation—we now have evidence of predation; that is, the killing and eating of one living organism by another. Needless to say, like 99.975% of the history of life on Earth, this all occurred 280 million years ago, during that long pre-“Creation Week” period before the creationist god supposedly decided to create his small flat planet with a dome over it and call it perfect.\n\nThe nonsensical idea that there were no deaths before “The Fall” has always defied logic because all living things require a supply of energy in the form of food. Even if that food is plants, plants must die in the process. But then the Bible’s mythologies were written by people who confused “living” with “breathing”, so assumed plants were not living. Presumably, Bible literalists today believe the same biologically nonsensical idea.\n\nThe evidence for the earliest large land predators comes from three palaeontologists led by Professor Robert R. Reisz of the Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, who have just published their findings, open access, in the journal _Scientific Reports_. The group studied tooth marks on the fossilised skeletons of three young herbivores from the Permian of Texas. Two hundred and eighty million years ago was relatively soon after the first terrestrial tetrapods had crawled out of the sea and evolved into amphibians and the earliest proto-reptiles. The evolution of predation would have been a major driver of evolution due to the resulting arms races in which predators became more efficient hunters and prey became better at avoiding being eaten—a process that hardly fits the description “intelligent design”.\n\n\n\n> Predation in the Early Permian.\n>\n>  Around **299–252 million years ago** , during the Permian Period, life on land was undergoing a major evolutionary expansion. The **earliest terrestrial tetrapods** —descendants of fish that had colonised land during the Devonian—had diversified into a range of amphibian-like forms and the first true reptiles. These animals inhabited floodplains, river systems, and seasonally dry landscapes that covered large parts of what is **now North America and Europe**.\n>\n> \n>\n> _Edaphosaurus pogonias_ and _Platyhystrix_\n>\n>\n>\n> By Dmitry Bogdanov - dmitrchel@mail.ru, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link\n>\n> The fossil sites in Texas studied by the Toronto researchers come from the **“Red Beds” formations** , deposits of mudstones and sandstones laid down in rivers and floodplains. These sediments have preserved a remarkable record of early land vertebrates.\n>\n>  Among the most common animals in these ecosystems were small **herbivorous tetrapods** , which fed on early seed plants, ferns, and other vegetation. They in turn became prey for the first large terrestrial predators. Evidence for this predator–prey interaction often comes not from the predators themselves but from bite marks on fossil bones, which can reveal the presence of carnivores even when their skeletons are rare.\n>\n>  The fossils examined in the new study show **distinct tooth marks on the skeletons of young herbivorous animals** , demonstrating that large predators were already hunting vertebrates on land by about **280 million years ago**.\n>\n>  Predation is one of the most powerful drivers of evolution. Once predators evolve, prey species are subjected to intense natural selection favouring traits that improve survival—such as speed, armour, camouflage, or defensive behaviour. Predators then evolve counter-adaptations, creating an **evolutionary arms race** that can drive rapid evolutionary change.\n>\n>  This dynamic process has shaped ecosystems for hundreds of millions of years and is one of the reasons why the history of life is characterised by constant adaptation and diversification rather than the static “perfect creation” imagined in creationist mythology.\n\nThe work of the Toronto palaeontologists is explained in a press release via EurekAlert!\n\n\n> New study finds earliest evidence of big land predators hunting plant-eaters\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> A new study examining fossil evidence shows large land predators were already hunting big plant-eating animals more than 280 million years ago. University of Toronto Mississauga researchers Jordan M. Young, Tea Maho, and Robert Reisz studied bite marks on the skeletons of three young herbivores from the early Permian of Texas revealing feeding patterns from multiple predators and a glimpse into how animals hunted and interacted with each other.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> This discovery shows predator-prey hierarchies were formed earlier than previously expected. While these interactions are well known in the ‘Age of Reptiles’ there has been little information available in the Paleozoic Era, when terrestrial vertebrates first evolved into large apex predators and herbivores.