Old DNA, Bacteria, and Proteins? 2
DNA. Dozens of plants and animals have left their DNA in sediments
claimed to be 30,000-400,000 years old (e) DNA fragments are also said
to be in alleged 80-million-year-old dinosaur bones buried in a coal
bed (f) and in the scales of a 200-million-year-old fossilized fish
(g). DNA is frequently reported in insects and plants encased in
amber, both assumed to be 25-120 million years old (h).
These discoveries have forced evolutionists to reexamine the 10,000-
year limit (i). They now claim that DNA can be preserved longer if
conditions are dryer, colder, and freer of oxygen, bacteria, and
background radiation. However, measured disintegration rates of DNA,
under these more ideal conditions, do not support this (j).
e=2E Eske Willerslev et al., "Diverse Plant and Animal Genetic Records
from Holocene and Pleistocene Sediments," Science, Vol. 300, 2 May
2003, pp. 791-795.
f=2E "Under physiological conditions, it would be extremely rare to find
preserved DNA that was tens of thousands of years old." Scott R.
Woodward et al., "DNA Sequence from Cretaceous Period Bone Fragments,"
Science, Vol. 266, 18 November 1994, p. 1229.
Some have charged that the DNA Woodward recovered from a large
Cretaceous bone in Utah was contaminated with human, or perhaps
mammal, DNA. Several of their arguments are based on evolutionary
presuppositions. Woodward rebuts those claims in "Detecting Dinosaur
DNA," Science, Vol. 268, 26 May 1995, pp. 1191-1194.
g=2E Hoppe, p. 281.
Virginia Morell, "30-Million-Year-Old DNA Boosts an Emerging Field,"
Science, Vol. 257, 25 September 1992, p. 1862.
h=2E Hendrick N. Poinar et al., "DNA from an Extinct Plant," Nature,
Vol. 363, 24 June 1993, p. 677.
Rob DeSalle et al., "DNA Sequences from a Fossil Termite in Oligo-
Miocene Amber and Their Phylogenetic Implications," Science, Vol. 257,
25 September 1992, pp. 1933-1936.
Ra=FAl J. Cano et al., "Amplification and Sequencing of DNA from a 120-
135-Million-Year-Old Weevil," Nature, Vol. 363, 10 June 1993, pp. 536-
538.
i=2E Tomas Lindahl is a recognized expert on DNA and its rapid
disintegration. He tried to solve this problem of "old" DNA by
claiming that all such discoveries resulted from contamination and
poor measurement techniques. He wrote, "The apparent observation that
fully hydrated plant DNA might be retained in high-molecular mass form
for 20 million years is incompatible with the known properties of the
chemical structure of DNA." [See Tomas Lindahl, "Instability and Decay
of the Primary Structure of DNA," Nature, Vol. 362, 22 April 1993, p.
714.] His claims of contamination are effectively rebutted in many of
the papers listed above and by:
George O. Poinar Jr., in "Recovery of Antediluvian DNA," Nature, Vol.
365, 21 October 1993, p. 700. (The work of George Poinar and others
was a major inspiration for the book and film, Jurassic Park.)
Edward M. Golenberg, "Antediluvian DNA Research," Nature, Vol. 367,
24 February 1994, p. 692.
The measurement procedures of Poinar and others were far better
controlled than Lindahl realized. That is, modern DNA did not
contaminate the fossil. However, Lindahl is probably correct in saying
that DNA cannot last much longer than 10,000 years. All points of view
are consistent when one concludes that these old ages are wrong.
j=2E "We know from chemical experiments that it [DNA] degrades and how
fast it degrades. After 25 million years, there shouldn't be any DNA
left at all." Rebecca L. Cann, as quoted by Morell, p. 1862.
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