References
- Bodies of evidence:
from the Channel 4 TV programme - Radiocarbon dating:
the Dating Game interactive from NOVA
Piltdown man
One way to work out the age of some fossils today is by using radiocarbon dating. Click on the picture to find out how scientists would use radiocarbon dating to age the Piltdown Man remains today.
Dating the bones
'The likelihood of actually finding this many index fossils at one site are very slim. Why did they only find the teeth of all these animals? Where were the other bones?'
Andy Currant, Museum palaeontologist.
Index fossils are fossils of plants or animals that are known to occur widely in sedimentary rocks of a particular age, so finding them in a new location can help to date the site.
Most scientists today would be very suspicious of finding 15 index fossils from five different animals at one site. When it was realised that Piltdown was probably a forgery, one of the methods used to accurately date the fossils was radiocarbon dating.
