Creation Research Discovers more Original Material in Dinosaur Bone

[Originally published as the June/July 2024 Newsletter]

Research Update

I will enlarge no more on the evidence, but submit it to you. — Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams: December 4, 1770¹

As Creation Truth Foundation celebrates 35 years of ministry, we remain committed to our mission statement laid forth by Dr. G. Thomas Sharp to “train disciples to trust the Bible’s history for its accuracy so they will trust its promise for their destiny.” We have been charged to defend the perfect accuracy of the Biblical record, divinely revealed by our Creator God.²

To this end, we research and share the latest results and evidence from the many disciplines of study (paleontology, geology, biology, genetics, biochemistry, archeology, history, etc.). As expected, real observable, testable, repeatable, falsifiable science ALWAYS confirms the Word of God, and such was the case with recent laboratory observations conducted by CTF staff.

On March 30, 2021, Matt Miles and Bob Dugas were conducting an event in Libby, MT when Steve and Patty Johnson invited them to their home. Steve had worked throughout Montana and other northern states as a surveyor for the railroad. Through the years of surveying, he amassed quite a fossil collection of all sorts of creatures. Matt and Bob had a wonderful time examining several dinosaur fossils. As they were leaving the Johnson home, Matt was handed a box with three Edmontosaurus fossils in it. The Johnsons’ generous gift would be a great addition to our collection.

Two months later in Ponca City, OK, those fossils were on display with the rest of the CTF collection for an event with the Institute for Creation Research (ICR is based in Dallas, TX). As Bob and Ryan Cox were packing up, they were informed that Dr. Brian Thomas, an ICR scientist and good friend of our ministry, had taken the largest of the three Edmontosaurus fossils. Dr. Thomas, who earned his PhD in paleobiochemistry from the University of Liverpool (UK) and specializes in original biomaterial in fossils,³  hoped to extract a sample and examine it for original biomaterial, specifically collagen. We were excited about this possibility and awaited the opportunity to conduct the procedure in a laboratory.

Vertebrates (animals with backbones) contain several types of collagen, with the most prevalent being Type I, comprising over 90% of organic bone matrix and 80% of total proteins in bones.⁴ Upon death, collagen, as with all organic compounds, begins to decay away. Scientists admit that collagen and other protein molecules decay at fast rates and cannot last more than 4 million years.^5,6 Yet, it is frequently and consistently found in dinosaur fossils, even in “eight dinosaur bones from the Cretaceous period, none of which are exceptionally preserved.”⁷

How is there such an abundance of original biomaterial in fossils that are supposed to be tens or hundreds of millions of years old in an evolutionary worldview, when the biomaterials cannot last that long according to their research?

To make matters worse for evolutionists, the calculated decay rate of peptides (short protein segments), such as those found in collagen locked in bone, indicates they should be completely gone in less than 30,000 years if kept in optimum cool and dry conditions; otherwise, it will all be gone sooner!^8,9 Additionally, Dr. Thomas has published with other scientists two peer-reviewed articles in secular journals demonstrating an even faster rate of collagen decay!^10,11

If the evolutionary mythos were true, there should not be any original biomaterial in any dinosaur or other fossils believed to be millions of years old; it is scientifically impossible according to observational science. Rather, if the biblical record is true of creation 6,000 years ago and the Global Flood 4,300 years ago (in which billions of animals would have been buried and fossilized all over the planet), then it is scientifically possible that original biomaterial might be present according to observational science.

On March 22, 2024, Matt Miles, Ryan Cox, and Ryan’s 13-year-old son Justus were joined by Dr. Thomas and lab technicians Julie Hastings and Clayton Turner to test the Edmontosaurus fossil at the Dinosaur Discovery Lab in the Creation Evidence Museum of Glen Rose, TX.¹² It was such a special occasion as Dr. and Mrs. Sharp also made the trip to join us for the momentous day.

