How do researchers nail down the age of ancient fossils? A biologist explains that it's thanks to a physical process called radioactive decay.
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Even though scientists like me weren’t around to see for ourselves what was happening on Earth so long ago, we use geologic clues to figure out what animals lived when. Here’s how we sort out very ancient timelines and even put dates on fossils like Haikouichthys. Uranium is one of these radioactive atoms. It breaks down very slowly into lead. Both uranium and lead atoms can be found naturally in rocks and minerals in very, very low amounts.
Once a rock is formed, no new elements are added to it. So scientists can calculate how much uranium the rock started with by adding what’s left to the amount of lead that’s there now, thanks to the radioactive decay process. Then, because they know exactly how long it takes for uranium to break down into lead, they can figure out the age of the rock. Boltwood proved that Rutherford’s idea worked, establishing the field of radiometric dating in 1907.
Radiometric dating of Haikouichthys fossils suggests these animals were swimming in Earth’s waters between 518 million and 530 million years ago — and possibly longer.
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