The Carbon That Should Not Be There: Intrinsic C14 in Ancient Material?

Donny Budinsky

doi:10.67690/7fvpfs32

The Carbon That Should Not Be There: Intrinsic C14 in Ancient Material?

Authors

D. Budinsky et al.

Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.67690/7fvpfs32

Abstract

Radiocarbon measurements in geological materials require distinguishing residual original carbon-14 from carbon introduced after formation, in-situ production, and analytical background. This study examines reported measurements in coal, petroleum, dinosaur fossils, ammonites, and fossil wood, with particular attention to dinosaur-bone fractions containing radiocarbon substantially above laboratory procedural backgrounds. Published measurements include chemically distinct bone fractions, repeated measurements within individual specimens, and analyses performed across multiple radiocarbon laboratories and analytical systems. The dinosaur-bone dataset contains values from approximately 0.61 to 7.46 pMC, with commonly reported concentrations around 1.5 – 5.6 pMC, far above the procedural-background regime emphasized for nominally carbon-dead materials. We evaluate four major alternative explanations, in-situ contamination, laboratory and procedural contamination, in-situ nuclear production, and instrument background and identify fifteen independent or partly independent constraints that any comprehensive contamination model must satisfy. These include the magnitude of the signal, multiple chemically distinct fractions, within-specimen replication, pretreatment, fraction-specific stable-carbon-isotope signatures, interior-versus-exterior differences, environmental gradients, low uranium and thorium concentrations, and independent biomolecular preservation. We additionally test the measurements against the quantitative pre-Flood radiocarbon model previously presented in Predictions on Trial. Beginning with 0.1 pMC, allowing 1,500 years of accumulation at 20% below the modern normalized production rate, and then 4,500 years of ordinary radioactive decay, the model predicts a present-day upper concentration of approximately 7.75 pMC for carbon incorporated at the modeled Flood boundary. The highest dinosaur-bone measurement examined here, 7.46 pMC, falls immediately below that predicted boundary, while the remaining measurements likewise fall beneath it. This agreement does not by itself establish the provenance of every measured C14 atom, but it provides a quantitative correspondence between a previously published recent-age model and independent fossil measurements. The strongest dinosaur-bone results therefore warrant direct experimental discrimination between endogenous carbon and quantitatively specified contamination rather than dismissal on the basis of contamination in principle.

Author Biography

D. Budinsky et al.

Donny Budinsky is an independent researcher and author whose work focuses primarily on genetics, molecular biology, human origins, and the biological evidence surrounding competing models of ancestry. For the past six years, he has devoted his time to intensive research in these fields, producing books, technical articles, research papers, presentations, and educational material addressing questions at the intersection of genetics, biology, and origins science.

His research has examined mitochondrial genetics and mutation rates, endogenous retroviruses and other retroelements, pseudogenes, mutation accumulation, comparative genomics and the genetic evidence surrounding ancestry. He is the author of several books, including The Endogenous Retrovirus Handbook and Universal or Separate Ancestry handbook, and has collaborated with other researchers on technical publications concerning genetic degradation, chromosome 2 fusion and population genetics.

Matt Nailor

Sindonologist and gerontologist specializing in the biology of aging and disease, Matt Nailor holds a Doctor of Divinity (D.D). His research focuses on the evolutionary theory of aging, which accounts for senescence through mutation accumulation, antagonistic pleiotropy, and disposable soma theory. This work engages origins science, with particular attention to molecular aging, mutation rates and accumulation, biological evolution, genetic variation, and historical linguistics.

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