God is a Creator.
Creators make new things.
God created the heavenly host first.
There are a great variety of them such as cherubim, seraphs, the "4 beasts" at the corner of His throne, the 7 spirits, the 24 elders, the angels of various ranks.
Scientists say that 99% of all animals which have ever lived are extinct.
So what we see around us on earth today represents 1% of all things God ever created.
The fossil record is a record of things God has created over time.
It is a testimony to the greatness and creativity of God.
Most Christians are as afraid of fossils and palaeontology as a vampire is afraid of light.
I say that the fossil record, when correctly understood, is the Creationists friend, and the evolutionists enemy.
I am daring Christians to be a Daniel and to stare the lion down. Confront your fear of the fossil record.
John 1:3 All things were made by him [Jesus]; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Thus T. rex and all ancient creatures were made by Jesus, not evolution.
The fossil record tells of multiple CREATION events and extinctions. 99% of past created species are now extinct.
These extinct creatures too, were created by Jesus.
The Geologic Time Scale is the Christians friend, as I will point out in the next paragraph.
Life on earth is divided into 3 Eras separated by two mass extinctions.
95% of species on earth were destroyed at the end of the Palaeozoic Era (Permian period). This left earth without form and void in what was called "The Great Dying". So God replenished the earth (with dinosaurs), at the start of the Mesozoic Era (Triassic Period). Please refer to the Geologic Time Scale diagram.
Chart taken from...
https://sepetjian.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/geologicscale.jpg
At the end of the Mesozoic Era (Cretaceous Period) there was another mass extinction. The earth again was without form and void. And God replenished the earth with mammals, some of which are extinct today.
Mammals and birds have been present anciently and recently.
Mammals were small and insignificant during the Era of the Dinosaurs.
Some "dinosaurs" such as crocodiles still live today.
Each of the little Periods is followed by a mini mass extinction.
Thus each horizontal line on the chart represents an extinction event followed by a creation event by God, where new species replace old.
At the end of the Tertiary Period (Pliocene Epoch) there was a mini extinction/creation event again.
It is in the Quaternary Period, after the Pleistocene Epoch that the Genesis 1 story begins.
This is the beginning of Human History.
So in 6 literal days, 6000 years ago, God [re]creates the heaven [sky], the earth and the sea, creating some new life forms such as man. This is what palaeontology refers to as the Quaternary Period - Holocene Epoch (Recent).
Even this is not the last mini mass extinction event, because 4400 years ago there was a Deluge, or Noah's flood. This is the Younger Dryas event in Palaeontology, when Clovis culture in North America was destroyed by Noah's Flood.
And today we sit at a point just before another mass extinction known as the 2nd Coming of Christ.
And 1000+ years from now God promises to create new heavens and earth (2 Pet 3:10-13), which means another mass extinction of all the wicked humans left on earth together with plants and animals.
This "melting of the elements" is followed by another [re]creation of new plants and animals such as herbivorous lions, and snakes which eat humus like earthworms do (Is 65:25).
And God will go on creating forever, because that is what He does.