Question

While you and your classmate are studying for your biological anthropology midterm, your classmate tells you that the bones of Lucy, a famous australopithecine specimen that dates to about 3.2 million years ago, were dated based on carbon-14 analysis. Why is this incorrect?

Answer 1

The options for this incomplete question are :

Fossils are living organisms that have wholly or partially been transformed into rock.

Lucy does not have bones with organic material necessary for carbon-14 dating.

This specimen is also far too old for C-14 dating to be accurate, as well as for any other technique but palaeomagnetic dating.

Your classmate is therefore incorrect for all of the reasons listed. (All of the above)

Answer:

The correct answer is - all of the above reasons.

Explanation:

Fossils are living life forms that have completely or mostly been changed into the rock during the process of fossilization. Lucy doesn't have bones with organic material that are essential to use the carbon 14 dating technique.

This example is additionally very old for C-14 dating to be exact, just as for some other method, however, palaeomagnetic dating can do the job of dating in this case.

Thus, the correct answer is - all of the above reasons.