Scientists at Monash University have been studying pieces of amber found in a former coal mining region in south-eastern Australia. The amber is dated as 42 million years old and contains preserved insects, springtails and spiders. It was found in 2014 and first described in the scientific literature in 2020. Further research using an x-ray scanning technique has enabled scientists to see more detail even in thick almost opaque pieces of amber. The most significant finds are the first fossils of two species of midges and a wasp to be found in Australia. Fossil of these insects have been found in other parts of the world but living examples are now only found in Australia.
The fossils in the amber are exactly the same as the creatures now living in Australia. The researchers commented: “Without realising it, we exist among living fossils. While we know these species were widely distributed in the past, today most of them are found only on this continent.”
References: The Conversation 10 July2024; Scientific Reports 2 April 2020 doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62252-z
Editorial Comment: These scientists may have only just realised we live among living fossils, but living fossils are everywhere, and Creation Research has been proclaiming this for decades. Our first documentary video was entitled “The World of Living Fossils”.
The term “living fossils” was coined by Charles Darwin to describe living things that are identical to their fossils. Classic examples are horseshoe crabs, the nautilus, coelacanth, and Wollemi Pine. Darwin and other evolutionists consider them to be anomalies, but the reality is all living things that are also found in the fossil record are living fossils, unchanged from whenever the fossils were buried until the present.
As such they are confirmation of Genesis 1, where God states 10 times He created living things according to their kinds. No matter how old these scientists believe the amber fossil insects to be, the presence of identical living insects shows they have multiplied after their kinds since they were trapped in the amber.
The comment that the insects found in the amber used to be widespread throughout the world but now only live in Australia, is another confirmation of Biblical history – the world is going downhill, not evolving upwards. The world started out very good, with a widespread pleasant climate and lush environment. Therefore animals and plants would have been more evenly spread throughout the world. Ever since Noah’s Flood there have been creasing extremes of climate and degeneration of the environment, resulting in many creatures dying out or becoming restricted to smaller regions- a reminder the real history of the world is from Good to Bad to Worse.
Creation Research News 23 July 2024
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