Mock press release

From: macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca (Andrew MacRae)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Press Release: new "fossil finger" found in permafrost of Canadian Arctic
Date: 22 Aug 1996 02:18:16 GMT
Message-ID: <4vgg18$le6@ds2.acs.ucalgary.ca>


WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1996

PRESS RELEASE
APPROVED: U of Ed-Iacara Propaganda Department

NEW "FOSSIL FINGER" DISCOVERY MAY REFUTE EVOLUTION

A stunning new discovery with the potential to overthrow all of modern  
evolutionary thought was recently found in old collections of fossils from  
Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Arctic, far above the arctic circle.   
It appears to be a "fossil finger", not unlike ones previously recorded  
from Creataceous age strata in Texas by Dr. Carl Baugh of the Creataceous  
Evidences Museum (see:  

http://www.texoma.com/~linesden/cem/finger/finger.htm).  The new fossil  
dates from about 100 to 110 million years ago, also from the geologic time  
evolutionists call the "Creataceous Period".  The specimen is known by the  
rather innocuous designation "DM93-083".  It was one of many specimens  
collected in 1993 by veteran U of Ediacara scientist Andrew MacRae and  
colleagues, but its significance went unappreciated until this year, when  
new examinations of collections that appeared to be mostly ammonites and  
fish turned up something different.  Andrew is philosophical about the  
discovery.

"This is only one of many specimens collected from this locality.  I and  
my colleagues were mainly looking for ammonites, but were amazed by the  
preservation in this interval, which included completely articulated fish  
occurring in concretions.  It is only natural that even better preserved  
fossils might be found here, but we had no idea that it could include the  
soft tissues."  As commonly claimed by evolutionists, Andrew knew that  
soft tissues did not normally preserve as fossils, so when first noticed,  
he dismissed the shape as mere coincidence, as is common for scientists  
completely biased by the evolutionist and uniformitarian indoctrination  
they receive during their schooling.  The specimen lay undisturbed in a  
drawer of other specimens for 3 years.

        Andrew goes on, "You know, to be honest, the real credit has to go  
to Ed Conrad.  Without his ability to break the shackles of evolutionist  
indoctrination and ferret out the real truth, I do not think I would have  
ever considered the possibility this looked like a finger, let alone  
documented it.  For example, I have mercilessly criticized Carl Baugh's  
finger as a mere burrow, or some other sedimentary structure, but now I am  
not so sure.  Maybe there are other possibilities."  This seems to be  
confirmation that maybe Baugh and Conrad were not wrong after all, and  
maybe they live up to the legacy of Galileo as enlighted scientists being  
censored by an oppressive scientific establishment.  As Andrew puts it,  
"If anyone suggested this was a real finger, most scientists would  
probably laugh."

        The finding of yet another fossil finger from Creataceous strata  
seems to finally put the nail in the coffin of evolutionary theory.   
According to standard thinking, the Creataceous was a time of dinosaurs,  
ammonites, and other insignificant creatures that were around millions of  
years before the existence of humans.  The ages are based upon techniques  
like radiometric dating, which make questionable uniformitarian  
assumptions.  All this may change in light of the new discovery.  If, as  
this specimen seems to suggest, humans and Creataceous dinosaurs did  
coexist, this would seem to vindicate Carl Baugh's claims of having a  
finger, and also of the famous Paluxy River human and dinosaur footprints,  
which are also Creataceous in age.  Furthermore, if conventional thinking  
can be this far wrong, it may open the door for reconsideration of Ed  
Conrad's claims of Carboniferous age humans (see:  

http://www.access.digex.net/~medved/conrad/conmain.htm ), and even new  
fossil petrification processes.

        Not only does the age of this find cause great problems for  
evolutionary time scales, but the environment is also a problem.  As  
Andrew explains, "Like I said.  We were looking to find ammonites and fish  
in these beds.  These are all marine animals.  Finding something  
terrestrial would be unsusual..."  Unusual, of course, in standard  
uniformitarian thinking.  Naturally, the only catastrophe that could  
possibly account for the occurrence of a human far out to sea with marine  
fossils is Noah's Flood.  The violence of the same catastrophe also  
explains the severed condition of the finger.

        "It's a whole new beginning...", says Andrew.  "This experience  
has really opened my eyes to new possibilities.  Alot of people are pretty  
shocked and amazed by this discovery, and wait until the media gets ahold  
of it.  Scientists will be scrambling to explain this in light of  
evolutionary theory, but I don't think they will be able to do it with  
that...  Scientists can be pretty skeptical when it comes to new claims --  
extraordinary evidence, and all that nonsense.  I just hope people do not  
get carried away until more tests can be done.  A CAT scan could be...  
interesting."

[Image available at:


http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae/t_origins/carbbones/finger.jpeg ]

This JPEG image is made available in order to share with the public the  
excitement of new discoveries being made at the U of Ediacara.  Ediacaran  
scientists are in the process of calibrating and validating this data. The  
full digital image necessary for scientific analysis will be released  
within one year of receipt of this field season's last data

--

        -Andrew
        macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca
        home page: http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae