January 31, 2025 | David F. Coppedge

Dinosaur Original Collagen Confirmed

Three methods have confirmed
the presence of intact collagen
fragments in a dinosaur hip bone

 

Breaking NewsA team of scientists from the University of Liverpool and UCLA have reported finding incontrovertible soft tissue in a dinosaur bone. They found collagen fragments in the sacrum bone of an exceptionally-preserved Edmontosaurus from the Hell Creek formation in South Dakota. A mass spectroscopist said, “This research shows beyond doubt that organic biomolecules, such as proteins like collagen, appear to be present in some fossils.Edmontosaurus was a duck-billed dinosaur that grew up to 50 feet long and weighed 9 tons.

Discovery of collagen in fossil bone could unlock new insights into dinosaurs (University of Liverpool, 31 Jan 2025). The University obtained a rock containing the hip bones from an excavation in 2019 of known provenance. The press release shows that the team at the University of Liverpool believes their work settles the controversial question of whether dinosaur soft tissue survives in fossils.

For many years, it was widely believed that fossils no longer contained any original organic molecules as the fossilization process was thought to destroy them.

However, a groundbreaking study, led by the University of Liverpool, has revealed strong evidence that Mesozoic fossils still preserve their original organic materials.

Using advanced mass spectrometry and other techniques, researchers identified preserved collagen remnants in the hip bone of an Edmontosaurus, a duck-billed dinosaur.

The findings not only help to resolve a long-standing scientific debate but also opens further avenues for studying ancient life, offering a glimpse into the biochemical preservation of fossils of extinct creatures.

Image from the paper showing multiple methods used to confirm collagen

Evidence for Endogenous Collagen in Edmontosaurus Fossil Bone (Tuinstra, Taylor et al., Analytical Chemistry, 17 Jan 2025). This is the formal paper on the discovery, published in a journal of the American Chemical Society. It tells how the team of seven scientists associated with the University of Liverpool and UCLA used a combination of methods to confirm the existence of original collagen in the dinosaur bone and to rule out alternative explanations such as contamination.

The presence of Hyp (hydroxyproline), a component of collagen, was detected by mass spectroscopy, proteomic sequencing and cross-polarized light microscopy (XPol). Fragmented pieces of collagen were sequenced, showing that the original molecules were degraded but still identifiable. The press release says,

Researchers from UCLA contributed to the study, using tandem mass spectrometry to detect and quantify—for the first time—the amino acid hydroxyproline, which is specific to collagen when found in bone, thus confirming the presence of decayed collagen.

By comparing sequences of proteins in bones from turkey, bovine, mastodon and chicken, the scientists found sequences unique to dinosaurs, and some common to all vertebrates. Similar sequences were found in another dinosaur. This rules out contamination and shows that they were looking at original biological proteins that were in the Edmontosaurus when it was alive.

It is probable that similar taxa (Brachylophosaurus and Edmontosaurus) had many proteins in common. For instance, two collagen alpha-1 (I) chain peptides (residue assignments 1–18 and 79–95) found in the Edmontosaurus were also discovered in the Brachylophosaurus both with modifications on the same prolines.  In total, five revealed polypeptides are assigned to Brachylophosaurus canadensis collagen alpha-1 (I) helix; a sixth one belongs to the collagen alpha-2 (I) helix of the same. These peptides, some unique to dinosaur, can therefore be regarded as confirmation of original endogenous collagen rather than contamination from any extant creature.

The paper concludes with this affirmation: “collagenous protein remnants in some dinosaur bones are original (endogenous) to the fossils and thus providing further evidence addressing this long-standing controversy in the scientific literature.”

One of the contributing authors is Brian Thomas of ICR. For this paper he was acting in association with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool. A majority of the authors are evolutionists (personal communication with Dr Thomas), so this peer-reviewed paper cannot be construed as a creationist product. The paper, furthermore, said nothing about the age of the fossils. Senior author Steve Taylor only said that “the findings inform the intriguing mystery of how these proteins have managed to persist in fossils for so long.” The burden is now on deep-time evolutionists to explain these results that have been obtained using standard scientific protocols for biomolecular identification.

While the paper does not question the age of the dinosaur bones, that issue certainly raises its head to the height of a Titanosaurus. How could anything biological remain if these bones were really over 65 million years old? Remember, too, that this is just one of many reports of original tissue in fossils that evolutionists claim are tens or hundreds of millions of Darwin Years old. See Brian Thomas’s list of 100 reports, and watch his presentation about soft tissues in fossils found on four continents (YouTube). Combined with geological evidences for youth on the Earth and throughout the solar system, it’s time for everyone to re-engage the debate over millions of years. Is it true, or just a notion desired and required by evolutionists?

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Comments

  • EberPelegJoktan says:

    How many more strikes can evolution take? Don’t you think evolutionists would get the hint? Factors from astronomy, biology, chemistry, genetics, geology, history and language limit the age of the earth. This article covers just one factor.

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