You are digging a hole in your backyard when you see a piece of fossilized bone in the dirt. How could you prove the age of the fossil? Design a procedure for determining the relative and absolute age of the bone.

Question

anonymous · Answer

ell, one option could be comparing it to other layers of the dirt. You can approximate the age based on how deep the fossil was buried/what layer of earth it was in.

anonymous · Answer

And by the way, Welcome to Openstudy!

thomaster · Answer

Maybe this article helps :) http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fosrec/McKinney.html

anonymous · Answer

haha a bit more sophisticated than my layering idea -- that's an awesome resource, @thomaster !

april115 · Answer

http://www.uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080212030453AAEaG7g

april115 · Answer

maybe that article helps

thomaster · Answer

You can also determine the age by carbon dating. Carbon-14 decays with an half-life of 5700 years while the amount of carbon -12 remains constant in a fossil. You can look at the ratio of C-12/C-14 and compare it to the ratio in a living organism. This way you can precisely determine the age. http://www.c14dating.com/int.html

anonymous · Answer

Yeah, carbon dating is a great way to get the exact age! @Avii , do you know if you're supposed to assume for this assignment that you have the technology available to do stuff like that?
If you do, that would probably be your best bet. If it's asking you for more basic techniques tho, that'll require something a little different.

avii · Answer

@stormgirl47 yeah i do!

avii · Answer

And thank you everyone! you all are so helpful!

april115 · Answer

your welcome

anonymous · Answer

Then I agree with @thomaster that carbon dating is a great idea!
And you're welcome :)