\n>\n> said Professor Rober R. Reisz, co-author\n>  Department of Biology\n>  University of Toronto Mississauga\n>  Mississauga, ON, Canada.\n>\n>\n>  Master’s student Young, lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports, highlights how the size, shape, and texturing of the tooth markings reveals who the potential predators are during this time period.\n>\n>\n> The puncturing, pitting, scoring and furrowing marks on the skeletons of these three young plant-eating animals are indicative of large predators found in this site and in nearby areas include varanopid (_Varanops_) and sphenacodontid (_Dimetrodon_) synapsids.\n>\n> Jordan M. Young, first author\n>  Department of Biology\n>  University of Toronto Mississauga\n>  Mississauga, ON, Canada.\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n> He added scavengers and small arthropods also joined in on the “Paleozoic feast.” The skeletons showed arthropod borings on areas where cartilaginous bone ends would be on the carcass.\n>\n>\n>\n>  Publication:\n>\n>> [Young, J.M., Maho, T. & Reisz, R.R.\n>  **Earliest direct evidence of trophic interactions between terrestrial apex predators and large herbivores.**\n>  _Sci Rep_ **16** , 6977 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38183-6](https://rdcu.be/e6ZBG)\n>\n>\n>  Show publication details\n\n\n\n\n> Abstract\n>  Trophic interactions between large predators and herbivores are unknown in the fossil record of Permo-Carboniferous tetrapods at a time when these members of the terrestrial vertebrate communities make their first appearance and undergo initial diversification in an increasingly complex community. Here we report on the presence of numerous tooth markings on three juvenile skeletons of the herbivore _Diadectes_ from the early Permian of Texas. As the first terrestrial vertebrate herbivores, diadectids occupied a crucial eco-morphological space of the terrestrial community, as primary consumers that were able to orally process and consume high-fiber plants, a previously unexplored resource. The tooth marks indicate that the feeding behaviour included both muscle de-fleshing and scavenging on cartilage-rich joint areas in the appendicular skeletons. Anatomy of the tooth marks indicate that various predators could have produced the tooth marks, such as the apex predators _Varanops_ and _Dimetrodon_ , as well as the trematopid amphibian _Acheloma_. In addition, boring marks are also present and likely produced by arthropod larvae. Although these skeletons may have been produced by active predation, their subsequent accumulation in a probable flooding event and extensive exposure before burial, does not allow us to differentiate active predation and scavenging. Nevertheless, this discovery represents the earliest direct evidence of predator-prey trophic interactions among large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates during the initial stages of amniote evolution.\n>\n>\n> Fig 1.\n>\n> \n>\n> Skeletal reconstruction of _Diadectes sideropelicus_ with overlaid left and right tooth and bore marks in right lateral view.\n>\n>\n>\n> Redrawn and modified from AMNH 4684 mounted skeleton from the American Museum of Natural History.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 2.\n>\n> \n>\n> Magnified images with delineated outlines of bone modifications on _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. (**A**) Puncturing and scoring on proximal articular of ontogenetically youngest humerus in anterior view. (**B**) Scoring and pitting on lateral surface of the distal scapula. (**C**) Puncturing on proximal radius in ventral view. (**D**) Puncturing and pitting between the intercondylar fossa of the tibia in posterior view. (**E**) Furrowing and imbedded puncturing on the distal tibia in ventral view. (**F**) Boring on the capitulum of the ontogenetically youngest humerus in ventral view. Scale bar equals 5 mm.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 3.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth marks and borings of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Ontogenetically youngest left humerus in ventral (**A-B**), anterior (**C-D**), dorsal (**E-F**), posterior (**G-H**), distal (**I-J**), and proximal (**K-L**) views. (**1**) Scoring = green; (**2**) Pitting = yellow; (**3**) Furrowing = blue; (**4**) Puncturing = purple; (**5******) Boring = black.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 4.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth marks and borings of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Right radius in dorsal (**A-B**) and ventral (**C-D**) views. Right femur in dorsal (**E-F**) and ventral (**G-H**) views. Completed right tibia in ventral (**I-J**) and posterior (**K-L**) views. (**1**) Scoring = green; (**2**) Pitting = yellow; (**3**) Furrowing = blue; (**4**) Puncturing = purple; (**5**) Boring = black.