At Creation-Evolution Headlines:
Oldest sea reptile from Age of Dinosaurs found on Arctic island (Uppsala University, 14 March 2023). “For nearly 190 years, scientists have searched for the origins of ancient sea-going reptiles from the Age of Dinosaurs. Now a team of Swedish and Norwegian palaeontologists has discovered remains of the earliest known ichthyosaur or ‘fish-lizard’ on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen.” The press release uses six paragraphs to tell the usual evolutionary narrative. Then, the double surprise appears:
“Unexpectedly, these vertebrae occurred within rocks that were supposedly too old for ichthyosaurs. Also, rather than representing the textbook example of an amphibious ichthyosaur ancestor, the vertebrae are identical to those of geologically much younger larger-bodied ichthyosaurs…”
Surprised enough yet? There’s more:
“and even preserve internal bone microstructure showing adaptive hallmarks of fast growth, elevated metabolism and a fully oceanic lifestyle.”
There it is: an advanced ichthyosaur appearing fully formed in rocks “too old” for ichthyosaurs—rocks dated 250 million Darwin Years, a time right after the great Permian extinction.– David F. Coppedge (March 14, 2023)
But the Darwinian story is much easier to teach…
Here’s the original Uppsala U PR. The paper is open access.
Here’s the story as of nearly a year ago but with ichthyosaur graphics: