Use the "next" button to navigate through this section.
Read each section in order, and view the brief videos accompanying each section. The graphics will help reinforce your understanding of how paleoanthropologists are able to establish time sequence for archaeological remains and fossils.
First select Superposition, Stratigraphy, Cross-Dating, and Artifacts of Known Age.
Move on to Dendrochronology, Radiocarbon Dating, Potassium-Argon Dating, Obsidian Hydration Dating, Paleomagnetic and Archaeomagnetic Dating, Luminescence Dating, and Other Isotopic Dating Methods.
Electron Spin Resonance
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/13/5/10.
This Physicsweb May 2000 article discusses how other sciences (in this case, physics) assist paleoanthropologists in dating objects and in the discovery of new archaeological sites.
Read the section on radiocarbon dating and how this technology was successfully used in 1989 to determine the real age of the Turin Shroud.
How effective would radiocarbon dating be in determining the age of most fossil hominin remains? What are its limitations?
The "Luminescence, Spin and Magnetism" section discussed some other practical applications of observing radioactive atoms in different materials: crystal structure and tooth enamel.
What other practical applications of this technique offer a means of reconstructing hominin origins?
Ground-penetrating radar, used to produce a 3-D model of an archaeological site (and used in a scene in the Hollywood movie Jurassic Park), is also discussed.
At what type of archaeological site might this technique prove most helpful?
Taphonomy & Preservation
http://paleo.cortland.edu/tutorial/Taphonomy&Pres/taphonomy.htm.
This SUNY (State University of New York) Cortland Web site provides an excellent tutorial on taphonomy and preservation. Taphonomy examines what happens to an organism after its death and fossilization, until it is discovered. The site explores the process of decomposition, postmortem transport, burial, compaction, and other forces and their effects on an organism.
Paleoanthropologists can better understand and reconstruct paleoenvironments through the use of taphonomy. In doing so, they are able to describe the behavior of early hominins and gain insights on their living habits, population, and other organisms that may have lived around them.
What are three taphonic features that can affect a fossil?
What causes fragmentation?
What types of degradation are involved in bioerosion?
How might an untrained field worker misinterpret orientation?
Now click on the "Forms of Preservation" link: http://paleo.cortland.edu/tutorial/Taphonomy&Pres/preservation.htm. This page describes the various ways in which fossils (hominin and nonhominin) are preserved: unaltered, molds and casts, replacement and recrystallization, carbonization, and permineralization. Figure 2 on the site provides a helpful graphic illustrating the various forms.
Which form(s) do you imagine most often preserve hominin remains?
How does a specific paleoenvironment affect the type of preservation of a fossil?