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 5.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth and boring marks of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Young intermediate (A-D) and ontogenetically older left humeri (E-L) in ventral (A-B, E-F), posterior (C-D, G-H), distal (I-J), and proximal (K-L) views. (1) Scoring = green; (2) Pitting = yellow; (3) Furrowing = blue; (4) Puncturing = purple; (5) Boring = black.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 6.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth marks of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Distal right scapula in lateral (**A-B**), anterior (**C-D**), proximal (**E-F**) views. Left cleithrum lateral (**G-H**), ventral (**I-J**) views. Proximal right scapula in lateral (**K-L**) and ventroposterior (**M-N**) views. (**1**) Scoring = green; (**2**) Pitting = yellow; (**3**) Furrowing = blue; (**4**) Puncturing = purple; (**5**) Boring = black.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 7.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth and boring marks of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Right ischium in lateral (**A-B**), dorsal (**C-D**) views. Completed left (**E-F**) and partial right (**G-H**) ilia in lateral views. (**1**) Scoring = green; (**2**) Pitting = yellow; (**3**) Furrowing = blue; (**4**) Puncturing = purple; (**5**) Boring = black.\n>\n> * * *\n>\n> Fig 8.\n>\n> \n>\n> Highlighted tooth and boring marks of _Diadectes_ sp. indet., TMM 46328-4. Proximal right tibia in ventral (**A-B**) view. Right fibula in dorsal (**C-D**) and ventral (**E-F**) views. Left astragalus-calcaneum (TMM 46328-5) in dorsal (**G-H**), anterior (**I-J**), ventral (**K-L**) views. (**1**) Scoring = green; (**2**) Pitting = yellow; (**3**) Furrowing = blue; (**4**) Puncturing = purple; (**5**) Boring = black.\n>\n>\n>\n>\n>\n> [Young, J.M., Maho, T. & Reisz, R.R.\n>  **Earliest direct evidence of trophic interactions between terrestrial apex predators and large herbivores.**\n>  _Sci Rep_ **16** , 6977 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38183-6](https://rdcu.be/e6ZBG)\n>\n>  Copyright: © 2026 The authors.\n>  Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access.\n>  Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)\n\n\nWhat makes this discovery particularly awkward for creationist mythology is that it provides direct evidence that animals were killing and eating other animals hundreds of millions of years before the Biblical timeline allows for any life on Earth at all, let alone before the mythical “Fall of Man”. According to the Genesis narrative, death supposedly entered the world only after Eve’s transgression, yet the fossil record shows ecosystems structured around predation long before humans—or even mammals—had evolved.\n\nThe findings also illustrate a central principle of evolutionary biology: predator–prey arms races drive adaptation. Once predation evolved, natural selection would have favoured prey that could avoid capture and predators that could overcome those defences. Over geological time this produced the extraordinary diversity of defensive structures, behaviours, and hunting strategies seen throughout the animal kingdom today.\n\nFar from reflecting the aftermath of a supernatural catastrophe, the fossil evidence shows that predation has been a normal and fundamental part of life’s history for hundreds of millions of years. The pattern revealed by the fossil record is exactly what evolutionary theory predicts—an ancient and dynamic biosphere shaped by ecological interactions and natural selection, not a recently created world corrupted by a mythical act of disobedience.\n\n\n\n* * *\n\n\n\n\n\n**Advertisement**\n\n\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$14.20 UK\n£11.20\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$14.15 UK\n£11.20\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$12.90 UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$16.00 UK\n£12.60\n\n\n\n\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$12.50UK\n£9.30\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$12.00UK\n£9.93\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$12.50UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$10.50UK\n£8.30\n\n\n\n\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$12.00UK\n£10.00\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$15.00UK\n£12.29\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$7.50UK\n£5.75\n\n**Amazon**  USA\n$10.20UK\n£8.30\n\n\n**All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.**\n\n**Prices correct at time of publication. 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  "title": "Refuting Creationism - Evidence For Earliest Large Land Predators - 280 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-05T20:30:51.344Z"
}