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HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN DINOSAURS LIVED? Part 1: Absolute Age Dating 100 Ma)). Absol

ID: 291475 • Letter: H

Question

HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN DINOSAURS LIVED? Part 1: Absolute Age Dating 100 Ma)). Absolute used to determine absolute geologic ages. ges are oges in years before present (e.g., This rock formed 100 million years ago their half-lives. The table below summarizes characteristics of different unstable elements oges are determined by studying the decay of unstable elements and Age Limits Unstable Element System 14C-14N (carbon-14) Used for things that were once alive100 to 50,000 yrs before present that retain their original carbon molecules (0.05 Ma) 0.05 Ma to 4600 Mo 10 Ma to 4600 Ma 0K 40Ar volcanic rocks 238U206Pb; 235U207Pb volcanic rocks (uranium-lead) 1. What system, if any, can be used to determine the absolute age of dinosour bones? 2. Three students are debating how to date dinosaur bones. Student 1: We can use carbon-14 because it's used to date things that were once alive. The flesh of a dinosaur was composed of carbon. Student 2: But dinosaurs lived more than 65 million years ago, so carbon-14 doesn't work. To date something that old, you need to use potassium-argon or uranium-lead. Student 3: Carbon-14 can't date things as old as dinosaurs and potassium-argon and uranium-lead only work for volcanic rocks, so none of these works. With which student do you agree? Why? OW. H. Freeman and Company

Explanation / Answer

None of the system given above can be used to predict the exact age of dinosaurs because they lived more than the years that are used for absolute dating. Instead Relative dating method is used to find the era when it lived. I agree with the student 3 as none of the methods can be used to find the exact age of Dinosaurs. The only way to find is to see where the fossil is deposited and the layer in which it is deposited is taken into consideration for the finding of age. The oldest rock layer is A. According to the principle of superposition the oldest rock is at the bottom as this rock will be formed at the bottom and the other rocks formed over it. The Dinosaur bone is older than the other rock layers, C,D,E. Since the bone is present in the rock layer B, and C, D, E are the layers that were present above B, the bone is older than C,D and E.