We often hear news of paleontologists discovering the fossilized remains of a new, yet unheard of, dinosaur. According to their reports, it will typically be tens of millions of years old.

Unfortunately, it has been ingrained into our minds that if it’s a fossil it must be millions of years old. That’s because most people don’t realize fossilization can take place in just a few years.

We know this because of the discovery of a new dinosaur species — Barbersaurus.

Discovered in Australia, it is a bit odd-looking — actually it looks like a heavy hula hoop. It was smaller than your typical dinosaur, weighing only 165 pounds or 75 kg.

It is difficult to nail down its age, but a best guess is somewhere between 45 and 95 years old.

It was discovered by a young Australian girl, 11-year-old Amy Lewis. Her parents, Col and Jo Lewis, owned a trailer park near Australia’s Eighty Mile Beach located  on the Northwest coast of Australia.

This fossilized object was none other than a roll of barbwire commonly used in the area for fencing. They suspected it might be fossilized wire after a magnet stuck to the rock and this was finally confirmed when they cut it open.

Near the ocean, barbwire fencing had a life span about ten years and farmers would typically roll up the old wire and throw it in the ocean or on the beach after taking it down.

The wire was undoubtedly tossed away by the nearby Wallis station that was in operation between 1920 and 1970. That’s how they determined its age.

The wire Amy found was encrusted in stone, complete with sea shells embedded in the rock.

It shows that under the right circumstances, rock and fossilization can happen very quickly.

It is not the only strange dinosaur found. In 1975, Dolores Testerman found a Clockosaurus along the ocean near Westport, Washington. It was a clock encased in stone undoubtedly from one of the shipwrecks common to the area.  It also had fossilized sea shells embedded in the rock. This particular species of dinosaur is on display at the Answers in Genesis museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.

Australia is also home to Pliersaurus, a set of pliers covered in rock discovered on the Southcoast in 1989. It also had a fossilized seashell in the rock and due to the limited rusting on the part of the pliers not covered in rock, it was only a few years old.

So don’t be fooled by fossils.

Because fossilization doesn’t require millions of years to take place, it explains why scientists are now finding blood and soft tissues in dinosaur bones. How could there be soft tissue in fossilized bones, scientists insist are 75+ million years old?

Source:

• Fascinating fossil fence-wire: Answers in Genesis