180-Million-Year-Old Soft Tissue?

by Ken Ham
Featured in Ken Ham Blog

New research reveals ichthyosaurs, extinct marine creatures, likely had blubber, smooth skin, countershading, and were warm-blooded. Now that’s interesting and will certainly prompt scientists to take another look at this fascinating creature. But the real story here is one you have to read between the lines to get.

Johan Lindgren, the lead researcher on this study published in Nature, states of the find:

This animal’s preservation is unusual, especially for a marine environment . . . This specimen has given us more evidence that these tissues and molecules can preserve for extremely long periods, and that soft tissue analysis can shed light on evolutionary patterns, relationships, and how ancient animals functioned in their environment.

If you’re not paying attention while you’re reading this story, you’ll probably miss Lindgren’s reference to “soft tissue analysis.” Looking back at the original journal paper, we read in the abstract:

Our analyses recovered still-flexible remnants of the original scaleless skin, which comprises morphologically distinct epidermal and dermal layers.

This supposedly 180-million-year-old fossil contained skin that was still flexible! This adds to the growing list of soft tissue finds in supposedly very old fossils. And yet the researchers just gloss over the insurmountable difficulty of explaining how soft tissue can last for tens of millions of years. We can observe in a lab that soft tissue breaks down quite quickly. It simply can’t last millions of years, even under ideal conditions—let alone the inconsistent conditions found in nature.

This ichthyosaur wasn’t buried 180 million years ago. It was buried during the global flood of Noah’s day about 4,300 years ago. The remarkable preservation isn’t difficult to explain from a biblical worldview; this creature was catastrophically and rapidly buried before scavengers, oxygen, and microbes could break down the remains.

What we see in creation confirms what we read in God’s Word!

Get More Answers on Answers News

I discussed this item today on Answers News with regular cohosts Dr. Georgia Purdom, and Bodie Hodge. Answers News is our twice-weekly news program filmed live before a studio audience here at the Creation Museum and broadcast on my Facebook page and the Answers in Genesis Facebook page. We also discussed the following topics:

  • Why are children assaulting other children?
  • Scientists add new letters to our DNA.
  • Church of England offering baptism-style services for transgender members.
  • And more!

Watch the entire episode of Answers News for December 13, 2018.

Be sure to join us each Monday and Thursday at 2 p.m. (EDT) on my Facebook page or the Answers in Genesis Facebook page for Answers News. You won’t want to miss this unique news program that gives science and culture news from a distinctly biblical and Christian perspective.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.

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