I was unable to find calculations online so I will pose the question: Has anyone published calculations of a theoretical minimum exposure to solar energy that would be required to produce the biomass represented by just the earth’s fossils?
@Joel_Duff recently discussed the “quintillions of belemnite fossils” found in particular regions and how they couldn’t all have been alive and suddenly buried when the Noahic Flood came along. (Not enough food in their ecosystems was one of his points.) So it got me thinking about a potential estimate of the quantity of fossil deposits and roughly calculating the biomass they would have originally represented when alive. And once that estimate is calculated, what would be the solar energy requirements to produce that biomass? (To put it simply: How many years of sunshine would be needed to generate that biomass?)
Obviously, the estimate would be very rough—but it wouldn’t take a lot of precision to make the obvious point that a traditional 6000 year old YEC earth wouldn’t provide nearly enough time for the planet to generate so much biomass. So I assume that many have played around with the calculations. I just didn’t find any of them, even after a some quick experiments with an AI engine.