# Does soft tissue prove dinosaurs are young? ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young.webp]] **Creator:** Joel is Curious · **Published:** 2026-10-24 · **Length:** 2:57 (YouTube Short) · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI) > Caption source: **YouTube auto-generated English captions (en-orig)**, fetched with yt-dlp (android_vr client); the plain "en" track was rate-limited (HTTP 429) but en-orig came through. No TubeAlfred credits were used. Timestamps are from the captions. The short opens with news and documentary clips (MSNBC 2005, NOVA scienceNOW 2007) and later clips of ICR's Brian Thomas, then a vertical talking-head take outdoors (a gray Timpanogos Cave hoodie) with burned-in captions and overlay cards: a "no meat on the bone" icon, a card "1966 Roman Pawlicki, Kraków reports cells, collagen fibrils and vessels in dinosaur bone (Nature, 1966, thirty-nine years before the T. rex)", and an "old protein, still there" table (Arctic camel bone, more than 3 million years; Tanzania ostrich eggshell, nearly 4 million; Kenya teeth, 18 million). Screenshots are one about every 20 s. ## Summary The short opens with clips: "actual Tyrannosaurus rex cells and soft tissue... dinosaur blood cells." The claim: "We've found dinosaurs with soft tissue, and soft tissue can't last more than a million years. So, dinosaur fossils must be thousands of years old, right? It's a reasonable question." "Soft tissue" sounds like rotting flesh on a bone. In 2005 Mary Schweitzer's team, studying a T. rex from Montana, put pieces of the bone into a solution that dissolved the minerals. Try it with a chicken bone in vinegar: after a week the bone is bendy and whitish, mostly collagen. Everything they could extract and dry came to about 1% of the bone's weight; in fresh bone collagen is about a fifth. And of that 1%, the part a machine can read came to billionths of a gram or less (the captions say "billions"). So something was left, "but we don't know exactly what it was," probably "the collagen of the original bone that's just been degraded over time," the same brown, changed residue that ancient bones give in the right conditions. Under the microscope there are sometimes hollow tubes with microscopic flecks in them. "Some think that's what's left of the bone's blood vessels. Others think they're casts or tubes left by bacteria. Scientists disagree." Old protein isn't unique to dinosaurs: collagen from an Arctic camel bone more than 3 million years old, protein in Tanzanian ostrich eggshell nearly 4 million years old, protein fragments in Kenyan teeth 18 million years old. "The older the fossil, the less we typically find." Why do creationists say it "can't last even a million years"? Lab chemists speed up collagen aging with heat and chemicals and extrapolate. Schweitzer, "who is a Christian herself," says lab conditions are harsher than the ground. "When an extrapolation and the actual finds disagree, the extrapolation is wrong." On DNA: "No DNA has ever been read from a non-bird dinosaur fossil, not one gene." If dinosaurs died in the Flood 4,400 years ago, that's the age of the pyramids, and "we read the DNA of a man buried in Egypt at that time. Other bones are nearly twice that old." A T. rex or a Stegosaurus, never. "It's because dinosaurs didn't live then... Soft tissue isn't meat on a bone and it doesn't show the bones are young." ## Outline ### 0:00 The claim - [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=0s) (clips) "actual Tyrannosaurus Rex cells and soft tissue." "Soft tissue." "Dinosaur blood cells." - [0:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=6s) "We've found dinosaurs with soft tissue, and soft tissue can't last more than a million years. So, dinosaur fossils must be thousands of years old, right? It's a reasonable question." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0003.webp]] ### 0:15 What "soft tissue" means - [0:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=15s) "What do you think of when you hear the words soft tissue? Maybe a bone with some rotting flesh." - [0:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=21s) "In 2005, Mary Schweitzer's team was studying a T-Rex from Montana. She put pieces of the bone into a solution that dissolved the minerals in the bone." - [0:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=30s) "Put a chicken bone into some vinegar and leave it for a week... It's bendy and it's whitish. That's mostly collagen." