Question

James wants to estimate the absolute age of an animal fossil. However, test results show that the fossil does not contain any atoms of carbon-14. What can James conclude about the lack of carbon-14?

Answer 1

Answer:

It is very very old

is carbon 14 is decayed overtime

Answer 2

The correct answer is : All the carbon-14 has got exhausted.

Explanation:

• The process of Radio-carbon dating involves the calculation of the ratio of carbon-14 isotope with respect to the carbon-12 isotope present in the fossil material.
• Carbon-14 isotope is highly unstable and show weak radioactivity.
• Carbon-12 isotope is a stable isotope of carbon.
• The Carbon-14 isotope is produced in the atmosphere from Nitrogen-14 by the impact of cosmic rays on nitrogen.
• These C-14 isotopes undergo oxidation to form carbon dioxide which is taken up by the plants and hence it gets assimilated in living organisms.
• The gaseous exchange continues during the life time of an organism and the C-14 gets replenished as long as an individual survives.
• After the organism dies, no replenishment of C-14 occurs.
• The C-14 isotope being unstable gradually gets converted to the stable C-12 form.
• In the given question, absence of C-14 isotope indicated that all the unstable C-14 has got converted to C-12 isotope and that the fossil is very old.