25 million year old frog discovered

[Joshua-777]

How do they estimate it to be 25,000,000 years old?

assumption,

[Oh Hamburgers!]

How do they estimate it to be 25,000,000 years old?

I was curious to that myself. The only quote I saw from the article was

The scientist said the frog lived about 25 million years ago, based on the geological strata where the amber was found.

I don't think there can be any difinitive proof of the age of the frog unless the scientists are allowed to drill and sample DNA. It would be a great thing if the miner gave scientists a chance to do research on that, the odds of something like that happening must be exceedingly rare!

[Guest Pragmatic Savant]

Carbon dating is a variety of radioactive dating which is applicable only to matter which was once living and presumed to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere, taking in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis.

Cosmic ray protons blast nuclei in the upper atmosphere, producing neutrons which in turn bombard nitrogen, the major constituent of the atmosphere . This neutron bombardment produces the radioactive isotope carbon-14. The radioactive carbon-14 combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and is incorporated into the cycle of living things.

The carbon-14 forms at a rate which appears to be constant, so that by measuring the radioactive emissions from once-living matter and comparing its activity with the equilibrium level of living things, a measurement of the time elapsed can be made.

Also the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and the universe is 13.7 billion years old. This is according to the latest data collected by the WMAP satellite.

[Kansasdad]

Carbon dating is a variety of radioactive dating which is applicable only to matter which was once living and presumed to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere, taking in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis.

Cosmic ray protons blast nuclei in the upper atmosphere, producing neutrons which in turn bombard nitrogen, the major constituent of the atmosphere . This neutron bombardment produces the radioactive isotope carbon-14. The radioactive carbon-14 combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and is incorporated into the cycle of living things.

The carbon-14 forms at a rate which appears to be constant, so that by measuring the radioactive emissions from once-living matter and comparing its activity with the equilibrium level of living things, a measurement of the time elapsed can be made.

Also the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and the universe is 13.7 billion years old. This is according to the latest data collected by the WMAP satellite.

Nowhere did it say they carbon dated the material. And carbon dating has been show to have some major flaws. It is the best we have but far from totally accurate.

K.D.

[sweetycakes]

Perhaps if you kiss it, it might turn into a handsome prince

[Joshua-777]

Carbon dating is a variety of radioactive dating which is applicable only to matter which was once living and presumed to be in equilibrium with the atmosphere, taking in carbon dioxide from the air for photosynthesis.

Cosmic ray protons blast nuclei in the upper atmosphere, producing neutrons which in turn bombard nitrogen, the major constituent of the atmosphere . This neutron bombardment produces the radioactive isotope carbon-14. The radioactive carbon-14 combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and is incorporated into the cycle of living things.

The carbon-14 forms at a rate which appears to be constant, so that by measuring the radioactive emissions from once-living matter and comparing its activity with the equilibrium level of living things, a measurement of the time elapsed can be made.

Also the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old, and the universe is 13.7 billion years old. This is according to the latest data collected by the WMAP satellite.

Even carbon datings has flaws, since they cannot carbon date a rock, when a fossil is full of minerals from the rock, and have no more decay left, it would be impossible to carbon date accuratly, so based on an assumption that this is that many years old, someone could use this method to aim towards the previous assumption, but it all starts with the assumption that this is that old. It is impossible to accuratly tell the exact date of a fossil that is over 10000 years old. after 10000 years old, there is no more decay left in the fossil to carbon date, so therefore it is impossible to get an accurate date. Now, carbon dating has been proven flawed, by multiple scientists using the same method and all getting different dates, and taking the average date between the multiple dates to come up with there credited date. A WMAP satelite cannot tell you how old the universe is, this is an impossibility. One thing I have found very interesting is that each method of dating all are based on an assumption, that that is the correct date, for example, if a scientist thought that a fossil was 1000000 years old, carbon dating would end up around that timeframe based of his assumption. The average fossil dates that are given alot, are soley based off the rocklayer date, and the rocklayer date is based of the fossil dates, so therefore it is based off the assumption rather than the evidence that it is that date.

[BurningBush]

Amazing!

[traveller]

A sidenote here: Y'all notice that Pragmatic Savant has been banned and cannot respond to you.

[SaturnV]

Carbon-dating only works on living things and it is only good up to ~50,000 years. After that, there is no 14-C left in the sample.

They probably used Uranium-series dating on the rocks the frog was found in, which allows for much longer range predictions. (238-U has a half life on the order of 4.4 billion years, IIRC, whereas 14-C has a 5,000 year half-life). The longer half-life also means that the resulting predictions are much more accurate than 14-C dates.

Perhaps a more accurate statement would be that the frog was found in 25-million year old rock, and is probably about the same age.

[Oh Hamburgers!]

A sidenote here: Y'all notice that Pragmatic Savant has been banned and cannot respond to you.

I saw that. Why did he get banned?