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0023.webp]] ### 0:43 How much was there - [0:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=43s) "Everything they could extract and dry from that bone came to about 1% of the bone's weight. In fresh bone, collagen is about 1/5 of the weight." - [0:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=51s) "And of that 1%, the part a machine can read came to billions [sic: billionths] of a gram or less." - [1:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=63s) "We could only read tiny, tiny fragments, but it's probably the collagen of the original bone that's just been degraded over time." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0043.webp]] ### 1:10 A brown residue and hollow tubes - [1:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=70s) "Ancient bones buried in the right conditions give the same kind of thing. A brown, changed residue of the old protein." - [1:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=79s) "They sometimes find hollow tubes running through the mass, and sometimes those hollow tubes have microscopic flecks of stuff in it." - [1:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=86s) "Some think that's what's left of the bone's blood vessels. Others think they're casts or tubes left by bacteria. Scientists disagree." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0063.webp]] ### 1:33 Old protein elsewhere - [1:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=93s) "It's clear there's some kind of microscopic stuff left in those bones, and likely some of it belongs to the animal. And it's not just ancient dinosaurs." - [1:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=100s) "Collagen from a camel bone in the Arctic more than 3 million years old. Protein in ostrich eggshell from Tanzania nearly 4 million years old. Protein fragments in teeth from Kenya 18 million years old." - [1:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=111s) "The older the fossil, the less we typically find." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0083.webp]] ### 1:53 "It can't last even a million years" - [1:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=113s) (clip) "How long can this stuff last? And the answer that we're getting over and over is it can't last even a million years." - [2:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=120s) "In labs, chemists use heat and chemicals to speed up the aging of collagen and then they extrapolate." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0103.webp]] ### 2:05 When the extrapolation and the finds disagree - [2:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=125s) "Schweitzer, who is a Christian herself, says that the lab conditions are harsher than they would be in the ground." - [2:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=131s) "The lab math says that collagen won't last a million years, but the fossil finds say more than a million. When an extrapolation and the actual finds disagree, the extrapolation is wrong." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0123.webp]] ### 2:20 No dinosaur DNA - [2:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=140s) (clip) "You know, you've got proteins and um lipids and DNAs." - [2:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=145s) "No DNA has ever been read from a non-bird dinosaur fossil, not one gene." - [2:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=150s) "Some say that the T-Rex and other ancient dinosaurs died in the flood 4,400 years ago. According to the written record, that's the age of the pyramids. We read the DNA of a man buried in Egypt at that time." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0143.webp]] ### 2:40 Never a T. rex - [2:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=160s) "Other bones are nearly twice that old and we were able to read the DNA. A T-Rex or a brontosaurus or a pterodactyl or a steg? Never." - [2:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tcl33KtZ-xI&t=168s) "It's because dinosaurs didn't live then. They lived millions of years ago. Soft tissue isn't meat on a bone and it doesn't show the bones are young." ![[images/Soft-Tissue-Dinosaurs-Young-t0163.webp]] ## Anti-evolution argument *Stated fairly, from the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis.