Ways dating fossils

However, by itself a fossil has little meaning unless it is placed within some context.

The age of the fossil must be determined so it can be compared to other fossil species from the same time period.

Understanding the ages of related fossil species helps scientists piece together the evolutionary history of a group of organisms.

For example, based on the primate fossil record, scientists know that living primates evolved from fossil primates and that this evolutionary history took tens of millions of years.

Scientists use two kinds of dating techniques to work out the age of rocks and fossils. This considers the positions of the different rocks in sequence (in relation to each other) and the different types of fossil that are found in them.

This is because new sediments are always laid down on top of sediments that have already been deposited.Index fossils are fossils that are known to only occur within a very specific age range.Despite seeming like a relatively stable place, the Earth's surface has changed dramatically over the past 4.6 billion years.Scientists find out the age of a dinosaur fossil by dating not only the rocks in which it lies, but those below and above it.Sometimes, scientists already know the age of the fossil because fossils of the same species have been found elsewhere and it has been possible to establish accurately from those when the dinosaur lived. This is an informational tour in which students gain a basic understanding of geologic time, the evidence for events in Earth’s history, relative and absolute dating techniques, and the significance of the Geologic Time Scale.