Origins Breakthrough of 2009: Paleontology | The Institute for Creation Research

Origins Breakthrough of 2009: Paleontology

Every year brings new scientific discoveries that shed light on the past. The Institute for Creation Research is dedicated to the scientific study of origins from a biblical perspective, and ICR News has compiled what we consider to be the top 4 findings related to origin studies from the stories we reported in 2009. This first installment will feature breakthrough studies in the field of paleontology, with breakthroughs from biological evolution, geology, and cosmology to follow.

Soft Tissue Finds in Fossils Show That Sedimentary Rocks Must Be Young.

Evolution is founded on the concept of long ages in which living organisms gradually emerged and then morphed into ever-more-diverse forms. For this scenario to be true, earth’s strata, along with the fossils they contain, must reflect millions of years. But fresh tissue found in fossilized remains has called into question this interpretation of earth history.

One example is an “80-million year-old” hadrosaur’s remains that were collected in 2007 and extensively investigated in order to show to a staunchly skeptical scientific community that dinosaur remains can indeed contain soft, flexible blood vessels. The study, published in 2009 in Science, even sequenced collagen protein and detected other proteins that were still intact, shocking specialists who have observed that these same proteins decay within mere weeks in laboratories.1

Several other soft tissue finds were published in 2009, but perhaps the most remarkable was an entire preserved salamander. Its intact muscle tissue was compared to that of a living salamander, and they looked remarkably similar.2 Based on evolution’s deep time assumptions, researchers claimed the salamander find was 18 million years old. But meat rots quickly, even when preserved in sealed containers. How did this salamander muscle survive for 18 million years?

Not only has fresh tissue been found, but some microbes have been found still alive in earth materials, such as “ancient” yeast that was successfully used in a brewery. When scientists resuscitated a culture of brewer’s yeast that was extracted from its amber chamber, doubts about the assigned age of that amber were also awakened. After a supposed 45-million-year entombment, how could these cells have avoided the poison of their own metabolic waste while contained in such tight quarters?3

No doubt 2010 will see even more fresh tissue discoveries that throw doubt on the great ages assigned to sedimentary layers. Stay tuned to ICR News for further developments.

References

  1. Thomas, B. Hadrosaur Soft Tissues Another Blow to Long-Ages Myth. ICR News. Posted on icr.org May 12, 2009, reporting on research published in Schweitzer, M. H. et al. 2009. Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. Canadensis. Science. 324 (5927): 626-631.
  2. Thomas, B. Fresh Salamander Tissue Found in Solid Rock. ICR News. Posted on icr.org December 11, 2009, reporting on research published in McNamara, M., et al. Organic preservation of fossil musculature with ultracellular detail. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Published online before print October 14, 2009.
  3. Thomas, B. ‘45-Million-Year-Old’ Brewer’s Yeast Still Works. ICR News. Posted on icr.org August 17, 2009, reporting on the research work of Raul Cano as featured in Biba, E. Gallery: The Making of a Prehistoric Brew. Wired Science. Posted on Wired.com July 31, 2009.

Image credit: The Royal Society (Photo used here pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 107)

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on January 5, 2010.

The Latest
NEWS
Secular Paper Admits ''Unreasonable Likelihood'' of Abiogenesis
A recent popular science article begins with the words, “A new study published in July 2025 tackles one of science’s most profound mysteries...

NEWS
September 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What...

ACTS & FACTS
Pervasive Genome Functionality Destroys the Myth of Junk DNA
In 2001, the first rough draft of the human genome was published in a collaborative effort between private industry and the public sector.1,2...

NEWS
Happy Labor Day 2025
“For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:9) Labor Day was...

ACTS & FACTS
The Age of Reptiles Myth
We hear about the Age of Reptiles, also called the Age of Dinosaurs, almost as early as we can understand the idea. Even kindergarteners might be taught...

ACTS & FACTS
The Tiktaalik Missing Link Myth
In 2004, the paleontological community—and the world—was presented with what many evolutionists considered to be a dyed-in-the-wool missing...

ACTS & FACTS
Archaeopteryx, Myth of a Transitional Fossil
In 1860, one year after the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a wonderfully preserved fossil feather was discovered in...

ACTS & FACTS
Busting the Myth about Lucy
by Brian Thomas, Ph.D., and Chris Rupe, Ph.D.* Most folks consider our ape ancestry as established science, with Lucy as the main link. However,...

ACTS & FACTS
Evolutionary Vestigial Features: Worse Than Myth, a Scam
Due to teachers’ influence during the formative years of young people’s lives, they can be a powerful force in spreading evolution to new...

ACTS & FACTS
Blind Cavefish Unmask the Convergent Evolution Myth
Within the ever-expanding theory of evolution, there is a system of specialized language designed to identify each major interpretative concept. Some...