* - **Original biochemicals can't survive millions of years:** in ICR's Creation Podcast episode 16, "Can Fossils Last Millions of Years?" (2022), host Ivana Semidey and ICR paleobiochemist Brian Thomas discuss "decay rates, secular dating assignments, and the implications of original biochemicals" [R1]. The clip used in the video gives the core claim: asked how long such material can last, "the answer that we're getting over and over is it can't last even a million years" (Thomas, as clipped). - **So the bones must be young:** the description says Thomas puts the Flood, and so the dinosaurs' burial, at about 4,400 years ago (podcast at 19:33) [R1]. - **The finds are real tissue, even cells:** David Menton of Answers in Genesis, in "Does Soft Tissue in Fossils Confirm a Young Earth?" (#3 of AiG's "10 Best Evidences from Science That Confirm a Young Earth"), describes Schweitzer's T. rex bone as showing "what appeared to be blood vessels... and these contained what appeared to be red blood cells with nuclei" and asks, "If dinosaurs lived over 65 million years ago, why do some dinosaur fossils still contain well-preserved soft tissues?" [R21]. - **Proteins, lipids and DNA:** the second clip lists "proteins and um lipids and DNAs" among the original biochemicals said to be found in fossils [R1]. ## Answer *Point by point. Numbers refer to the References table.* ### 1. What "soft tissue" was - Schweitzer et al. 2005 reported "transparent, flexible, hollow blood vessels" and cell-like microstructures after demineralizing T. rex bone [R2]. Schweitzer et al. 2007 reported collagen I peptides by mass spectrometry and said collagen was "preserved in low concentrations" [R3]. The description says the 2007 paper gives an extract yield of about 0.6–1.3% of bone weight and calls readable protein "minimal"; the full text wasn't accessible here, so those figures are unchecked. - The video's on-screen card is right that this wasn't the first report: Pawlicki, Korbel & Kubiak described "cells, collagen fibrils and vessels in dinosaur bone" in *Nature* in 1966 [R22]. - So the "soft tissue" is flexible demineralized residue, not flesh. That answers the impression Menton's phrasing gives [R21]. ### 2. Whose protein, and what it is now - Contamination: Buckley et al. 2017 found the reported T. rex and hadrosaur peptides hard to tell apart from modern ostrich and other contamination, "a fossil protein chimera" [R4]. A second, contamination-controlled analysis of a hadrosaur (*Brachylophosaurus*) still recovered collagen I peptides [R6]. The video's "probably the collagen of the original bone" is a fair middle position. - Tubes: Kaye et al. 2008 interpreted the vessel-like structures as bacterial biofilm; carbon dating of the film pointed to a modern origin [R5]. Schweitzer's lab reads them as the animal's vessels and in 2025 reported "strong support for endogeneity" of vessel material from six dinosaurs, "although we also detect evidence of invasive microorganisms" [R9]. "Scientists disagree" is accurate. - The "red blood cells" Menton describes [R21] were never chemically confirmed as cells; the tested iron-rich microstructures were identified with goethite, an iron oxide [R7]. - The "brown, changed residue": Wiemann et al. 2018 found that fossilization turns bone proteins into "N-heterocyclic polymers" (advanced glycation and lipoxidation products) [R8]. The description says Schweitzer's lab calls it "still collagen, changed" (Schweitzer et al. 2025); probably R9, but that wasn't confirmed (see below). ### 3. Old protein outside dinosaurs - Arctic camel: collagen fingerprinting identified a camel from mid-Pliocene High Arctic deposits [R10]. "More than 3 million years" fits a mid-Pliocene age; the exact figure isn't in the abstract. - Tanzania (Laetoli): ostrich eggshell protein sequences "persist into deep time," about 3.8 million years [R11]. - Kenya: "eighteen million years of diverse enamel proteomes" from the Turkana Basin [R12]. - Less with age: Wadsworth & Buckley 2014 found proteome degradation increases with age [R13]. All quoted accurately. ### 4. "Can't last a million years" - The description cites Schweitzer, Schroeter & Goshe 2014 for the lab limits and why she doubts them [R14] (title read; the argument itself wasn't checked here). Schweitzer et al. 2014 propose iron and oxygen chemistry as a preservation route [R7]. The video's logic, that real finds outrank an extrapolation, is the standard scientific response. - The creationist argument depends on the extrapolated limit. The 3.8 Ma eggshell [R11] and 18 Ma enamel [R12] already go far beyond "a million years" in samples no one dates to the Flood, so the limit doesn't hold as a hard ceiling. ### 5. DNA - Schweitzer et al. 2013 found DNA-binding stains (PI, DAPI) reacting inside dinosaur