Year in Review: Top Science News for 2022

January—Giant Millipede Found in England

A much better explanation is that the creature was only thousands of years old and was rapidly buried in sand by the global flood.

A nine-foot-long millipede (Arthropleura) was discovered in England in 2018, and the results were published in late 2021. The conventional age assigned to it was 326 million years, but a large segment of the molted exoskeleton of the creature was discovered articulated in sandstone, which even the researchers admitted is very rare. A much better explanation is that the creature was only thousands of years old and was rapidly buried in sand by the global flood. We have exoskeletons of insects and other “creeping things” of exceptionally large sizes in the fossil record, highlighting that God created great variety in animals. As to why we don’t see such large creepy crawlies today, the idea that gigantic varieties of creatures were unable to adapt to climate changes in the wake of the global flood is a biblically consistent explanation.

February—Dinosaur Missing Links and Rocket Science

In February, we looked at a newly discovered dinosaur believed to have been seven feet long, bipedal, and with an elongated neck. Because of the neck and the 230-million-year age assigned to the fossil, the researchers believe this new species “is a missing link in the family tree” of sauropodomorphs, the supposed ancestors of dinosaurs like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus. In reality, all the researchers found was a slightly long-necked bipedal dinosaur, quite unlike the much more massive and extremely long-necked quadrupedal sauropods. The claimed evolutionary lineage is more missing than “missing link” as are the scant remains of this (at the time of this publication) unnamed dinosaur species. This new find was simply a member of one of the dinosaur kinds God created, and it (along with all air-breathing land animals not on the ark) was buried during the global flood just 4,350 years ago.

Rocket scientist Rob Webb wrote an article in February which looks at rocket science through a biblical worldview. In the section titled “Order and Predictability Are the Keys to Rocket Science,” Rocket Rob points out that precision, predictability, and order are all necessary for rocket science to work, and yet these things are unexplainable in a purely materialistic atheistic worldview. As Rob explained, “We expect the universe to be organized and to consistently obey the natural laws that make rocket science possible.”

March—De-extinction and Venus

In March, we examined the current craze to resurrect extinct species. While the concept has been popularized by several of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, the reality is much more benign. Exact replication of extinct species is impossible because of the degradation of DNA even in the best of conditions (like permafrost-encased woolly mammoths, for example). For de-extinction to be possible, scientists won’t be able to recreate clones of extinct creatures. Rather, they would be “functional equivalents” which look similar to the extinct species but have key genetic differences. As species go extinct, genetic diversity is lost, so de-extinction scientists would in effect be just trying to recover some of the genetic diversity that God created in the very beginning. So, hairy elephants? Maybe. Woolly mammoths? Not a chance!

Astronomer Dr. Danny Faulkner wrote an article on our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus. While earth is a haven for life, the planet closest to us is a nightmarish hellscape. Dr. Faulkner pointed out several of the inhospitable factors of Venus. “Its clouds consist of sulfuric acid, making the entire place reek of rotten eggs. The atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is approximately 93 times that of Earth’s—the same pressure as 3,000 feet (914 m) beneath the ocean’s surface. At 900°F (482°C), the surface temperature burns right past even Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.” Not exactly a welcoming place.

Dr. Faulkner summed up the evolutionary story of Venus’ existence but then countered with the biblical reason for the differences between Earth and Venus.

Earth was specially prepared for our existence over six days of creation as God spread out the seas and established the land and filled both with life, including Adam and Eve.

On the other hand, Venus was created on day four of creation week with the other heavenly bodies “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14). Scripture doesn’t indicate that God assigned life forms on any planet or moon in the universe other than Earth. Venus would naturally be very different from Earth because it was prepared for a different purpose.

April—Limbless Snakes and Fossilized Marine Reptiles

In April, we disarmed the evolutionary story of how snakes may have lost their limbs. Two fossils of Nagini mazonense (a small snake-like animal) were discovered, which had no forelimbs and reduced hindlimbs. The news article reviewed tried to tie this into an evolutionary history of how snakes later lost all their limbs, but that story makes no sense as there are existing animals with no “arms” and reduced “legs,” and furthermore, the article tries to spin how a deleterious mutation can lead to “evolution” of different kinds. However, this is not molecules-to-man evolution but probably a developmental mutation and the loss of information.

