False: Microchips have been found in fossils, proving the existence of an ancient advanced civilization.

Context

Claims have been made in a TikTok video about ancient microchips found in fossils. The video refers to several examples, including a T-rex bone that the video claims is an ancient microchip and links back to a "great reset." Referencing the Yuga cycle, the video argues that life on earth is cyclical and thus at regular intervals, all life is wiped out and future civilizations will find remnants of older civilizations. The video currently has 1.5 million views and 91.400 likes. However, the claim is false. 

In Fact

It should be noted that there is no evidence of an ancient civilization nor of a great reset that occurs in cycles. Many conspiratorial theories of ancient civilizations exist within the conspiratorial milieu. However, the belief exists outside of conspiratorial narratives. The Yuga cycle is part of Hindu cosmology where each Yuga, or era, is shorter than the last, and brings a continuous decline in the moral and physical state of humanity. The current Yuga, which began in 3102 BCE and will stretch another 432,000 years, is the Kali Yuga, said to be the most degenerate so far. After it ends, the world will supposedly be destroyed and recreated, and the cycle begins again. In this case, the Yuga cycle has been co-opted to present a conspiratorial claim of microchips, which are something else entirely. 

Three images of fossils appear in the video; using reverse image searches, Logically found the origin of the fossils. The first is held at the Humbolt Natural History Museum in Arcata, California, and is a Crinoidal limestone from the Mississippian Era. The second fossil and supposed T-rex bone is described on the Arkansas Geological Surveys blog as a skeletal limestone with fossilized crinoids. The stone resembles a skull due to the red limestone and outlines the white crinoids – referred to skeletal limestone since it contains skeletal remains of animals. The third fossil was the subject of another false claim: a supposed 250,000-year-old microchip found by a Russian fisherman. This claim was fact-checked by The Slovak Spectator, which contacted the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the Comenius University in Bratislava. The fossil was identified as a crinoid. 

The Arkansas Geological Survey describes Crinoids as “sea lilies” that were abundant during the Mississippian Period in Arkansas. Sea lilies still exist today but mainly live in deeper seas. They are stuck to the sea floor with stalks and catch food particles with their arms. Going back millions of years, sea lilies covered the seafloor in crinoid forests. Invertebrates are animals that lack backbones, such as sea stars, lobsters, and squids. The Mississippian period is an American term that along with the Pennsylvanian period describes what outside the U.S. is called the Carboniferous period, lasting from 358.9 million to 298.9 million years ago as part of the Paleozoic era. The microchip, or integrated circuit, was invented in 1959 by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce.

The Verdict

Considering that the fossils are fossilized sea lilies and that there is no evidence of an ancient advanced civilization, we have marked this claim as false.