Sunday, June 20, 2010

How To Tell a Fossil's Age

Fossils are preserved traces or full remains of plants, animals and all other living organisms that existed from the distant past. They were unhurriedly created through time by being molded into rock formations and sedimentary layers, perfectly preserving them as hundreds of years go by. These ancient remains hold the key to understanding the evolution of living things. They provide a lot of important information about organic and environmental development that can further enlighten you by testing and analyzing new biological discoveries. Trying to determine a fossil's age can be quite tricky, even a bit difficult for a person with an untrained eye. With careful examination, it is possible for you to accurately identify a fossil's age. Read on to learn more.
The Radiometric Dating Technique. This method is mainly based on the fossil's radioactive decay. You can accurately determine its age due to the process of radioactive decomposition wherein energy and particles are released in a spontaneous manner from the nucleus of a reactive atom forcing its way into a non-reactive atom. There is always a specific time and constant rate for this occurrence. You can identify a fossil's age by measuring the total quantity of the reactive and non-reactive atoms. Add them together and the sum will be the rock's age.
The Fission-track Dating Technique. On this particular method, Uranium Isotopes (specifically Uranium 238 and 235) are the ones that you need to look out for so that you can discover the exact age of a fossil. These two elements always have the same proportion of decay rate. Each occurrence leaves a tiny scar caused by fission. Track these cracks by counting them through the use of a Microscope. Add the total number of cracks to the neutron dose of the sample to identify the total amount of Uranium. You can get the sample's age by computing the half-life of the Uranium content.
The Amino-acid Dating Technique. This option is solely based on the amino-acid's ability to convert itself to protein every time a living organism dies. To get the age of the rock, you should accurately determine the equilibrium ratio right after all amino-acid properties are completely altered to protein after death. You need to know the temperature and the amount of time before the equilibrium was reached. You can do this by applying the Radiometric Dating method. When you already have the precise numbers of its time and temperature, you can easily determine the fossil's age through dividing the two together.
You have to understand that these steps require a great deal of patience, an eye for detail and extreme care in all that you do. These things are extremely old and fragile; make sure that you avoid putting in too much pressure on your hand during the examination process or else it might crumble in front you. Before you start doing this task, it is highly recommended that you take the time to learn everything about fossils (how to handle it, its different types, detailed methods on identifying the remains, various techniques on fossil dating, etc.). Now put your science hat on and unleash the archaeological side in you. Just carefully follow these steps and you will never be sorry. Good luck and have fun!

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