bone cells, "material consistent with DNA," but no sequence [R15]. The video's "not one gene" is accurate. - The 1994 "dinosaur DNA" (Woodward et al.) [R16] was shown to be most likely human contamination (Hedges & Schweitzer 1995) [R17]. - Oldest DNA read: about 2 million years, environmental DNA from Greenland [R18]. - Egypt: Morez Jacobs et al. 2025 sequenced the genome of an Old Kingdom man from Nuwayrat, radiocarbon-dated to 2855–2570 BCE [R19]. Accurate. - "Nearly twice that old": the description cites Allentoft et al. 2012 on moa bones up to 7,800 years old [R20]; the paper (158 dated moa bones; DNA half-life about 521 years) exists, but the 7,800-year figure isn't in the abstract. - The ICR clip's mention of lipids: the description says none were reported from this bone; not checked further. ## Key takeaways - The T. rex "soft tissue" is flexible residue left after dissolving bone mineral, not flesh. - Its identity is debated: degraded original collagen, bacterial biofilm, or both; contamination has been raised and partly answered. - Protein residues are known from fossils 3.8 and 18 million years old, so "can't last a million years" fails as a ceiling. - No dinosaur DNA sequence has ever been read; the 1994 claim was contamination. - DNA has been read from an Egyptian of the pyramid age and from much older remains, which a 4,400-year-old dinosaur would predict too. ## Things mentioned ### Things and methods - Demineralization (the vinegar-and-chicken-bone demo); collagen; mass spectrometry of peptides; biofilms; goethite; glycation/lipoxidation crosslinking; accelerated-aging kinetics; DNA-binding stains; radiocarbon dating; ancient DNA ### Places - Hell Creek, Montana (the T. rex); Canadian High Arctic (camel); Laetoli, Tanzania (eggshell); Turkana, Kenya (teeth); Nuwayrat, Egypt; New Zealand (moa); Greenland (2-million-year-old eDNA); Kraków (Pawlicki) ### Ideas - Extrapolation versus observation; contamination; endogeneity; the Flood date (creationist) ### Works (from the description) - ICR Creation Podcast ep. 16; Schweitzer et al. 2005, 2007, 2013, 2014, 2025; Buckley et al. 2017; Schroeter et al. 2017; Kaye et al. 2008; Wiemann et al. 2018; Rybczynski et al. 2013; Demarchi et al. 2016; Green et al. 2025; Wadsworth & Buckley 2014; Schweitzer, Schroeter & Goshe 2014; Kjær et al. 2022; Morez Jacobs et al. 2025; Allentoft et al. 2012 ### Links from the description - Papers: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1108397 · https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138709 · https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0544 · https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002808 · https://doi.org/10.1021/ac500803w · https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9 · https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y · https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5 - https://joeliscurious.com · https://www.instagram.com/joeliscurious/ · https://www.tiktok.com/@joeliscurious · https://x.com/JoelisCurious · https://www.youtube.com/@joeliscurious ## Claims check | Claim in the video | Verdict | Source or note | |---|---|---| | In 2005 Schweitzer's team demineralized a T. rex bone from Montana and found flexible material | **Accurate** | [R2] | | Extract came to about 1% of bone weight; readable part billionths of a gram | **Unchecked** | Description cites the 2007 paper (0.6–1.3%) [R3]; full text not read | | Fresh bone is about one-fifth collagen | **Broadly accurate** | General figure; no source cited | | The residue is probably degraded original collagen | **Fair; contested** | [R3, R6] for; [R4, R5] raise contamination and biofilm | | Hollow tubes: vessels or bacterial casts; scientists disagree | **Accurate** | [R2, R9] vs [R5] | | Old protein: Arctic camel >3 Ma, Tanzanian eggshell ~4 Ma, Kenyan teeth 18 Ma | **Accurate** | [R10, R11, R12]; camel age from "mid-Pliocene" | | The older the fossil, the less protein | **Accurate** | [R13, R12] | | The million-year limit comes from accelerated lab aging that Schweitzer thinks is too harsh | **Fair; not fully checked** | Description cites [R14] (title read); finds older than 1 Ma exist [R11, R12] | | No DNA has ever been read from a non-bird dinosaur | **Accurate** | [R15]; 1994 claim was contamination [R16, R17] | | DNA was read from a man buried in Egypt in the pyramid age | **Accurate** | 2855–2570 BCE [R19] | | DNA read from bones nearly twice that old | **Accurate** | Moa [R20] (7,800 yr not in abstract); much older DNA exists [R18] | | Schweitzer