New Study Throws a Cloud on The Belief in Millions of Years

T. rex bone contained collagen.



Joel Kontinen

Can dinosaur proteins and soft tissue be preserved for tens of millions of years? Many researchers would think that it is impossible.

A fresh study confirmed that a Tyrannosaurus rex bone contained traces of proteins. This is causing a headache for those who believed dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago.

In 2007 researchers found collagen in the bone of a T. rex that was assumed to be 68 million years old. Skeptics believed it was due to contamination. They assumed that the collagen originated from other fossils in the laboratory where they were analysed.

Recently, Marshall Bern, Brett Phinney and David Goldberg analysed this T. rex bone by mass spectrometry, confirming that it had traces of hemoglobin and collagen. The study will be published in the September issue of the Journal of Proteonic Research.

According to Bern and his colleagues, at least some of the proteins were very likely original, stemming from the T. rex.

It is basically impossible for collagen to be preserved for 68 million years. Mainstream researchers are nevertheless reluctant to give up the belief in millions of years although several recent discoveries suggest that they never existed.

In addition, collagen was recently also discovered in a Hadrosaur assumed to be 80 million years old.


Sources:

Bern, Marshall, Brett S. Phinney ja David Goldberg. 2009. Reanalysis of Tyrannosaurus rex Mass Spectra. Journal of Proteonic Research.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/pr900349r

EurekAlert! 2009. Reexamination of T. rex verifies disputed biochemical remains. (29 July) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/acs-rot072909.php

More Dino Soft Tissue Found – This Time in Hadrosaur Bone

A new soft tissue find is good news for creationists. Hadrosaurs in the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum.



Joel Kontinen

Science reported on a new discovery of soft tissue and collagen in Hadrosaur bone.

In 2006 a research group led by Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University found soft tissue and collagen in a Tyrannosaurus rex leg bone. The discovery gave rise to much debate as many scientists found it hard to believe that collagen and soft tissue could be preserved for 68 million years.

Now Schweitzer’s group recovered collagen, haemoglobin, elastin and laminin in a Hadrosaur assumed to be 80 million years old.

AAAS (the publisher of Science) chose an interesting approach in reporting the find in its newsletter This Week in Science. The title focused on the dinosaur – bird connection. It was a bit difficult to guess what the story was about without actually reading the text.

The find makes it almost impossible to believe that dinosaurs could have lived millions of years ago. This might be the reason why Science introduced the bird connection.

A more pertinent approach would have been questioning how soft tissues and collagen could possibly have been preserved for 80 million years.

Nature and New Scientist, however, were more transparent in their choices of titles.

Sources:

Dalton, Rex. 2009. Age-defying dinosaur collagen. Nature News (30 April) http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090430/full/news.2009.422.html.

Hecht, Jeff. 2009. First dino ‘blood’ extracted from ancient bone. New Scientist (30 April) http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17060-first-dino-blood-extracted-from-ancient-bone.html

Schweitzer, Mary H., Wenxia Zheng, Chris L. Organ, Recep Avci, Zhiyong Suo, Lisa M. Freimark, Valerie S. Lebleu, Michael B. Duncan, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, John M. Neveu, William S. Lane, John S. Cottrell, John R. Horner, Lewis C. Cantley, Raghu Kalluri and John M. Asara. 2009. Biomolecular Characterization and Protein Sequences of the Campanian Hadrosaur B. canadensis. Science 324: 5927, 626 – 631 (1 May 2009).

Two Evolution Forums, Two Diametrically Opposed Conclusions

How old are we? New astonishing radiocarbon dates for dinosaur bones



Joel Kontinen

According to a common myth, Roman Catholics have no problem with believing in the Bible and believing in evolution. This might be the position taken by the evolution conference held at the Gregorian University in Rome. Sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, it excluded all scientists who are critical of Darwinian evolution.

However, earlier in February, another Catholic symposium on evolution was also held in Rome. The participants of the international symposium entitled “The Theory of Evolution: A Critical Analysis” (“La Teoria dell’ Evoluzione: Un Bilancio Critico”), were Catholic scientists, philosophers and historians. Many of them had earned doctorates.

Writing for the newsletter of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, a U.S. Catholic organisation that is critical of Darwinian evolution, Hugh Owen summarised some of the papers presented.

Guy Berthault, a sedimentologist, demonstrated that massive sedimentary formations could be formed “in a fraction of the time allocated to them by the conventional time scale.”

Dr. Jean de Pontcharra, who is a nuclear physicist, pointed out that radiometric dates for long ages were unreliable. He showed that the validity of the basic assumptions behind the methods was suspect.

Hugh Miller, a research chemist, disclosed interesting rabiocarbon dates for dinosaur collagen he and his co-authors, doctors Josef Holzschuh and Jean de Pontcharra, had obtained by using the accelerated mass spectrometer (AMS) method. They extracted collagen from dinosaur bones at the Glendive (MT) Dinosaur & Fossil Museum. The femur bones of both a Triceratops and a Hadrosaur contained collagen. The Triceratops was dated at 30,890 ± 380 radiocarbon years and the Hadrosaur at 23,170 ±170 years.

Interestingly, the remains of some animals such as mastodons that are known to have co-existed with modern man have yielded roughly similar dates.

The global flood in Noah’s day is the most likely cause of the dates not being even lower.

While carbon dates are not absolute, no dinosaur bone should in the evolution paradigm contain any radiocarbon. C-14 or radiocarbon is carbon’s unstable isotope that has a half life of 5 700 years so finding any radiocarbon in a 65 million year old dinosaur should in effect falsify the dogma of millions of years.

And that would mean saying goodbye to Darwinian evolution.

The proceedings of the symposium will later be published in both English and Italian.

Source:

Owen, Hugh. 2009. Traditional Catholic Forum. Newsletter of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation. http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/apologia/vpost?id=3347253&trail=14#4