Preserved Protein from 80-Million-Year-Old Hadrosaur

30 April 2009

Every one of your cells is like a miniature city where every building has a purpose. The cell contains data storage centers, manufacturing factories, transportation highways, and much much more. One of the buildings in the cell contains a very important feature, the self destruct button. Lysosomes in the cell are responsible for releasing the digestive enzymes. These enzymes are programmed only to be released for digesting food or other foreign particles unless the cell knows its time is up, in which case the cell starts digesting itself (lucky for evolutionists the control mechanism evolved at the same time as the digestive enzymes otherwise the first cells that evolved would have just digested themselves).

The digestion processing time of cells varies in length depending on the environment of the remains. We know it is possible to embalm bodies so they can last for decades and have soft tissue remain intact. This soft tissue in just the right conditions can last hundreds or even thousands of years, but the remains should never be able to survive for one million years.

In April of 2007 a T. rex bone (estimated to be 68-million-years-old) was discovered that contained soft tissues still intact. This was a shock for anyone that believes dinosaurs lived millions of years ago because the evidence of soft tissue would indicate the bones were not millions of years old. In summer of 2007 a (supposedly 80-million-year-old) Brachylophosaurus canadensis femur bone was discovered that was even better preserved than the T. Rex.

Good Science (Observable, measurable, repeatable)

The researchers were able to analyze the bones proteins, bone cells, and blood vessels to reveal the sequence of eight collagen peptides and 149 amino acids. This was done using a mass spectrometer to carefully weigh the mass of each amino acid in the chain to identify the sequence.

Bad Conclusion

“Study confirms previous findings and offers further evidence of bird-dinosaur evolution.”

149 amino acids is a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of differences between two members of even the same species. The sequence of a collagen peptide can not verify that one kind of animal turned into another kind of animal. If two animals were analyzed and the tests determined that they have the same collagen peptide sequence that still would not be sufficient evidence to conclude they were ever related. Similar collagen may be because the animals lived in similar environments and needed similar protection.

Science requires empirical, observable, measurable, repeatable experiments. Peptide sequencing is a part of science because it can be verified and retested. Evolution is not a part of science because no amount of observation in the present can factually conclude what happened in the past, unless... their was someone in the past that documented it. Perhaps a better conclusion would fit the biblical model that only a few thousand years ago a global flood rapidly buried the bones, preserving them for a more reasonable length of time where the enzymes would not destroy all the soft tissues.

http://www.bidmc.org/News/InResearch/2009/April/NewDinosaurStudy.aspx