While studying for your physical anthropology midterm, your classmate tells you that the bones of Lucy, a famous australopithecine specimen that dates to about 3.2 million years ago, were dated based on carbon-14 analysis. You note that this is incorrect because

Fossils are living organisms that have wholly or partially been transformed into rock. Lucy does not have bones with organic material necessary for carbon-14 dating. This specimen is also far too old for C-14 dating to be accurate, as well as for any other technique but palaeomagnetic dating. Your classmate is therefore incorrect for all of the reasons listed. (All of the above) (T/F)

Question

Biology

Patrick Mcneil

31 August, 12:46

While studying for your physical anthropology midterm, your classmate tells you that the bones of Lucy, a famous australopithecine specimen that dates to about 3.2 million years ago, were dated based on carbon-14 analysis. You note that this is incorrect because

Fossils are living organisms that have wholly or partially been transformed into rock. Lucy does not have bones with organic material necessary for carbon-14 dating. This specimen is also far too old for C-14 dating to be accurate, as well as for any other technique but palaeomagnetic dating. Your classmate is therefore incorrect for all of the reasons listed. (All of the above) (T/F)

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Day · Answer 1

This specimen is also far too old for C-14 dating to be accurate, as well as for any other technique but palaeomagnetic dating.

Explanation:

The second part of the sentence is not accurate, since the remains were dated by uranium-lead dating. Carbon-14 dating measures ages in the tens of thousands of years, and uranium-lead dating measures in the millions to billions of years.