What came first, the chicken or the egg? A paradox which applies to many similar things. Chickens produce eggs. Eggs grow into chickens. Did some pre-chicken drop the first chicken egg? Did some pre-chicken egg hatch into the first chicken?
How about a bigger question. What came first, the dinosaur or mankind? Did dinosaurs evolve and die off long before mankind evolved? If you believe in the Bible account both were created by God on the 6th day of creation with dinosaurs hours mankind. If you believe in a mix of both, then God created them on day 6 but day 6 was really a long period of time, an era or epoch. In the epoch dinosaurs came early on and mankind near the end, again after dinosaurs went extinct.
This past September Nancy and I had the privilege of doing something we planned in 2019 to do in the spring of 2020. But, the world changed that spring, so it finally happened 2 month ago. We went on a road trip to a few places in the western and mid-west USA. 2 key places where Government Canyon State Natural Area and Dinosaur Valley State Park. Both are located in Texas. Both have dinosaur tracks exposed in rock layers as the covering rocks have eroded away.
In the Paluxy River, which passed through Dinosaur Valley State Park are amazingly clear impressions of hundreds of footprints from different sized and types of dinosaurs. The creatures walked here in the mud. It was somehow covered quickly and the mud hardened into rock over time. That covering has been eroding and in 1908 the first prints were discovered.
The amazing thing about this find is that human footprints are found mixed right in the dinosaur tracks. The picture below shows a 3-toed dinosaur, an Acrocanthosaurus, who stepped on top of a human footprint. We know the dinosaur walked by after the human as it pressed mud into the human print as the dinosaur toes overlapped the human print.
Back to the question, what came first, the dinosaur or mankind? The evidence here is clear. The famed critic of creation, Richard Dawkins from the University of Oxford, said “… there are certain things about the fossil record than any evolutionist should expect to be true. We should be very surprised, for example, to find fossil humans appearing in the record before mammals are supposed to have evolved! If a single, well verified mammal skull were to turn up in 500 million year old rock, our whole modern theory of evolution would be utterly destroyed.” (The Blind Watchmaker, 1986, p. 225)
While this dinosaur and mankind footprint does not exactly match Mr. Dawkins example, it means the same thing. The whole theory of evolution is utterly destroyed because something supposedly modern is found with something supposedly ancient.
The only issue remaining is whether we each will believe the evidence. We see the evidence points to God creating dinosaurs and mankind on day 6, a literal day, not an age or epoch. Dinosaurs did not die off long before mankind came onto the scene. They co-existed, just as lions and mankind today.
That leaves the chicken and the egg question. That may be a future topic to look into.
NOTE: Wikipedia claims the human prints are fraud. They were created as a way to generate income. Scientists who have examined the prints using sophisticated equipment to measure impression pressures from different parts of a foot as well as shapes, relatives proportions and the mud impressions on the surrounding ground confirm these are real. This is stated in the text in the image below the rock cast.
NOTE: In Mr. Dawkins quote he uses the example of 500 million year old rock. He has no proof rock is that old; he is making the assumption rock is possibly that old. I am in no way endorsing Mr. Dawkins claim that rocks are so old.