Cornified skin is the top layer of skin (epidermis) and is composed of dead skin cells that are tightly packed together and thickened. This is the Creator’s way of protecting people and animals against sharp objects and solar radiation.

In 2020, scientists discovered multiple foot and belly prints made by unidentified creatures in rock allegedly hundreds of millions of years old (Permian). These include three different diadectid (an extinct family of reptiles) trackways. According to evolutionary theory, these prints go all the way back to “early tetrapods” and suggests that “the ability to form cornified skin appendages is not unique to terrestrial vertebrates” and that “there was a common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes that had corneous scales.”¹

Evolutionists writing in Biology Letters addressed this discovery, stating, “the possibility has to be considered that the evolutionary origin of epidermal scales deeply roots among anamniotes [a group comprising all amphibians and fish].”²

In other words, long before the ancestors of mammals and reptiles supposedly split from amphibians, there was fossil evidence of cornified skin, and “this raises the still unresolved question of whether the ability to form corneous skin appendages is an apomorphy [a specialized trait or character that is unique to a group] of a common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes or evolved independently in both groups.”² The reader is straight-jacketed into interpreting the physical evidence based on deep time and bizarre evolution theory.

But this evolutionary progression never happened,³ and there is another way to interpret the fossil evidence of cornified skin.⁴ The better explanation is that amphibians and amniotes were created with corneous skin appendages about 6,000 years ago.

The Phys.org article asserted that, “The creatures that made the prints lived before the ancestors of reptiles and mammals split from amphibians.”¹ Since there was never any split of mammals and reptiles from amphibians,^5,6 these cornified impressions were very probably made by amphibians or diadectids. Indeed, Yirka reported, “Prior research has also found that some amphibians can form these appendages as well,”¹ while Voigt et al. stated, “The traces can be unambiguously attributed to diadectids and are interpreted as the globally first evidence of horned scales in tetrapods close to the origin of amniotes.”²

The fact that there are clear impressions in sedimentary rock indicates rapid and perhaps catastrophic factors were involved—such as a flood.⁷ The former president of ICR, John Morris, discussed such “ancient” sedimentary rock impressions.

If such a mark is exposed on any surface, under water or above water, it will soon erode and be washed away, especially in soft, unconsolidated sediments. Even on a hard rock surface, markings will erode in a few decades. There is no possibility that fragile features will last if unprotected for millions of years, waiting to be re-submerged and buried, and thus protected from destructive forces. We cannot determine exactly how much time passed between the deposition of two adjacent layers simply by looking at ripple marks, raindrop impressions, animal footprints, etc., but we can conclude that much less time passed than it takes for surface features to be eroded and disappear.⁸

Whether amphibians or amniotes, the rocks record in Flood sediments deposited thousands of years ago that creatures with cornified skin were present from the beginning.

References

1. Yirka, B. Discovery of Ancient Rock Impression Suggests Ability to Form Cornified Skin Goes Back to Early Evolution of Tetrapods. Phys.org. Posted on phys.org May 28, 2024.
2. Voigt, S. et al. 2024. A Diadectid Skin Impression and Its Implications for the Evolutionary Origin of Epidermal Scales. Biology Letters. 20 (5).
3. Sherwin, F. Where Paleontology Fails, Paleo-Robots Avail. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org November 25, 2024.
4. Morris, H. True Science. Days of Praise. Posted on ICR.org October 10, 1995.
5. Tomkins, J. 2021. The Fossils Still Say No: The Fins-to-Feet Transition. Acts & Facts. 50 (3): 10–13.
6. Denton, M. 2016. Section 9.1 The Tetrapod Limb. In Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis. Seattle, WA: Discovery Institute Press.
7. Sherwin, F. Fossil Amphibian Footprints. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org April 13, 2023.
8. Morris, J. 2008. Surface Features Require Rapid Deposition. Acts & Facts. 37 (12): 13.

* Dr. Sherwin is a news writer at the Institute for Creation Research. He earned an M.A. in invertebrate zoology from the University of Northern Colorado and received an honorary doctorate of science from Pensacola Christian College.