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fossil dinosaur skull and carbon-14 decay

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A fossil dinosaur skull has been found in Montana and has been C-14 dated to be 73 million years old. Provide two scientifically based reasons to explain why C-14 dating cannot do this.

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Solution Summary

This solution investigates the age of a fossil dinosaur skull and provides two reasons why C-14 dating cannot have dated the skull accurately.

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As soon as a living organism dies, it stops taking in new carbon. The ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 at the moment of death is the same as that of every other living thing, but the carbon-14 decays and is not replaced. The carbon-14 decays with its half-life of 5,700 years, while the amount of ...

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