Page 29 - Atlas of Creation Volume 1

Harun Yahya

The skin and scales of this fish from the Triassic Period
(250 to 203 million years ago) are fossilized with all
their details intact. This sample reveals that fish had
the same scale structure 250 million years ago.

The complete fossilization of a living thing's soft parts, even including fur, feathers or skin, is
encountered only rarely. Remains of some soft-tissued life forms of the Precambrian Period (dating back
4.6 billion to 543 million years ago) have been very well preserved. There are also soft-tissue remains

that permit internal structures from the Cambrian Period (543 to 490 million years ago), to be examined
in addition to hard-tissue remains of living things right down to the present day. Fossil remains of
animal fur and hairs preserved in amber, and fossil remains dating back 150 million years are other

examples that permit detailed investigation. Mammoths compacted in Siberian ice packs or insects and
reptiles trapped in amber in Baltic forests have also become fossilized together with their soft-tissue
structures.
Fossils can vary considerably in terms of size, according to the type of organism preserved. Very
different fossils have been obtained from the fossilized microorganisms to giant fossils from animals that

lived together as groups or herds, in a communal lifestyle. One of the most striking examples of such
giant fossils is the sponge reef in Italy. Resembling a giant hill, this reef is composed of 145-million-year-
old limestone sponges that developed at the bottom of the ancient Sea of Tethys, and later rose up as the

result of the movement of tectonic plates. It contains specimens of the life forms living in sponge reefs
during the Triassic Period. The Burgess Shale in Canada and Chengjiang in China are among the largest
fossil beds containing thousands of
fossils from the Cambrian Period.
The amber beds in the Dominican

Republic and along the western
shores of the Baltic Sea are other
major sources of fossil insects. The

Green River fossil beds in the U.S.
state of Wyoming, the White River
fossil beds in Central America, the
Eichstatt beds in Germany and the
Hajoula fossil beds in Lebanon are

other examples that can be cited.

THE GREATEST SPONGE REEF
ON EARTH

This sponge reef of 145 million years old is a
trace of the Tethys Ocean floor. The sponges of
our day are no different from those that make
up the hill. These sponges make it clear that
they have not undergone any evolution.

Adnan Oktar 27