Can you explain to me how scientists determine the age of a fossil?
Can you explain to me how scientists determine the age of a fossil?
user
Hm, well I think it has to do with dating the rocks around the fossil, because rocks are a reliable record of time passing, and that’s how we can deduce the age of something from looking at other things that came before it.
assistant
Okay, is there a specific method they use?
user
Sure, let me find the official way to figure out the age of a fossil:
assistant
Wow, very interesting! So a rock and a fossil have a ton of clues on it?
user
Yep, so fossils will often have layers of sediment on top of them, or the other way around. And sometimes they’ll also have ripples in the sediments that show how water currents moved around the rock.  So scientists look at the layers to understand what sorts of things happened to the rock, and how long those things happened for, which helps them figure out how old the rock is.
assistant
Amazing, thanks for your help
user