We also discussed a nearly complete Aegirosaurus ichthyosaur skeleton which had been discovered in 2009, and which, when further examined in 2022, was found to have preserved traces of soft tissue and blubber. In addition, the researchers concluded that there had been post-mortem decomposition and compression. But their story of a weeks-long burial by sediment makes no sense. Creatures with blubber don’t readily sink when they die (they bloat and float) unless the sediment load is very heavy and blankets them completely. This ichthyosaur was rapidly buried (not after weeks, or else there would have been scavenge marks on the body or tail fossil), and the heavy sediment load compressed portions of the body (of the intact specimen). This compression (and associated heat) caused the blubber to decompose, and the phosphates mineralized the soft tissue, thus preserving it as fossilized. This makes perfect sense and fits the facts in a flood geology scenario. It also explains how the traces of soft tissue and blubber could be preserved, they are only a little over 4,000 years old, not millions of years old.

May—How Ravens and Crows Took Over the World

In May, we looked at the worldwide distribution of ravens and crows. In the evolutionary tale, as ravens and crows (and other corvids) evolved, they grew larger wings, bigger brains, and bigger bodies, which allowed them to outcompete other birds. But in a biblical worldview, God created all the bird kinds with the ability to adapt to their environments and created some with more intelligence than others. Crows and ravens also have almost no dietary restrictions and can literally eat almost anything. And we can’t forget that the very first animal to leave the ark was a raven, and it didn’t need to come back to the ark to survive. As the article states:

Just after the ravens left Noah’s ark (about 4,400 years ago) and about the time of the subsequent ice age, they rapidly speciated, expanded their range worldwide, and became specialized in (or adapted to) the varying environments they settled in. Some grew larger or smaller, and some had beak size (and even beak color) changes based on the created genetic diversity in the biblical corvid kind. So, does this equate to evolution? No, but it fits perfectly with the biblical account of the global flood, which provided brand-new environments and geographic ranges to colonize. . . .

June—“Dragon of Death” Pterosaur Discovered

In June, we looked at the newly discovered pterosaur Thanatosdrakon amaru. This pterosaur had an estimated 30-foot-long wingspan, was about the size of a school bus, and was discovered in Argentina. Conventional dating for this creature is 86 million years old, but the biblical record would place it at just a little over 4,300 years ago when it was buried in the flood of Noah’s time. However, some of every pterosaur kind went onto Noah’s ark and survived the flood, meaning that people afterward may have sighted this (or a similar) creature, possibly inspiring some of the flying dragon legends.

July—RLN Well-Designed to Do What It Does

In July, Dr. Kaia Kloster wrote a paper rebutting the “poor design” claim of the recurrent laryngeal nerve. The RLN takes what would appear to be an exceptionally long detour around the right subclavian artery on the right side and the aortic arch on the left before returning up to the tracheoesophageal groove and then the larynx. As Dr. Kloster wrote,

Both are much longer than they would “need” to be—the left being seven times longer than if it traveled a direct course from the head to the neck. However, there have been studies done on the small percentage of people who have NRLNs (non-recurring) that exhibit difficulty swallowing and foreign body sensation during swallowing. This suggests a role for the recurrent path of this nerve in the optimal functioning and regulation of the larynx and the associated organs beyond, such as the esophagus.

Dr. Kloster also determined that the positioning of the RLN may aid in the closure of the ductus arteriosus, which occurs just after babies are born (this duct connects the aorta and the pulmonary artery, carrying oxygenated blood directly to the baby’s body, bypassing the lungs). Once babies are born and they begin to breathe with their lungs, they no longer need this duct—indeed, without its closure, their blood oxygen content would be diminished, putting strain on the heart and pulmonary arteries. In effect, this is not poor design, but an example of a “detour by design.”

August—Underwater Pollinators

In July, we discussed the discovery that a small crustacean acts as a seaweed pollinator. The small isopod Idotea balthica transfers “spermatia (the algae version of sperm) from one seaweed to the next, like a bee transfers pollen between flowers. In return, the crustaceans [for a land version, think of “pill bugs”] enjoy a safe place to hide and a food source of single-celled alga that grow in the seaweed. This is the first time animal pollination in seaweeds has been documented.” As the article points out, the evolutionary story about pollination (and now underwater pollination) fails miserably. God created symbiotic relationships between some plants and animals. Many plants cannot be pollinated without a specific pollinator. This raises a big problem for the evolutionist. As the article points out, “Which came first? Now they would say plants, so how did the plants manage to survive and reproduce while they waited for their pollinators to evolve?” However, in a biblical worldview, pollination was designed by God from the very beginning so that plants—and even seaweed—could be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (and seas) with more of their kind.

September—Dino Socks and a Bipedal Human Ancestor Sahelanthropus?

