How do scientists know when dinosaurs lived?

Through fossils and through the layers of rock in which they lie. Each layer stands for a period of time, and from this the age of the finds can be worked out.

Scientists trace the history of life mainly through fossils. Some dinosaurs have been preserved so well that their skeletons are found almost complete. Such skeletons can be seen today in many natural history museums. They are a sure sign that these animals once lived.

To find out when they lived, researchers work a little like detectives. One important clue is the layer in which a fossil is found. The earth has preserved the life of past ages layer upon layer. Each layer corresponds to a period of time that passed between the layer below it and the layer above it. As a rule, the deeper a layer lies, the older it is.

On top of this come further scientific methods and a great deal of careful calculation. The results have been confirmed in several different ways. Of course there are margins of error of a few hundred thousand years, but on the whole the age of the dinosaurs can be determined well. They populated the earth for a very long time, far more than a hundred million years, and disappeared more than sixty million years ago.

For a Muslim, this research is no contradiction to faith. The first verse above expressly invites us to travel through the earth and see how God began creation. The layers of rock are like the pages of a book in which God has preserved the history of life. Whoever reads them sees a creation in stages, just as the Holy Qur’an describes it.