Newly found squid ink suggests that the assumed millions of years never existed. Image of a modern-day squid courtesy of Hans Hillewaert, Wikipedia.
Joel Kontinen
Palaeontologists have found fossilized squid ink in England. The one-inch (2.5 cm) long black ink sac of a fossil assumed to be 150 million years old was well preserved.
The ink is as good as new. The researchers used it to draw a picture of the squid. They also used the ink to write the squid's Latin name Belemnotheutis antiquus.
Dr. Phil Wilby of the British Geological Survey said that the animal closely resembles modern squids. He suggests its preservation is an enigma. ”It is difficult to imagine how you can have something as soft and sloppy as an ink sac fossilized in three dimension, still black, and inside a rock that is 150 million years old,” he said.
According to the researchers, the probability of finding a fossilized ink sac is one in a billion. The new discovery joins dinosaur soft tissue and C-14 found in diamonds to challenge belief in millions of years.
The squid fossil shows signs of rapid burial, suggesting it met its end in a catastrophe such as Noah’s Flood. In addition, it shows no signs of evolution.
Sources:
BBC News. 2009. Ink found in Jurassic-era squid. (19 August)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/wiltshire/8208838.stm
Derbyshire, David. 2009. 155million years old and still inky: The perfectly preserved squid fossil amazing scientists. Mail Online (19 August) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1207367/The-150million-year-old-squid-fossil-perfectly-preserved-scientists-make-ink-ink-sac.html
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