The previous day was spent by Matt, Ryan, and Justus familiarizing themselves with and practicing performing the lab procedures required to extract and examine a fossil specimen. Then on Friday, Dr. Thomas assisted as Matt drilled into the fossil for extraction, Matt, Ryan, and Justus prepared the microscope slides, and everyone, including Dr. Sharp, examined the specimens through a microscope using polarized light microscopy.

Microscopy permits certain wavelengths of light to pass through a filter and the sample. By rotating the sample (called cross-polarizing), it permits other wavelengths to pass through if there is material in the sample that is “birefringent.” In a bone sample, collagen is birefringent, meaning it will refract the filtered light waves, changing colors when rotating the sample. If collagen is not present, the sample will not change colors.

When this was done with the newly prepared slides, the samples from our Edmontosaurus fossil changed from gold to a teal color, meaning original collagenous material is present in the fossil! Also, clearly defined dark spots (called lacunae) with little tentacles (called dendritic processes) indicated the presence of numerous bone cells called osteocytes.

Human bones contain roughly 42 billion osteocytes. The calculated half-life of their decay upon death is 25 years.¹³ When one does the math, after 1,000 years there should not be any detectable osteocytes under present-day conditions. For fossils created and preserved by the conditions of the Flood, it is possible to see evidence of osteocytes still present after 4,300 years, but not after millions of years. The lab techs noted they had never seen that many highly defined lacunae (where osteocytes are found) in a fossil sample!

Today, the fossil, slides, and microscope pictures and videos are being displayed and presented at almost every CTF event.

Matt and Ryan are able to share with audiences across the country this incredible, scientifically observable evidence acquired in a laboratory under the supervision of a PhD paleobiochemist who declares dinosaur fossils are thousands instead of millions of years old, confirming the Bible’s history! Whatever may be the wishes, inclinations, or dictates of the passions of evolutionists, “they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence,” as John Adams reminded the court.

Rather, “facts are stubborn things,” and for 35 years it has been, still is, and always shall be the solid conviction and bold proclamation of Creation Truth Foundation that “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17).

Special thanks to Dr. Carl Baugh, Julie Hastings, and Clayton Turner of the Dinosaur Discovery Lab at the Creation Evidence Museum for the use of their time and facilities and to Dr. Brian Thomas for taking the time to join and guide us in a day of discovery, through which God continues to be glorified.

Footnotes

1. “Adams’ Argument for the Defense: 3–4 December 1770,” Founders Online, National Archives.
2. II Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed…”
3. Dr. Thomas’s book Ancient and Fossil Bone Collagen Remnants is available in David Rives Ministries’ bookstore and our online bookstore.
4. Morten Karsdal, Biochemistry of Collagens, Laminins and Elastin: Structure, Function and Biomarkers, 2nd ed., Academic Press: London, 2019, p. 1.
5. N. Rybczynski. et al., “Mid-Pliocene warm-period deposits in the High Arctic yield insight into camel evolution”, Nature Communications 4, 1550 (2013).
6. M. Schweitzer, et al., “A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time”, Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281,  20132741 (2014).
7. S. Bertazzo, et al., “Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens”, Nature Communications 6, 7352 (2015).
8. B. Thomas, “How Long Can Cartilage Last?”, Institute for Creation Research, 29 October 2010.
9. J. Berg, et al., Biochemistry, 8th ed., W.H. Freeman and Co., New York: 2015, p. 253.
10. B. Thomas and S. Taylor, “Proteomes of the Past: The Pursuit of Proteins in Paleontology”, Expert Review of Proteomics 16 (11-12), 2019: 881-895.
11. B. Thomas, et al., “Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR FT-IR) Spectroscopy Sensitivity to the Thermal Decay of Bone Collagen”,  Applied Spectroscopy 77 (1): 53-61.
12. CreationEvidence.org
13. L. Bonewald, “The Role of the Osteocyte in Bone and Nonbone Disease”, Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics of North America 46 (1), March 2017:1-18.