Mammoth Antibodies and Radiocarbon Dating

Antibodies are an important part of the immune system. They are proteins that circulate in the bloodstream looking for harmful antigens. Those are enemy bacteria, viruses, and such. Each antibody is unique, defending against specific antigens. So how do they last in mammoths for assumed millions of years?

A study showed that antibodies in mammoths were still able to do their jobs — but antibodies break down over time like other biological things. To support deep time, researchers assumed deep time, which was circular reasoning. They also ignored essential biology.

Mammoths, Wikimedia Commons / Honymand / (CC BY-SA 4.0)

We recently saw that dating methods on human fossils are unreliable, and similar problems occur in radiocarbon dating here. Consider that Carbon-14 dating of Viking burials in England were at odds with historical records. It is known that radiocarbon dating is increasingly less trustworthy with greater age. To claim that antibodies in these mammoths are of great antiquity is a fundamentally flawed idea.

A new technical report focusing on antibodies from Medieval human teeth also reported the discovery of antibodies from inside a wooly mammoth bone.1 Radiocarbon dating methods pinned tens of thousands of years to the mammoth fossil. Antibodies are relatively small proteins found in all kinds of body tissues. They contain a particular bond that should not last for eons. It seems that we lack some understanding either of antibody decay or of radiocarbon age-dating. Or is it both?

To learn more, see "World’s Oldest Antibody or Really Wrong Age?"