TREE AMBER CONTAINS SEA SHELLS, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and Science Alert 13 May 2019, and PNAS 13 May doi: 10.1073/pnas.1821292116. An international team of scientists has used CT scanning to identify a large number of fossilised creatures trapped in a piece of Burmese amber. Amber is fossilised tree resin and often contains remains of small creatures. This specimen has 40 ‘fossil’ individuals including mites, spiders, millipedes, cockroaches, beetles, flies, and wasps, all of which live in forests and are commonly found in amber. However, scientists were surprised to find several sea creatures in the mix; sea snails and a juvenile ammonite which is an extinct sea creature similar to a modern-day nautilus. Researchers were puzzled as to how sea creatures could be preserved in tree resin, so have made three suggestions: resin dripped onto a beach from trees growing on the coast; a tsunami swept seawater into a forest; or a tropical storm picked up shells and blew them into a forest. The researchers favour the first scenario as the ammonite does not contain any soft tissue, so they assumed it was dead when it was trapped in the resin. They also claim their finding helps date the Burmese amber and wrote: “The ammonite also provides supporting evidence for the age of the amber, which is still debated, and represents a rare example of dating using fossils present inside the amber”.
Links: Science, Science Alert
ED. COM. Reminds this editor of the puzzle encountered when I first discovered that Polish Amber deposits contain fossil coral and I puzzled as to how coral climbed the trees to get into the resin, or was Noah’s flood a better explanation? These scientists may favour the resin drip theory, but the storm or tsunami version is more likely, as it would also help explain the huge amount of amber in Burmese amber beds, as well as the odd mix of creatures found in this amber. A massive storm or a tsunami would rip trees apart, releasing a lot of resin as well as trapping lots of small creatures, which quickly got preserved with the fine detail seen in these fossils. These amber fossils may be tiny, but like all other well-preserved fossils, they are evidence that a process, not time, makes fossils, and in this case a rapid catastrophic process is needed. Perhaps the storms and Tsunamis of the Flood are again a better place to start?
The comment about the age of amber being based on the Ammonite is an admission that evolutionists actually do rely on fossils for dating, despite the common denials of this. However, any such fossil dating is based on already held evolutionary belief about when ammonites first evolved and then became extinct, and is absolutely prejudiced. Creation Research. |
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