Oldest fossil shrimp has muscles, according to ScienceDaily and ScienceShots 10 November 2010. Geologists from Kent State University have found a fossilised shrimp in Devonian Woodford Shale in the Ryan Quarry, near Ada, Oklahoma. The shrimp is about 7cm (3in) long and so well preserved that the structure of the muscles of its tail can still be seen. Rodney Feldmann, one of the researchers explained: “When the animal died, it came to rest on the seafloor. The muscles then were preserved by a combination of acidic waters and a low oxygen content as the animal was buried rapidly.” Ammonites, nautiloids, brachiopods and sponges were also found in the same rocks. The rocks in the quarry are dated as 360 million years old, which makes the new fossil 125 million years older than the previous record for the oldest shrimp. According to Feldmann, “The shrimp from Oklahoma might, thus, be the oldest decapod on earth.” Decapods are shellfish with 10 legs, such as lobsters and crabs as well as shrimps.


Editorial Comment: We are pleased to see scientists admitting that sea creatures need to be rapidly buried in low oxygen conditions in order to be fossilised, especially with fine muscle detail preserved in this fossil. However, this does not happen by creatures dying and sinking to the sea floor. It happens when a mass of sediment is dumped on the sea floor, rapidly burying whatever was there, such as sponges, nautiloids, ammonites etc. as found in these rocks. If this creature is the oldest decapod on earth it proves that 10 legged shrimps have always had 10 legs since the time the rock formed, and it provides no information as to how they could have evolved from a creature with more or fewer legs.

This fossil is another good example of a “living fossil”, a term which was coined by Charles Darwin to describe creatures that have not changed since its oldest dated fossil was buried. But living fossils like this shrimp are actually evidence against Darwin’s theory because they show that living things have reproduced after their kind, as Genesis says they were created to do. Creation Research has compiled a large list of living fossil animals and plants referenced from our Evidence News archive. This is available as a pdf download. here (Ref. crustaceans, fossilisation, arthropods)

Evidence News 24 November 2010