Aniya Harriott

Name:_______________________________________________ C
Period:________

Fossil Lab

Young

Old

trilobites
Which organism in this picture is older, the clams or the trilobites? ___________
I knew that the trilobites were older because it is lower on the example due to the law of
How do you know? _____________________________________________
superposition.

Describe the Law of Superposition: The Law of Superposition states that the oldest layers of rock are found at
the bottom and the youngest layers of rock are found at the top of a
formation if the rock layers have not been disturbed.
 Relative vs. Absolute Dating
Background:
By knowing the age of the rock that a fossil is found in, geologists can usually tell the age of
the fossil. Sometimes they cannot give it an exact date, but they know that it is older or
younger than another fossil. Dating a fossil by saying it is older or younger than another fossil
is called relative dating.

If the geologists know the exact age of a fossil, they usually express its age in millions of years
ago (mya) that it was formed. Scientists use radioactive half-life data to determine a fossils
age. Dating a fossil by assigning it a specific age is called absolute dating.

Example(s):
Relative Dating:
→ I am older than my sister but younger than my brother.
Absolute Dating:
→ My older sister is 15 years old. I am 12 years old. My brother is 10 years old.

Directions: Put an “A” next to the examples of absolute dates and an “R” next to examples of
relative dates.

A
1. ________ I walked home from school at 2:30 pm.

R
2. ________ First, I did my homework than I ate dinner.

A
3. ________ I ate 2 slices of pizza and 1 glass of water for dinner.

R
4. ________ After dinner, I rode my bike to my friends house to play video games.

R
5. ________ Then I went to the store.

A
6. ________ I came home at 8:00pm and took a shower before bed.

7. How would you describe the difference between relative dating and absolute dating?
The difference between relative and absolute dating is that relative dating does not give specific dates and
times. However, absolute dating is the complete opposite that gives specific dates and times.
Examine the following diagrams. Columns I and II contain rock layers A, B, C and D, E,
F. Both columns were taken from the same dig site.

8. Which two layers are of approximately the same age?

Layers C & D because they contain the same fossil.

9. Which layer is the oldest? How do you know?

Layers F is the oldest because it is the bottom most sedimentary layer.

10. Which layer is the youngest? How do you

know Layer A is the youngest because it is the upper most layer

MAKING YOUR OWN RELATIVE VS. ABSOLUTE TIME SCALE

Directions:

1. Make a relative time scale out of 5 events that have occurred in your life.

a. Example: Include important events such as your birth, something you did today,
starting kindergarten, and losing your first tooth.

b. REMEMBER: Relative dating events only show chronological order, NOT exact dates.

2. Using your relative scale, make an absolute time scale by adding dates

Examplee Time Scale

Relative Time Scale Absolute Time Scale

1. I was born. I was born. July 18, 1985

2. I took my first steps. I took my first steps. August 2, 1986

3. Graduated high school Graduated high school June 3, 2003

4. Graduated college Graduated college May 20, 2007

 5. Today Today September 25, 2019
MY TIME SCALE:

Example Time Scale

Relative Time Scale Absolute Time Scale

1. I was born. I was born.

April 27, 2008

2. I played video games. I played video games August 5, 2016

3. She went to my soccer game She went to my soccer

November 17, 2022
game

4. He had his birthday February 27, 2011

He had his birthday

5. I graduated. I graduated June 1, 2026

Radiometic Dating:

1. Define half life Half-life is the amount of time required for half of a radioactive isotope to decay.

Radiometric dating uses the decay of radioactive

2. How are radioactive labels used in dating fossils
isotopes to measure the age of a rock.

3. What type of Rock is used in Radiometric dating Igneous rocks are used in radiometric dating.

4. Use the following graph to answer the following questions:

 5. If the rock that you sampled from the
fossil layer has 40% remaining C14, how
old is your fossil?
My fossil would be 7,576.

6. If your layer of rock has no C14, can you

say exactly how old it is? Make a
statement about the age of the fossil and a
possible estimate.
You can't say the age of the fossil because Carbon-14
only works for fossils less than 50,000 years old. So you
have to use relative data to find the exact age.

7.
8. If your Layer of rock has 50% of C14 can you estimate the age of the fossil?
It would be 5,730 years old.