How did scientists come to the conclusion that dinosaurs lived over 65 million years ago?

Question

Carbon dating cannot date anything that old, did they just guess based off of how deep the bones are buried? With the recent discovery of dinosaur tissue in some dinosaur bones, I think it's safe to assume that they got their estimates all wrong. What made them decide that 65 million years was the exact date anyway, there is absolutely no way to 'date' anything beyond 60,000 years old as far as I know.

Answer 1

If you dig deeper into the ground you back to more ancient times and dinosaurs were deep so that told them that they lived more than 65 Million Years Ago.

Answer 2

if you google  fossil dating techniques

you'll get lots of hits.

that is, if you're interested.

Answer 3

You are correct that Radiocarbon Dating cannot date anything older than about 60,000 years, as there isn't enough C14 left to measure.

Also - fossils do not generally contain any biological material - they are actually stone, formed by a process called "permineralisation".

It is true that some organism material may have been found in dionsaur bones recently, but its source and identity is not yet confirmed.

But carbon dating is far from the only radioisotope dating method available - others (like Potassium/Argon, and Uranium/Lead) can be used to date older items. In fact, it is these which have been used to date the age of the earth at about 4.5 Billion years.

Answer 4

Let's not forget that the rocks dinosaur fossils are found within are dated in and of themselves.  Also, we can identify a thin layer of iridium coating the earth's geologic lifespan at a particular point in time.  Every sedimentary layer of rock on our earth can be evaluated by dating.  Iridium is not an element found in any abundance on our planet and above this line, no dinosaur fossils have ever been found (lending weight to the asteroid impact theory).  Below this line, is rock dated to approximately 65 million years and older.

As for the T-Rex "tissue," it looks like the jury of experts is still out while (as seen in most search engines online) the creation-extremists were quite quick to hail the discovery made by the same scientists that they renounce on any other given day.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...

Answer 5

As far as I know, they dated the dinosaur bones by measuring the various layers of strata (rock layers, it kinda looks like stripes of dirt.) and determining how long ago those layers had been laid down.

You can't carbon date dinosaur bones, because they're not bones, they're fossils. The act of fossilization removes any organic matter and replaces it with, basically, rock, which forms where the organic matter used to be in an interesting crystallization process, which is also why we can't do DNA testing on the bones.

Also, keep in mind that there are places in South Dakota and other dinosaur digs where the fossils are very close to the surface. So it's not actually that they're particularly deep! You have to keep in mind that erosion due to glacier effects, wind and water will dig down into the earth rather deep, exposing fossilized remains. It's actually very fascinating, and I suggest you read up on some Geology to find out more.  

Answer 6

Carbon dating. The carbon-14 isotope decays with a half life of about 6000 years. After 6000 years, there are only half of the carbon-14 isotopes left. If you know how much carbon-14 there was originally and how much there is now, you can calculate how much time has passed.

The carbon-14 enters plants and dust from the atmosphere, and animals and humans from the atmosphere, plants or other animals.

Answer 7

Radiometric dating using radioactive isotopes other than carbon can be used to date the rock layers where the fossils are found.   It can date rocks many millions of years old.   Some people seem to only think of Carbon 14 dating.   Do some research on the internet and you may learn a lot about dating old fossils.  

Lets give the scientists involved  in these matters credit for  some intelligence.

Edit:   Carbon 14 can only be used to date things less than 50,000 years old, normally, because so little is left after that much time.

Answer 8

there bones asre old