Dale Pollard
The Sahara desert is one of the driest places on the planet, but the fossils of large aquatic creatures were found buried beneath the sand. In the late 19th century, the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh made some interesting remarks regarding the remains of the Hydrarchos; a large serpentine monster found near Cairo, Egypt, by Albert Gaudry, in a place dubbed The Valley of Whales.
This region also happens to be one of a few places speculated to be near Job’s homeland— Uz.
During one of his many colorful descriptions to the public, Marsh allegedly speculated that the remains of Hydrarchos could be linked to the creature mentioned in the book of Job— the Leviathan. It should be noted that he may have also made the same claim about other fossil remains and that this was commonly done during a period referred to as “The Bone Wars.” It should also be noted that other specimens of the Hydrarchos were found around the same period in North America as well.
It wasn’t long before the identification of the fossil remains were put under scrutiny and the reptile classification that was originally assigned to Hydrarchos was changed and it was moved into the whale family.
This change didn’t come about because the specimen had been studied closer and a blowhole was found; the change in its classification was far more trivial. They figured its teeth were more like those of a whale and less reptilian in nature. Yet, when you look at the teeth and compare them to a whales you run into a few challenges.
First, a whale can have a variety of different teeth depending on the kind. Some whales use their “teeth” as a filter for krill while others, like the orca, use their teeth in a more shark-like fashion. Secondly, the teeth of the Hydrarchos not only appear reptilian but even modern paleontologist suggest that it used its teeth like a Mosasaur— an extinct aquatic reptile.
In short, whales don’t all have the same teeth and some don’t really have teeth at all. However, crocodiles and monitor lizards and other examples of dinosaurs have teeth just like or very similar to that of the Hydrarchos. It seems to be a weak reason to change classification, at the very least.
One might assume that Othniel C. Marsh was a religious paleontologist since he drew biblical parallels, but that’s perhaps the most interesting part. Marsh was an early proponent of Darwin’s hypothesis of evolution— yet he still made the comparison.
The exact identity of the Leviathan isn’t known and this article isn’t an attempt to convince the reader of that either. It’s simply to showcase an example of a creature that closely resembles the one detailed by God in Job 41.
“Who can strip off his outer garment?
Who would come near him with a bridle?
Who can open the doors of his face?
Around his teeth is terror.”
V.13-14
Of course, many don’t need a fossil to believe that a creature that God said existed is true. Leviathan was real. The question is— did we find it?
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