| absolute dating technique | Dating method that gives a specific age, year, or range of years for an object or site. Compare with relative dating technique.
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| argon/argon dating | A radiometric dating technique that uses the decay of radioactive argon into stable argon gas. Can be used to date smaller samples and volcanic rock with greater accuracy than does potassium/argon dating.
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| biostratigraphy | The study of fossils in their stratigraphic context. Used as a relative dating technique.
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| carnivore | An organism adapted to a diet of mostly meat. See also omnivore.
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| chronometric techniques | Another name for absolute dating techniques.
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| electron spin resonance dating (ESR) | An absolute dating technique that measures the number of electrons excited to higher energy levels by natural radiation and trapped at those levels. Can be used to date tooth enamel, shells, corals, mineral cave deposits, and volcanic rock, but does not work well on bone.
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| half-life | The time needed for one-half of a given amount of a radioactive substance to decay.
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| luminescence dating | An absolute dating technique that measures trapped electrons by releasing their energy in the form of light. Can be used to date fired clay, pottery, brick, and burned stones. It may have some application in soil dating.
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| omnivore | An organism with a mixed diet of animal and vegetable foods. Compare with carnivore.
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| osteology | The study of the skeleton.
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| paleopathology | The study of disease and nutritional deficiency in prehistoric populations, usually with reference to the use of skeletal material.
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| petrified | A fossil that has turned to stone. As the organic material decays, it is slowly replaced by minerals, leaving a cast in stone of the organism or some of its parts.
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| potassium/argon (K/Ar) dating | A radiometric dating technique using the rate at which radioactive potassium, found in volcanic rock, decays into stable argon gas. See also argon/argon dating.
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| provenience | The precise location where a fossil or artifact was found.
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| radiocarbon dating | A radiometric dating technique using the decay rate of a radioactive form of carbon found in organic remains.
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| radiometric | Referring to the decay rate of a radioactive substance. See argon/argon dating; carbon dating; and potassium/argon dating.
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| relative dating technique | A dating method that indicates the age of one item in comparison to another. Stratigraphy provides relative dates by indicating that one layer is older or younger than another. Compare with absolute dating technique.
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| sexual dimorphism | Physical differences between the sexes of a species not related to reproductive features. See sex.
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| sites | Locations that contain fossil or archaeological evidence of human presence.
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| superposition | The principle of stratigraphy that, barring disturbances, more recent layers are superimposed over older ones.
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| taphonomy | The study of how organisms become part of the paleontological record-how fossils form and what processes affect them through time.
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| trephination | Cutting a hole in the skull, presumably to treat some illness, a practice within some societies with prescientific knowledge.
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education