Posted on 10/28/2013 8:45:36 AM PDT by fishtank
Bloody Mosquito Fossil Supports Recent Creation
by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
Scientists recently found blood remnants in a mosquito fossil trapped in a supposed 46-million-year-old rock.1 Could blood really last that long?
Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers reported that they detected iron three times inside the fossil mosquito's abdomen, which strongly suggests the presence of still-fresh hemoglobin. They also confirmed the presence of heme groups (vitamin-like porphyrin molecules found in hemoglobin) only inside the abdomen, where living female mosquitos store the blood from their meals. The study authors wrote, "The combination of these two determinations indicates that the porphyrins are derived from the oxygen-carrying heme moiety of hemoglobin."1
No scientific evidence supports the assertion that heme groups can last, even under circumstances that would maximize their preservation, for one million, let alone tens of millions of years. In fact, all longevity studies of biomolecules like hemoglobin, DNA, and collagen show decay rates in ranges that show total sample disintegration in a matter of months to a maximum of several hundred thousand years—assuming reasonable Earth surface temperatures.2
Fundamental physical laws describe how highly organized systems like proteins constantly decay unless an outside agency—like an engineer or a robot—maintains them. The PNAS study did not explain how hemoglobin could defy these basic laws.
The study authors wrote, "The data reported herein provide incontrovertible documentation of the presence of heme and arguably hemoglobin-derived porphyrins in a 46-million-year-old compression fossil and localize the porphyrins to a specific anatomical structure within that fossil."1
Though they provided incontrovertible documentation for blood remnants, without something like a time machine, science cannot directly measure these ages.
They seemed to have overlooked more than just the fossil's blood remnants when assigning this age. The Kishenehn Formation also contains oil. Like blood's heme molecules, organic oils should have completely degraded long ago—if these rocks are indeed 46 million years old—especially considering how voracious oil-eating bacteria can be.3
Authors of a 1987 study wrote, "Average total organic carbon contents…in the Kishenehn Formation exceed 6%," meaning that over six percent of the material in the formation has organically-derived carbon. Unaltered, original plant molecules were found in the oil. "Specific molecular markers are present in these samples, including several suites of diagenetic [partly altered by burial and age] steroidal hydrocarbons. Land-plant molecular input [e.g., chlorophyll] suggests nearshore deposition for the southernmost samples," according to the same study.4
Even if bacteria were somehow excluded from this oil, it would still have fizzled into smaller inorganic forms like carbon dioxide long before 46 million years elapsed. But both the presence of blood and oil give evidence of a recent creation.
Secular science will continue to struggle with force-fitting findings into evolutionary schemes, but a recent Flood easily accommodates blood elements in fossils like this once hungry mosquito.5
References
Greenwalt, D. E. et al. Hemoglobin-derived porphyrins preserved in a Middle Eocene blood-engorged mosquito. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Published online before print October 14, 2013.
Thomas, B. 2013. A Review of Original Tissue Fossils and Their Age Implications. In Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Creationism. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship.
Clarey, T. 2013. Oil, Fracking, and a Recent Global Flood. Acts & Facts. 42 (10): 14-15.
Curiale, J. A. and S. W. Sperry. 1987. Regional Source Rock Potential of Kishenehn Formation, Northwest Montana. Search and Discovery Article #91038. American Association of Petroleum Geologists. AAPG Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, June 7-10.
Thomas, B. Are Iceman Blood Cells Really the Oldest? Creation Science Update. Posted on icr.org June 13, 2012, accessed October 21, 2013.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on October 25, 2013.
ICR article image.
This image provided by the Smithsonian Institution shows a fossilized female mosquito in a paper-thin piece of shale. The 46 million year-old insect drew blood in its last meal, was blown into a lake in what is now northwestern Montana and sank, belly still full. It's a first for biology, a blood meal found intact in a fossil. (AP Photo/Smithsonian Institution, Dale Greenwalt)
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-10-ancient-bug-supper-blood-fossil.html#jCp
Wait a minute...we got T-Rexes AND Raptors...?
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Science and The Bible are ultimately relatable to each other.
This Institute is more of an institution.
Oh Nooooos you mean we didn’t evolve from amoebas 100 million years ago?
That’s right, we evolved from simple cells (prokaryotes) some 3.6 billion years ago, give or take a couple hundred million years.
No, more like 4,200 to 4,600 million years ago or longer.
The creationist article is nonsense, because it takes and misrepresents the science with false statements. The blood inside the insect is decomposed into lesser organic molecules, and those molecules can persist under the right conditions, particularly anoxic conditions.
LMAO!!! :-)
I'm pretty sure the iron (which is what they say they've detected) does, and will still be iron long after anything that could arguably be called "blood" is long gone.
drew blood in its last meal, was blown into a lake in what is now northwestern Montana and sank, belly still full. It’s a first ......”
and did not decay??
Quick evolutionist make up an excuse!!!!!!
(sarc)
Secular science will continue to struggle with force-fitting findings into evolutionary schemes, but a recent Flood easily accommodates blood elements in fossils like this once hungry mosquito..”
Like rapid burial several thousand years ago?
trapped in stone, not amber, and (unfortunately for Jurassic Park enthusiasts) it’s not old enough to be filled with dinosaur blood. But it is the first time we’ve found a fossilized mosquito with blood in its belly.
They are calling it blood
We have found many many examples of fine specimens of insects and leaves which have fallen into lakes and been burred in sediments so quickly that they do not decay. There is an excellent locality near my home in Florisant, Colorado where a lake was filled with volcanic ash approximately 40 million years ago. There are fossils of giant redwood and Sequoia trees that no longer live there as well as insects which are extinct, all quite well preserved because they were buried in ash sediments in low oxygen circumstances.
yes, and the same thing happen at Mt St Helens (maybe on a smaller scale)
I wish I lived so close to a rich fossil producing sight.
It must be fun to go hunting in that area.
The article described how the insect underwent partial decay, so it is a falsification to misrepresent anyone said there was no decay at all. The insect was preserved at the bottom of a lake in shale. This suggests the water was anoxic, without the Oxygen required to oxidise the organic hydrocarbon compounds and fully decompose the organism or provide the environment for other organisms to consume the dead insect. Under such conditions, organic matter can persist without full decomposition for untold millions, tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of years.
It remains to be seen how much longer than hundreds of millions of years such organic material can remain intact in part when preserved in the cold vacumn of space, especially if shielded by rock against radiation exposure.
They're calling it "fossilized blood". ICR is calling it "still-fresh hemoglobin". Looks like a little "bait and switch" sensationalism to entertain the choir.
Wishful thinking on our part. Try doing it the hard way by actually collecting the physical evidence, instead of making up false evidence and false conclusions.
There are several areas near us like that. One is an exposure of shallow lake sediments laid bare by a collapsed volcanic caldera. Another is another lake buried by volcanic ash up near Vernal, Utah.
I don’t know, but somebody stop that dinosaur DNA research from fossilized mosquito blood before they kill us all - especially the Raptors...or at east keep those electric fences working...
It takes more faith to believe in species jumping (no evidence) than it does in creation (evidence of intelligent design is everywhere).
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