When the first words of the Bible were written, this word create (bara in the Hebrew) was used to describe something unique.  “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  We are given nothing more than that.

 God didn’t share what, or who, he put on that earth way back then.  Or how He did it. The Bible simply says that He created two things.  The heavens.  And the earth.  Out of nothing.  And both the heavens and the earth were created complete and perfect in every way.  Nothing was missing.  

I personally wish God would have told us more about that world, but He didn’t.  Scientifically, we know that millions of years ago, in that long-ago past world that He created, there were animals that are totally different than those we know today.  Their bones, as fossils, are preserved in the strata deposits of the earth. Animals died, were covered up with dirt, and preserved.  Layered from top to the bottom of the strata.  Sixty-six million years ago.

There they are.  Those animals existed.  They are preserved for us.  Real animals.   You can touch them, pick up their bones and know that at one time there were many different kinds of creatures on earth that no longer exist, and they were rampantly abundant.  And then, suddenly, they all disappeared.  Abruptly.  All at once. Not over time; no, they disappeared in an instant.  How could that happen?  What occurred to wipe out almost all life on the earth, except for life that existed in the waters--oceans and seas?