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Truth & Trials in Togo
Throughout my journey through medical education, my goal was to use the career God gave me to serve vulnerable international...
How long does it take to make a fossil? When I was a kid, the standard answer ranged from hundreds of thousands to several million years.
Wikipedia explains that specimens are only considered to be fossils if they are over 10,000 years old. But can a fossil be created in less time than that?
Well, an article from Smithsonian Magazine dated July 2018 states that scientists discovered how to make fossils in one day. One day! The article reads that they “figured out a way—by compressing that incredibly lengthy process into a day.”
The fossils produced in this study are basically indistinguishable from their “real” fossil counterparts.1 They use a process of burying a specimen in easily compacted clay, compacting this package together into a tablet form, and then putting it into a sealed capsule where the contents are heated and pressurized.
Within 24 hours they have an exceptionally detailed fossil. “We were absolutely thrilled,” the scientists exclaimed. “They looked like real fossils – there were dark films of skin and scales, the bones became browned. Even by eye, they looked right.”1
In the article, they continue with their conclusion that this may be the mechanism of how exceptional fossils are created, which is a hotly debated topic in the palaeontology circles.
You see, what is required to create a fossil is not thousands or millions of years; it’s just the right conditions.
This is an amazing fact that once again aligns itself with what the Bible says. The flood of Noah as described in Genesis 6-8 provides all the necessary conditions for both pressure and heat to form fossils in a short time frame.
- Saitta, E.T. and 2 others, Sediment-encased maturation: A novel method for simulating diagenesis in organic fossil preservation, Palaeontology62(1):135–150, Jan 2019; first published online 25 Jul 2018
- Starr, M., Researchers have discovered how to make proper fossils—in a day; sciencealert.com, 27 Jul 2018, https://www.sciencealert.com/fake-fossil-method-baked-in-a-day-artificial-maturation-sediment. Accessed Feb 28, 2022.
