"The Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum put out this press release:
previous amazing finds at the site, this discovery struck the scientists by surprise. Gerald Mayr, ornithologist for the institute, remarked,”The discovery is one of the most astonishing examples of soft part preservation in animals. It is extremely rare for something like this to be preserved for such a long time.” It’s astonishing because paleontologists know that “The organic materials that the soft parts consist of usually decompose within decades, or even just a few years.” And yet the lipids analyzed from the sample have kept their chemical composition for 48 million Darwin Years. How?
...but the foolishness of fools is folly.
Proverbs 14:24
As a rule, soft parts do not withstand the ravages of time; hence, the majority of vertebrate fossils consist only of bones. Under these circumstances, a new discovery from the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Messel Pit” near Darmstadt in Germany comes as an even bigger surprise: a 48-million-year old skin gland from a bird, containing lipids of the same age. The oldest lipids ever recorded in a fossil vertebrate were used by the bird to preen its plumage.The Messel Pit has yielded some of the best-preserved fossils in the world. Even in the context of
To date, it is not clear why the lipids from the uropygial gland were able to survive for so long. It is possible that hey hardened into nore [sic, more] decomposition-resistant waxes under exclusion of oxygen. In addition, the researchers assume that one of the properties of the preen oil played a role that is still shown by modern birds today – its antibacterial components. They may have been the reason that after the bird’s death only few bacteria were able to settle in, preventing the full-on decomposition.Clearly, they don’t know. They’re only offering suggestions. Nobody has ever experienced 48 million years. “Decades, or even just a few years” are within human experience, and those have been sufficient to show that organic materials in soft parts decompose quickly. Even with mitigating circumstances to slow down the decay, can they overcome it for tens of millions of years?" CEH
...but the foolishness of fools is folly.
Proverbs 14:24
