Yesterday there was news of a 3.3 million year old Australopithecus afarensis fossil from Ethiopia. I’m just curious as to how they ascertain the age. I know it’s not carbon-14 dating, that’s 2 orders of magnitude beyond its range. It’s been a while since I learned about this stuff, so thanks for refreshing my memory.
By: southeastside
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By: southeastside
About the Author:
August 30th, 2009 at 4:19 am
The site I use is match.com The old fossils don’t have a picture there.
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 am
Sending the Old fossil on a date with a Blonde, Brunette and a red head – he may react to one of them
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Looks like there’s aluminum, chlorine, calcium & iodine dating…
September 4th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
radioactive dating, using certian elements such as carbon-14, scientists are able to figure out how old a fossil was
September 5th, 2009 at 6:26 am
They measure the decay of other radioactive elements, not carbon. The half life of carbon 14 is only 15,000 years or so. For anything older than that they measure for example, how uranium decays into lead. The article below may help.
September 7th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
check it out on