Question

What are the different techniques used in fossil dating? Discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

Answer 1

Two main different techniques used in fossil dating are:

• Relative dating- determining the age of fossils by comparing it with another fossil whose age is known.
• Absolute dating- the use of radiometric dating methods to determine the precise age of a fossil or a rock.

Advantages of relative dating

• it is cheap
• it is less time consuming
• it is applicable on a wide range of rocks

Disadvantages of relative dating

• it does not give age in years
• it does not consider when events occurred
• it does not give precise results

Advantages of absolute dating

• it provides exact dates for rocks
• it tell us the age of fossils in years

Disadvantages of absolute dating

• it is restricted to certain materials
• materials used are only those that undergo radioactivity