Relative and absolute dating of fossils

How do scientists date rocks and fossils?

Allmon and Robert M. Ross Answering this frequently encountered question in geology requires two separate steps. They correspond to two different ways that we express how old something or someone is in our everyday experience. When we ask how old an object or a person is, we can answer either with a number or by comparison to something or someone else.

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For more option use Advanced Search. Geologists estimate the age of rocks using a variety of techniques. Absolute dating attempts to determine the numerical age of an object. Relative dating techniques place rocks in their sequential order of formation.

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Imagine someone telling you a story where all the important events happened in the wrong order. It might be confusing, or even make no sense at all. Being able to tell how old things are and put them in the right order is one of the most important skills archaeologists have. We call this skill dating because it is how we organize our discoveries in time, like dates on a calendar. Archaeologists use two kinds of dating methods: relative dating and absolute dating.

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Lines of Evidence: The Science of Evolution

So, how do we know how old a fossil is? There are two main methods determining a fossils age, relative dating and absolute dating. 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. Relative Dating The majority of the time fossils are dated using relative dating techniques.

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