Ten
years ago, anyone--scientist or otherwise--claiming to have discovered
soft (i.e., unfossilized) dinosaur tissue would have been ridiculed and
dismissed by the scientific community as a quack or a young-earth
creationist. Yet within the last decade have come two such crushing
blows to the idea that dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago.
The
first was the discovery of unfossilized dinosaur tissue at the center
of a T. Rex bone by Mary Schweitzer of North Carolina State University.
That discovery--and, specifically, papers published by Schweitzer and
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center scientist John Asara--started an
intense debate about whether the bones truly contained dinosaur tissue
(see News to Note, August 2, 2008, item #2)
Now Asara and
Schweitzer have supported their previous find by confirming the
existence of proteins in the soft tissues of a hadrosaur, a duck-billed
dinosaur allegedly from 80 million years ago. Their new study, reported
in Science, shows that "our T. rex discovery was not a unique
occurrence," said Asara, who continued:
"This is the second
dinosaur species we've examined and helps verify that our first
discovery was not just a one-hit wonder. Our current study was the
collaborative effort of a number of independent laboratories, whose
findings collectively add up to a robust conclusion."
According
to Asara, the team found nearly twice the number of amino acids that
were found in the T. rex tissue. The fragments "showed marked
preservation of original tissues and molecules, with microstructures
resembling soft, transparent vessels, cells and fibrous matrix,"
despite the fact that the fossil was found buried some 23 feet (7 m)
deep in sandstone. The proteins the team confirmed were collagen,
laminin, and elastin, as well amino acids including hydroxylated
proline.
(Answers In Genesis, News to Note, Item 1).
[The Berean Call:
For tissue to remain soft after allegedly being fossilized for 80
million years is certainly a "mystery," as paleobiologist Mary H.
Schweitzer notes: "The precise recipe of environmental conditions that
lead to such molecular preservation is still a mystery, Schweitzer
says. However, she notes, the team's research suggests that the sudden
burial of a dinosaur carcass in a porous, sandy material seems be one
key to such exceptional fossilization."
"Porous"
means that liquids may pass through a substance. That would hardly be
key to explaining how moisture would remain after 80 million years. In
other words, it remains after 80 million years of dehyrdration. That
isn't a "mystery," it is an "impossibility." Consequently, it is much
simpler to conclude that 80 million years have not elapsed.]
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