Dr. Kaia Kloster looked at the claim of birds with scales on their legs showing off their dinosaur ancestry. But reptilian scales are derived from the epidermis. Recent research into bird scales suggests they are degenerate feathers—so evolutionists now propose that bird scales re-evolved after the evolution of feathers. So birds had to have evolved feathers all over their body and then re-evolved scales (to replace those feathers) on their feet. And all of this occurred even though modern birds (even by evolutionary standards) coexisted with (at least) Cretaceous dinosaurs, and more “primitive” birds (completely feathered) like Archaeopteryx lived with dinosaurs for allegedly 150 million years. As Dr. Kloster points out:

To complicate things further, there is more than one kind of scale on birds’ legs and feet. The outermost layer of the skin can keratinize (thicken and form scales), which can then be organized into three different types: cancella, scutella, and scutes—small, medium, and large scales—usually found on the metatarsus (leg) and the dorsal surface (top) of the feet. Furthermore, reticulae, sometimes referred to as “tuberculate scales,” are found on the lateral and medial surfaces (sides) of the foot. The reticulae lack beta-keratin (a hallmark of reptilian scales) and are entirely composed of alpha-keratin.

It sounds like the evolutionary story doesn’t have a (scaly) leg to stand on!

Also in September, a Nature journal article came out which touted Sahelanthropus tchadensis as a bipedal human ancestor. We discussed the problems with their interpretations of bipedality. From the problematic fossil sites to the placement of the foramen magnum to the distorted cranium of the creature, there were numerous anatomical issues with the bipedal claim. An additional problem is the femur, which has broken upper and lower ends “so the areas where the femur would connect to the tibia and patella (at the knee) and where it articulates with the acetabulum of the pelvis to form the hip joint are not present.” Several researchers claimed that Sahelanthropus was more chimp-like than human-like. Scripture tells us that God made mankind unique, created in his image, and there are no apelike ancestors in our family tree.

October—“35-Million-Year-Old” Mayfly Looks Astonishingly Like Living Mayflies

In October, we reported on a recent find of an allegedly 35-million-year-old insect trapped in amber. The insect so closely resembled modern mayflies, that the researchers were even able to identify the genus (Calliarcys) and gave this find a new species name, Calliarcys antiquus. But this species looks remarkably like other mayflies despite (supposedly) 35 million years of “evolution.”

November—Living Fossil Clams and Brain-Computer Interfaces

In November, we discussed the recent rediscovery of a tiny clam thought to be long extinct (supposedly between 28,000–36,000 years ago). But this presumed-extinct clam (Cymatioa cooki) turned up alive and well off the coast at Naples Point, near Santa Barbara, California. The identification was made when compared with fossil clams of the same species. Once again, no “evolution” had taken place in the supposed ~30 thousand years since the fossil clam had allegedly last lived.

Another November article by AiG speaker Patricia Engler discusses the questions Christians need to ask before using brain-computer interfaces. Patricia looked at the potential health and wellness benefits of these devices (helping paralyzed individuals accomplish many tasks simply by thinking, and greatly increasing vision, hearing, communication for the speech-impaired, and mobility, etc.). But she also examined the “dark side” of BCIs, such as government control, mind-reading, emotional manipulation, and even “brain hacking” or “hijacking.” Patricia summed up the article with a cautionary warning: “Then, in an age where ‘mind-reading’ is no longer a figure of speech, we can say yes to applications of BCIs which restore human flourishing, while calling for caution against applications which could undermine humanity.”

December—Sunblock?

All of this radical anthropogenic climate hysteria is based on an evolutionary worldview, but “when we properly understand the true history of the world (including a catastrophic global flood [and a much shorter YEC timeline]), we have a much better perspective on climate.”

In December, we looked at a proposed radical step in fighting climate change, blocking the sun. The proposal being considered would block some of the sun’s rays by spraying aerosols into the atmosphere to deflect sunlight. Even those associated with geoengineering readily admit that such “‘controversial’ experiments [which] can be ‘highly risky’ and produce ‘unintended consequences that ripple out all over the globe . . .’ that could ‘lead to a butterfly effect of disastrous events.’” Or as sci-fi fans might call it, the “Snowpiercer effect.” All of this radical anthropogenic climate hysteria is based on an evolutionary worldview, but “when we properly understand the true history of the world (including a catastrophic global flood [and a much shorter YEC timeline]), we have a much better perspective on climate.”

A Final Word

That wraps up our coverage of this year’s science news. As you can see from the long list above, 2022 was an exciting year for creation science! We look forward to more amazing confirmations of God’s handiwork as revealed in his creation—his incredible design of living things as well as corroborations of the Bible’s history as revealed by geology, astronomy, biology, and archaeology—in the year to come!