explain two methods to determine the age of fossils
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So, how do we know how old a fossil is? There are two main methods determining a fossils age, relative dating and absolute dating. Relative dating is used to determine a fossils approximate age by comparing it to similar rocks and fossils of known ages. Absolute dating is used to determine a precise age of a fossil by using radiometric dating to measure the decay of isotopes, either within the fossil or more often the rocks associated with it.
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Two methods by which the age of an fossil can be estimated are, Relative Dating Method and Carbon Dating Method.
Explanation:
- Fossils are the remains of the organisms present on the earth before the appearance of human beings.
- These fossils are found in sedimentary rocks, and the study of fossils is known as Paleontology.
- Since the fossils are millions of years of age, it is impossible to find the accurate date of the fossil. Therefore, various methods are applied to estimate the date of the fossils. Two of the most common ones are Relative Dating Method and the Carbon Dating Method.
- In Relative Dating Method, the relative study of fossils are done with respect to things whose date is known.
- For example, if we are to find the date if a fossil we can compare it with another fossils which may be found in that era. If both the fossils show some similar properties in terms of age of the fossil, they will belong to the same age. And hence the age of that unknown fossil could be determined.
- Carbon Dating Method, is a method in which the radiometric dating of fossils takes place with the help of carbon 14 isotope.
- Carbon 14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon having a half life of 5,730 years. So, if half of carbon 14 present in the fossil is decayed, the fossil would be approximately 5000 years old.
- But Carbon Dating Method can be applied only to younger fossils, fossils upto 75,000 years old.
- For fossils older than 75,000 years, Potassium 40 is used which has the half life of 1.25 billion years
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