Creation Science Rebuttals -

Evolutionary Dinosaur DNA Nonsense

First Published 2009

In an article on the Creation, Dinosaurs and the Flood website, young earth creation science advocate Charlie Liebert contends that the match between DNA from a Triceratops and a turkey's DNA is not evidence of evolution.¹

In 2000, it was announced that a small DNA sequence was recovered from a poorly mineralized bone of a triceratops. When it was analyzed, the 130 base pairs were a 100% match to those of turkey. While this does strengthen the argument that birds evolved from dinosaurs, it does not directly prove evolution. This is because the triceratops is a ceratopsid, and birds supposedly evolved from theropods.

The only objection that Liebert uses is that "many experts believe nucleic acid is unlikely to survive more than 100,000 years." This claim is widespread, but it is not supported by observational evidence. DNA is thought to break down rapidly, based on short term studies of unfossilized specimens. However, DNA that is protected by the substance in which it is fossilized can survive a long time.² For example, scientists have revived bacteria that was trapped in salt deposits, which provided protection from the environment. The bacteria were from deposits that were 250 million years old! Another paper from the 1960's claimed to have done the same thing to 500 million year old bacteria. Other examples include 25 million year old termite DNA, 120 million year old fossil weevil, bacteria in amber that is 40 million years old, and of course, the soft tissue from the dinosaurs T-rex and the newly announced hadrosaur.

The scientific community has long known that under the right conditions, DNA can survive a long time. Thanks to the dinosaur soft-tissue discoveries, this information is becoming public knowledge. Of course, young earth creationists will never recognize this information, and will continue to falsely claim that the DNA indicates that the earth is young.

Note that Liebert is not questioning the DNA match. He only casts doubt upon the survivability of DNA over millions of years. Thus, he does not dispute the claim that the DNA matches.

¹ Evolutionary Dinosaur DNA Nonsense, published on the web at sixdaycreation.com/facts/dinosaurs/july2000.html

² Molecular History Research Center website; and sciencenews.org/pages/pdfs/data/1999/15524/15524-07.pdf

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