is a Christian | **Accurate** | She has said so publicly; not checked against a cited source here | ## References | # | Source | Exists? | Use in the video / role | Link | |---|---|---|---|---| | R1 | ICR, "Can Fossils Last Millions of Years?," *The Creation Podcast* ep. 16 (2022-02-08), with Brian Thomas | **Exists** (page read) | Description source: the claim and Flood date (13:24, 19:33); audio timestamps not checked | [icr.org](https://www.icr.org/content/can-fossils-last-millions-years-creation-podcast-episode-16) | | R2 | Schweitzer et al., "Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in *Tyrannosaurus rex*," *Science* 307:1952–1955 (2005) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: the T. rex find; quoted accurately | [doi:10.1126/science.1108397](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1108397) | | R3 | Schweitzer et al., "Analyses of Soft Tissue from *Tyrannosaurus rex* Suggest the Presence of Protein," *Science* 316:277–280 (2007) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: collagen; yield figure unchecked | [doi:10.1126/science.1138709](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1138709) | | R4 | Buckley et al., "A fossil protein chimera; difficulties in discriminating dinosaur peptide sequences from modern cross-contamination," *Proc R Soc B* 284:20170544 (2017) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: contamination | [doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.0544](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0544) | | R5 | Kaye, Gaugler & Sawlowicz, "Dinosaurian Soft Tissues Interpreted as Bacterial Biofilms," *PLoS ONE* 3:e2808 (2008) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: the biofilm view | [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002808](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002808) | | R6 | Schroeter et al., "Expansion for the *Brachylophosaurus canadensis* Collagen I Sequence and Additional Evidence of the Preservation of Cretaceous Protein," *J Proteome Res* 16:920–932 (2017) | **Exists** (metadata read) | Description source: second lab, hadrosaur collagen | [doi:10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00873](https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jproteome.6b00873) | | R7 | Schweitzer et al., "A role for iron and oxygen chemistry in preserving soft tissues, cells and molecules from deep time," *Proc R Soc B* 281:20132741 (2014) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: goethite, iron preservation | [doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.2741](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.2741) | | R8 | Wiemann et al., "Fossilization transforms vertebrate hard tissue proteins into N-heterocyclic polymers," *Nat Commun* 9:4741 (2018) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: "a polymer" | [doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07013-3](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07013-3) | | R9 | Schweitzer et al., "Taphonomic variation in vascular remains from Mesozoic non-avian dinosaurs," *Sci Rep* 15:4359 (2025) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Probably the description's "Schweitzer et al. 2025"; the abstract supports endogeneity of the vessels but says nothing about "still collagen, changed", so **the match is not certain** | [doi:10.1038/s41598-025-85497-y](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-85497-y) | | R10 | Rybczynski et al., "Mid-Pliocene warm-period deposits in the High Arctic yield insight into camel evolution," *Nat Commun* 4:1550 (2013) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: Arctic camel | [doi:10.1038/ncomms2516](https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2516) | | R11 | Demarchi et al., "Protein sequences bound to mineral surfaces persist into deep time," *eLife* 5:e17092 (2016) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: Tanzanian eggshell | [doi:10.7554/eLife.17092](https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.17092) | | R12 | Green et al., "Eighteen million years of diverse enamel proteomes from the East African Rift," *Nature* 643:712–718 (2025) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: Kenyan teeth | [doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9) | | R13 | Wadsworth & Buckley, "Proteome degradation in fossils: investigating the longevity of protein survival in ancient bone," *Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom* 28:605–615 (2014) | **Exists** (metadata read) | Description source: