Marine Reptile Found With Intact Skin

Scientists at Lund University say, “Remarkably preserved fossil sea reptile reveals skin that is still soft.”

An ichthyosaur (a type of marine reptile thought to have died out with the dinosaurs), if it could talk, would boast, ‘I’m young! Feel my soft skin.’

But watch how evolutionists distract attention from the main thing – the apparent youth of the fossil. Their evolutionary worldview obligates them to keep this fossil with the mythical Darwin timeline. The opening paragraph in the press release from Lund University could be considered a model of confabulatory obfuscation:

The remains of an 180 million-year-old ichthyosaur (literally ‘fish-lizard’) have been analysed, and the fossil is so well-preserved that its soft-tissues retain some of their original pliability. The study, published in Nature, contributes to our understanding on how convergent evolution works, and shows that ichthyosaurs adapted to marine conditions in a way that is remarkably similar to that of modern whales.

So many propaganda tactics are packed into those two sentences, Darwin inductees should study them for practice.

• “180 million-year-old” – argument by assertion. Do not question. Accept.
• “have been analyzed” – by whom? Note how the passive voice verb dodges responsibility.
• “contributes to our understanding” – euphemism for ‘makes us cry.’
• “how convergent evolution works” – asserts that it works, not whether it works.
• “ichthyosaurs adapted” – euphemism for ‘evolved by the Stuff Happens Law.’
• “remarkably similar to whales” – lulls the reader into accepting that whales evolved, too.

With these methods, evolutionists commandeer the readers’ attention, dragging them into the evolutionary mindset. Actually, though, the evidence should make evolutionists cry, because there’s no way soft skin can survive for 180 million Darwin Years!

Fossilized skin forming the trailing edge of the right pelvic fin (Image: Johan Lindgren)

The surprised looks on their faces betray them. Here are some quotes from the article:

• [Figure caption] Spectacular soft-tissue fossil… Cells, cellular organelles and original biomolecules have been discovered in preserved soft parts…
• Among other things, the study reveals that the soft parts have fossilised so quickly that both the original cells and their internal contents are preserved.
• “You can clearly see both the body outline and remains of internal organs. We can even distinguish the different cellular layers within the skin”, explains Johan Lindgren.
• The researchers identified blubber underneath the skin. To date, such specialized fat-laden tissue has only been found in modern marine mammals and adult individuals of the leatherback sea turtle.
• The team also examined remains of the animal’s liver, which included part of the original biochemistry (e.g., eumelanin pigment and haemoglobin residues).
• “It’s truly remarkable that the biomolecules we discovered so closely match the tissues that we could identify”, says Johan Lindgren.
• In the study, the researchers also succeeded in showing that the fossil contains tissues that still retain some of their original pliability, even though 180 million years have passed since the material was fresh.
• Not only do the results provide insights into the biology, physiology and ecology of derived ichthyosaurs, they also show how little we know about the fossilisation process and what can actually be preserved in the fossil record.

Comparison between artificially matured modern porpoise integument and fossil ichthyosaur blubber. To the left, cross-section through porpoise skin and blubber before decay experiments. In the centre, side (top) and internal (bottom) views of heat- and pressure-treated porpoise integument (note severe reduction of the blubber layer). To the right, side (top) and internal (bottom) views of fossilized ichthyosaur skin and blubber. Image: Johan Lindgren and Martin Jarenmark.

This is a spectacular fossil that should overturn moyboy beliefs in an instant. Original cells! Internal contents! Original biochemistry! Get real. How can they say, “180 million years have passed since the material was fresh”? No! Original biochemistry could not survive a tiny fraction of that time. No wonder they say that the remains “also show how little we know about the fossilisation process” – how’s that for an understatement. Make it easy: drop the millions of years down to a few thousand.

But since that would overturn evolutionism in one blow, Darwin worshipers use distraction, assertions, euphemisms and other propaganda tactics to persuade the unwary that this “contributes to our understanding on how convergent evolution works.” (Convergent evolution is a version of the Stuff Happens Law that claims that stuff happens in the same way sometimes, like lightning striking the same place.) With ample Darwin Flubber applied, there is no evidence that cannot be whitewashed to cover up flaws in evolutionary thinking. That is the farthest thing from “understanding” the evidence.

This is not the only case of dinosaur-era soft tissue. At ICR, Brian Thomas reported on a dozen soft tissues in an Edmontosaurus specimen. Many other “spectacular” cases of soft tissue have been reported here and at other creation news sites, with references to secular journals where they were reported.