ANTH 011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Olduvai Gorge, Absolute Dating, Radiocarbon Dating
4 Oct 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Paleontology is the study of organisms in the past. Fossils: are the preserved remains, impressions, or traces of past organisms, during fossilization, soft tissues typically decay, while bone and other hard tissues become mineralized (either replaced or filled in with minerals from the surrounding sediment) Taphonomy is the study of what happens to an individual after death living community-death assemblage-bone accumulation-fossil assemblage- excavated assemblage- museum collection: many processes that act to destroy bones. When rock is heated, the argon is released, but then builds up slowly within the rock. We can estimate the time since the rock was last heated, based on half life of k: half life is 1. 25 billion years, used on rock that has been heated to a high temp. Measures the time since the rock has been heated. 100,000 years- older than the age of the earth: carbon dating, radiocarbon decays at a known rate.