less protein with age | [doi:10.1002/rcm.6821](https://doi.org/10.1002/rcm.6821) | | R14 | Schweitzer, Schroeter & Goshe, "Protein Molecular Data from Ancient (>1 million years old) Fossil Material: Pitfalls, Possibilities and Grand Challenges," *Anal Chem* 86:6731–6740 (2014) | **Exists** (metadata read) | Description source: lab limits and her doubts | [doi:10.1021/ac500803w](https://doi.org/10.1021/ac500803w) | | R15 | Schweitzer et al., "Molecular analyses of dinosaur osteocytes support the presence of endogenous molecules," *Bone* 52:414–423 (2013) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: DNA stains, no sequence | [doi:10.1016/j.bone.2012.10.010](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2012.10.010) | | R16 | Woodward, Weyand & Bunnell, "DNA Sequence from Cretaceous Period Bone Fragments," *Science* 266:1229–1232 (1994) | **Exists** (metadata read) | Added: the 1994 "dinosaur" sequence | [doi:10.1126/science.7973705](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7973705) | | R17 | Hedges & Schweitzer, "Detecting Dinosaur DNA," *Science* 268:1191–1192 (1995) | **Exists** (metadata read) | Added: the 1994 sequence was likely human contamination | [doi:10.1126/science.7761839](https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7761839) | | R18 | Kjær et al., "A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA," *Nature* 612:283–291 (2022) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: oldest DNA | [doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05453-y) | | R19 | Morez Jacobs et al., "Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian," *Nature* 644:714–721 (2025) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: the Egyptian man, 2855–2570 BCE | [doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5) | | R20 | Allentoft et al., "The half-life of DNA in bone: measuring decay kinetics in 158 dated fossils," *Proc R Soc B* 279:4724–4733 (2012) | **Exists** (abstract read) | Description source: moa DNA; 7,800-year figure not in abstract | [doi:10.1098/rspb.2012.1745](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1745) | | R21 | Menton, "Does Soft Tissue in Fossils Confirm a Young Earth?," Answers in Genesis, 2012-10-01 | **Exists** (read) | Added: the creationist case; quotes accurate | [answersingenesis.org](https://answersingenesis.org/fossils/3-soft-tissue-in-fossils/) | | R22 | Pawlicki, Korbel & Kubiak, "Cells, Collagen Fibrils and Vessels in Dinosaur Bone," *Nature* 211:655 (1966) | **Exists** (metadata read) | On-screen card: the 1966 report | [doi:10.1038/211655a0](https://doi.org/10.1038/211655a0) | ### Not found or not checked - The ICR podcast audio wasn't reviewed, so the 13:24 and 19:33 timestamps and the exact wording of the clips weren't checked against the source. - "Schweitzer et al. 2025 (still collagen, changed)": the only 2025 Schweitzer-led dinosaur paper found is R9, whose abstract is about vessel endogeneity, not about whether the residue is still collagen; the match is likely but not confirmed. A 2025 resonance Raman paper on haemoglobin (Long, Zheng, Schweitzer & Hallen, *Proc R Soc A*) also exists but is about haemoglobin, not collagen. - The 2007 extract yield (0.6–1.3%) and "minimal" readable protein weren't checked (no full text). - The MSNBC (2005) and NOVA scienceNOW (2007) clips weren't located. ## Added context - **Series:** a standalone response short. Previous upload: [[One drought. Bigger beaks. (How evolution works, Part 1)]]. - **Related:** [[Where 4.5 billion years comes from (The Age of the Earth, Part 5)]] and [[Why not carbon dating (The Age of the Earth, Part 2)]] on dating; [[Birds from dinosaurs (Response to Christian Destroys Evolutionist Teacher, Part 1)]] on dinosaurs and birds. ## Biographies ### Joel is Curious (the creator) YouTube channel **Joel is Curious**, 21 uploads (all Shorts) from 2026-10-04. In his own words (video description): "I'm Joel, a software developer and former tech executive who likes to learn stuff. Science, history, Buddhism, Stoicism, and the thinkers behind them." He lists his sources in each description. (Sources: the video and its description.) ### Mary H. Schweitzer (added context) Paleontologist (North Carolina State University) whose team reported the flexible vessel-like material from a T. rex in 2005 [R2] and collagen peptides in 2007 [R3]. The video notes she is a Christian. ### Brian Thomas (added context) Research scientist and paleobiochemist at the Institute for Creation Research; guest on Creation Podcast episode 16 [R1].