Do animals release carbon when they decompose?

Question

Do animals release carbon when they decompose?

Answer 1

i think you know we are all made up of organic compounds which have carbon as an important constituent.when an animal body decompose all the organic compound get destroyed and the various elements are released to the environ ment carbon also released at that time .

it is the carbon of a kind called c12 .



but how the carbon dating done is...

the animal contains the carbon of the kind c12 as well as a new one called c14 which was absorbed  from the atmosphere  and consumed from some foods .

c12, c14 these two type presnt in every cells .but the later is the radioactive one.

on the decomposition of body these two are released. as long as in our body c14 will not emit any rays . but it will emit  

from the same time of death of the animal.

measuring the amount of radiationfrom c14  is carbon dating.

Answer 2

Yes, they do. Every living organism contains carbon, even plants and insects. When they die and decompose, soon all the materials in that body decompose into simpler forms, releasing the carbon.

Carbon dating is one of the methods in looking up the age of remains/fossils of animals and plants. In this method, the amount of release of carbon is measured.

Answer 3

Yes. Every living thing contains carbon and that's how scientists find out how long ago an animal lived by carbon dating. They measure the amount of carbon and they know because carbon is released at a certain rate.