The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology expressed its concern about the misrepresentation of science in Answers in Genesis's creation "museum" in a press release issued on July 17, 2007. "The Creation Museum's fossil exhibitions, though artistically impressive, include a vast number of scientific errors, large and small," the SVP explained. "These errors range from implying that the Earth's sedimentary rocks were deposited by a single biblical Flood, to claiming that humans and dinosaurs lived alongside one another, to denouncing the reality of transitional fossils."
Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, and president of NCSE's board of directors, said, with reference to Answer in Genesis's president, "Ken Ham is not recognized as a scientist or educator among experts in the fields of geology and paleontology, and his views on the interpretation of Biblical texts are extremist. Visitors to his 'museum' may arrive knowing little about these sciences, but they will leave misled and intellectually deceived." Kristi Curry Rogers of the Science Museum of Minnesota added, "the Creation Museum is using the disguise of science museums and centers without including an iota of science inside."
Catherine Badgley, a professor at the University of Michigan and president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, further lamented the misinformation presented at AiG's museum, commenting, "according to the Creation Museum, the history of life is short, sin-ridden, and laden with moralizing imperatives. In contrast, the real fossil record shows that this long history is brimming with discoveries of new kinds of animals, plants, and environments, inviting people to use their unusual minds to question, to reason, and to wonder at life's remarkable variety."
Founded in 1940, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology is the leading North American scientific and educational organization concerned with vertebrate paleontology. According to its position statement on evolution education "Evolution is fundamental to the teaching of good biology and geology, and the vertebrate fossil record is an excellent set of examples of the patterns and processes of evolution through time. ... The record of vertebrate evolution is exciting, inspirational, instructive, and enjoyable, and it is our view that everyone should have the opportunity and the privilege to understand it as paleontologists do."