The oldest recovered biomolecules have been found in crinoid fossils – but are they really that old?
A trio of Ohio State researchers, publishing in Geology, described intact biological molecules in crinoids they found in Carboniferous strata in Ohio. Rather than question the ability of fossils to maintain biological molecules for 350 million years, they used the evidence as support for evolution:
Results suggest that the preservation of diagnostic organic molecules is much more common that previously realized, and that preserved organic molecules may provide an independent method to unravel phylogenetic relationships among echinoderms and, perhaps, other fossilized organisms.
The press release from Ohio State shows the crinoids (sea lilies) in situ in the rock, clearly distinguishable by color. Analysis of the material in the colored specimens suggests that the molecules are quinones, used by the animals for coloration or as toxins to deter predators.
“When a crinoid dies, the tissue will start to decay, but calcite will precipitate into the pores, and calcite is stable over geologic time,” the article claimed. “Thus, organic matter may become sealed whole within the rock.” The researchers did not watch the organic matter for that long, though, to see if it is empirically true, nor did they explain how the pores would remain sealed through hundreds of millions of years of asteroid strikes, earthquakes, and other catastrophes.
It’s uncanny how these people never ever question the time scale. They can’t. It would be their undoing. “Geologic time” must remain a Law of the Misdeeds and Perversions that cannot be altered. An earth even one third or one fourth as old as claimed would lead to the collapse of the quaint Victorian myth they hold so dear. But when miracles of time and chance multiply in the evolutionary scenario, it becomes indistinguishable from any other human-concocted creation myth. Creation accounts with an Eyewitness are vastly superior. Do you know of more than one?