EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Today, scientists use a variety of techniques to date rocks and fossils precisely. Most often, they measure the amounts of particular radioactive elements-often radiocarbon or potassium-present to determine when a rock was formed, or when an animal or plant died.

Detailed explanation-2: -Scientists called geochronologists are experts in dating rocks and fossils, and can often date fossils younger than around 50, 000 years old using radiocarbon dating. This method has been used to provide dates for all kinds of interesting material like cave rock art and fossilized poop.

Detailed explanation-3: -Fossils can help determine the relative age of a rock i.e. they can help you tell whether a rock is older or younger than another rock by the fossils within.

Detailed explanation-4: -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.

Detailed explanation-5: -Fossils themselves usually cannot be directly dated radiometrically because they don’t usually contain radioactive minerals. We must therefore combine information from fossils and radiometric dates from rock layers above or below to answer the question, “How do Scientists Date Rocks and Fossils?”