The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. just finished a five-year renovation of its dinosaur hall at a cost of around $110 million.¹ The renovated exhibit opened to the public on June 8, 2019. Naturally, the television news segment made the usual references to “millions of years” and the supposed evolutionary history of life on Earth.

The scientific literature contains over 100 examples of original biomaterials in fossils.¹ These include a few decades’ worth of reports, using at least a few dozen independent techniques to target specific vertebrate biochemicals—such as the hardy protein collagen.

“I can’t picture a three-dimensional school of fish sinking to the bottom and maintaining all their relative positions,” said Dr. Plotnick, paleontologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “That makes no sense to me.”¹