Fossilization has long been seen as a process that turns the remains of once living organisms completely into stone, replacing all original materials. Evolutionists also add the idea of long ages into the mix, further contributing to the idea that we should find no original material in them, especially not soft, biological materials. But these assumptions are challenged by recent discoveries of soft, flexible biomaterials still in fossils.
Floods Form Fossils Fast!
First of all, fossilization itself is very consistent with the Bible’s account of the global Flood around 4,500 years ago. It’s hard to imagine better conditions for fossilization than the rapid, deep burial in mineral-rich sediments that the Flood provided. You see, animals simply lying on the ground, or sitting at the bottom of the ocean, almost never become fossils. There are many factors that contribute to decay, from scavengers and bacteria, to sunlight and oxygen.
The key to preservation, then, is to have these decaying factors avoided or reduced. Often, this includes the remains becoming permeated by minerals in a process called permineralization, or by going a step further and becoming completely replaced by minerals. So, the fact we have such a multitude of fossils is already more consistent with a biblical worldview. But what about these soft tissue discoveries?
Soft Tissues
When talking about ‘soft tissue’ discoveries in fossils, I’m not referring to mineralized structures of formerly soft tissues (footprints, skin impressions, etc.), but the actual tissues themselves. These are original, biological molecules and materials that have not been replaced by minerals. They are often still flexible and stretchy.
Wait a minute, though. How long can soft, stretchy biological materials last? As we will see later, these materials have been found in dinosaur bones, which are claimed to be over 65 million years old. Can they last for tens or hundreds of millions of years? This topic is incredibly significant to the creation/evolution discussion! Interestingly, before these discoveries, our knowledge of biological materials indicated that they could not possibly last for more than one million years at the maximum.1 This discovery has been questioned by evolutionists, but other more recent studies have reconfirmed this number.
Dr. Brian Thomas, with the Institute for Creation Research, calculated bovine (cow) collagen as having a max lifespan of under one million years.2 Kaplan (2012) and his team developed a half life for DNA from studying moa bones, and concluded DNA could not last more than 6.8 million years (though their evolutionary assumptions about the age of the moa bones probably inflated this number a bit).3
Unexpected Discoveries
So, what has been discovered? The first major discovery to attract a lot of attention was the discovery of blood vessels, blood cells, and bone cells in a Tyrannosaurus rex femur discovered by Dr. Mary Schweitzer and published in 2005.4 Since then, there have been many such discoveries made, both by evolutionists like SchweitzerBlood clot remnants in CEM’s Triceratops boneand creationists alike. Blood vessels, blood cells, bone cells, collagen, nerves, keratin, and even fragmentary DNA (among other things) have been found in numerous fossils, including those of dinosaurs, mosasaurs, Dimetrodon, and even Archaeopteryx.
Can ‘Deep Time Fossils’ Be Rescued?
The discovery of soft tissues in fossils is a major blow to evolutionary ideas about the age of these fossils. Unsurprisingly, theories have been developed to try to explain this. Schweitzer hypothesized that iron released from hemoglobin may have helped preserve these biomaterials.5
She conducted an experiment with ostrich blood vessels in which one sample was put in water, where it decayed in around three days. A second sample was put in an iron solution extracted from blood, and this solution preserved it for over two years. The iron delayed its decay significantly.
However, it is still an incredible extrapolation to assume that, since it worked for two years, it would work for hundreds of millions of years. This explanation leaves a lot to be desired for the evolutionary worldview, but it is of value in helping to explain how such sensitive biomaterials could be preserved for the 4,500 years since the Flood.
An Exciting Find
Triceratops pubic bone in our lab
Here at the Creation Experience Museum, our staff have become involved with this research over the past year. In May of 2023, six of our team participated in a fossil dig in the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana (the same formation in which some of the bones Dr. Schweitzer studied were found). Partway through the dig, team member Sherry Baker found part of a Triceratops pubis sticking out of the ground. We excavated it further and discovered a well preserved, 34” specimen, which was removed and transported to our fossil lab, where it is now undergoing prep for eventual display.
This fossil took a little trip, though, last fall, when Curtis and Sherry Baker took it to the lab of the Creation Evidence Museum in Texas. The lab technicians took a core sample, thin sectioned it, and examined it with a microscope. Guess what they found? Among other things, they found collagen, remnants of blood clots (which is consistent with drowning, as could have happened in the Flood), and numerous osteocytes (bone cells).
Once again, these biomaterials are consistent with a biblical timeline. This is a good reminder that, when we start with God’s Word, things make sense. We can certainly trust the Bible, whose Author was there.
Giant Flood, Giant Rocks, Giant Wonder On a recent trip to Northern Ireland, my family had the opportunity to visit one of her greatest natural wonders: Giant’s
We love helping people put the truths of the authority and reliability of God‘s Word into their hearts. We also enjoy getting resources for these truths into their hands. And with the holiday season coming up, the bookstore can be a blessing both to the ministry and to your family and friends!
Everyone has a worldview, and every worldview has questions that it must answer. The truth will naturally produce the best and most sensible answers, and the Bible does just that.
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Schweitzer, Mary Higby. 2007. “Analyses of Soft Tissue from Tyrannosaurus rex Suggest the Presence of Protein.” Science 316,277-280. doi:10.1126/science.1138709.
Thomas, Brian. 2019. “Collagen Decays Too Fast for Evolutionary Time.” Acts & Facts 48 (8).
Kaplan, M. 2012. “DNA has a 521-year half-life.” Nature doi.org/10.1038/nature.2012.11555.
Schweitzer, Mary Higby. 2005. “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex.” Science 307. doi:10.1126/science.1108397.
Schweitzer MH, Zheng W, Cleland TP, Goodwin MB, Boatman E, Theil E, Marcus MA, Fakra SC. 2013. “A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time.” Proc Biol Sci. 281. doi:10.1098/rspb.
