T58 Evolution of Paleontological Art

Sunday, 4 November 2018
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 233

PALEONTOLOGICAL MYTHS IN UGARITIC AND OLD TESTAMENT STORIES: LEVIATHAN IS THE NILE CROCODILE, BEHEMOTH IS A YOUNG ADULT AFRICAN ELEPHANT

Paper number: T58-16
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 5:15 PM – 5:30 PM

Authors

  • Robert Bakker Presenting Author
    Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, TX

Abstract

Leviathan and Behemoth are the two most famous monsters in the literature of the Ancient Near East. Both are described in detail in the Book of Job in the Hebrew Scriptures. Both, repeatedly, have been cited by Young Earth Creationists as dinosaurs observed by humans. However, the anatomy and behavior of these beings, as portrayed in Ugaritic and Hebrew literature, leads to far firmer identifications of the species inspiring the stories.

The Leviathan is a surprisingly accurate rendition of the Nile Crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, with the optional addition of six extra heads. Leviathan, in Job, has: powerful jaws armed with great tooth crowns; skull armor that renders hooks impotent; body armor composed of scales, set close together, that repels spears; ventral armor composed of a mosaic of smooth, potsherd-like, convex plates. The most notable behavior is full body twisting that churns water into froth -- a close approximation of the classic Crocodylus “Death Roll”. The seven-headed condition connotes other-worldly power and is the rule for the “Twisting Serpent” in Ugaritic sagas, in the Hebrew prophets and Psalms, and in the Apocalypse, aka “Revelation”, of the New Testament. Job, who seems closest to eye-witness testimony, restricts Leviathan to single headedness, but does add flame-thrower breath. Interpreting Leviathan as a cetacean is falsified by the jaws, armor and roll. The Behemoth model most likely is a young adult male African Elephant, Loxodonta africana. The Behemoth is a wide mouthed, gargantuan grazer. Its most memorable behavior is swinging its “tail” like a “cedar tree”, a wry metaphor describing a prodigiously tumescent male organ . Young elephant males, recently sexually mature, are famous for slapstick gesticulations of their copulatory organ. Interpreting “tail” as a stegosaur caudal weapon does not fit Ancient Near East zoo-tropes. When geologists remonstrate with Young Earthers, it helps to know some Ugaritic and Old Testament literature from the Bronze Age. Both African Elephant and Nile Crocodile, before the advent of firearms, were such awesome and frightening creatures that their fame spread to many cultures, transforming the living beasts into the supernatural “Chaos Monsters”.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 50, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2018AM-320436

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