"a piece of a gear shift" found embedded in hunk of coal

Well, though the article doesn’t say it, I’ll be the first to come out and say what all of us on SI are thinking.

This is clear evidence of…

Time travel

Lol

This is obviously a piece from Doc Brown’s Delorean. Clearly, it got left behind somehow. I have no doubt an extensive search of the area will turn up Marty’s skateboard/hoverboard in short order.

On a serious note, I sympathize with a critic quoted in the article - it is disappointing that this was not covered by a scholarly journal in some fashion. A rock dated at 300 million years old has a piece of semi-modern machinery imbedded in it? Either it is a ridiculous hoax or geological dating presuppositions are to blame. Perhaps the folks at AiG or ICR will mention this.

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

The Lord placed the gear-shift there to test our faith…

Just like He did the dinosaur bones.