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Dinosaur Soft Tissue + DNA

How soft tissue, DNA, and Carbon-14 in dinosaur remains confirm the Biblical account.

The Bible says that God created land animals on the same day He created man—the sixth day of creation. This means that according to the Bible dinosaurs (which were land animals) lived alongside human beings in recent history. In contrast, evolutionary theory separates man and dinosaurs by more than 65 million years. And despite this being the majority view today, believe-it-or-not real-world data contradicts this idea and supports the Biblical creation account instead. For example, one of the most startling discoveries that rocked the evolutionary world came when fellow evolutionary scientist Dr. Mary Schweitzer and her team found soft tissue in dinosaur bone that contained blood vessels, proteins, and even DNA! And well you don’t need to be a scientist to realize that soft tissue with such fragile and complex biological structures could not possibly last anywhere close to 65 million years.[1] In fact, realistically we shouldn’t even be counting in millions of years but rather in thousands. And radiocarbon dating confirms this timeframe because dinosaur remains have been found to contain Carbon-14.[2] And, without getting technical, anything that contains Carbon-14 can only have a possible age limit of 100,000 years.[3],[4] And, as I just said, that is only a maximum age. However Biblical considerations suggest an age of even much less than this.

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For example, a straightforward and plain reading of the Bible puts Creation at about 6,000 years ago with the global flood of Noah occurring approximately 1,500 years later. In this scenario, the rock layers containing dinosaur fossils as well as other petrified life forms was mostly formed as a result of this yearlong flood event. Which means that the dinosaur remains in question would date to the time of the flood—approximately 2,500 BC—and therefore would only be about 4,500 years old. But remember, some dinosaurs survived the flood on Noah’s ark and so could be even younger than this! And this Biblical age is perfectly consistent with the facts of science—the soft tissue discoveries and the presence of Carbon-14—but is devasting to the evolutionary millions-of-years scenario. Of course, secular scientists don’t accept these conclusions and as expected, they do their best to explain it away. But their proposed solutions don’t work. For example, regarding soft tissue they have attempted to come up with various ways that it could last 65 million years and beyond.[5] But even with the best preservation conditions such delicate biological structures could only last a small fraction of that time.[6],[7] And as far as the presence of Carbon-14 in dinosaur remains goes, they claim that the samples have been contaminated. In other words, they are saying that C-14 has somehow been added to the samples. But, as scientist Dr. Jonathan Sarfati points out, “Even if contamination were to blame, we should only expect contamination in the rare, isolated case. But in almost every single case where fossils are supposedly thought to be millions of years old, we find radiocarbon. Since radiocarbon in ancient bone is the norm, the ‘appeal to contamination’ amounts to special pleading. If almost every single case of ancient bone were contaminated, the radiocarbon method would be worthless as a radiometric technique. (Emphasis in original)”[8] Furthermore, Carbon-14 is also found in other ‘ancient’ things like diamonds.[9] And the thing about diamonds is that as the hardest substance on earth they are quite impervious to contamination.[10],[11],[12] So Carbon-14 remains a huge problem for secular scientists.

Hence, the scientific discoveries surrounding dinosaurs confirm that what the Bible tells us about them is true and accurate. The Bible continues to prove itself as trustworthy account of history.

Ryan Hembree is a daily co-host, speaker, and writer of Bible Discovery. He also hosts a YouTube channel that shows the unity of the Bible and how science and Scripture fit together. Ryan also has an honorary Masters of Ministry in Creation Science from Phoenix University of Theology.


[1] For a more in-depth study on this see Calvin Smith, Dinosaur Soft tissue, https://creation.com/dinosaur-soft-tissue
[2] Dr. Carl Wieland, Radiocarbon in Dino Bones, https://creation.com/c14-dinos
[3] Dr. Robert Carter, How Carbon Dating Works, https://creation.com/how-carbon-dating-works
[4] Dr. Andrew Snelling, Carbon-14 Dating, https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-14/carbon-14-dating/
[5] Many solutions have been proposed by secular scientists but have all been refuted by other secular scientists. These explanations include bacterial contamination (biofilm), biomineral adhesion, clay mineral adsorption model, iron preservation model, modern residual instrument contamination, Maillard reactions or ‘toast model’, and polymer shield. Dr. Jonathan Sarfati & Joel Tay, Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air, P.191.
[6] Dr. Jonathan Sarfati & Joel Tay, Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air, P.189-192.
[7] Calvin Smith, Dinosaur Soft tissue, https://creation.com/dinosaur-soft-tissue
[8] Dr. Jonathan Sarfati & Joel Tay, Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air, P.194.
[9] Dr. Andrew Snelling, Carbon-14 in Fossils and Diamonds, https://answersingenesis.org/geology/carbon-14/carbon-14-in-fossils-and-diamonds/
[10] Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, Diamonds: A Creationist’s Best Friend, https://creation.com/diamonds-a-creationists-best-friend#objections
[11] Joel Tay, Carbon-14 in diamonds: Refuting Talk.Origins, https://creation.com/carbon-14-diamonds-talkorigins
[12] Dr. Jonathan Sarfati & Joel Tay, Titans of the Earth, Sea, and Air, P.194.

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