4 ms·
Apparently it is possible to do radiocarbon dating on tooth enamel. Enamel contains 0.4% carbon and is indeed frozen at time of development. Unfortunately, we'
by 3JPLW 7y ago
Apparently it is possible to do radiocarbon dating on tooth enamel. Enamel contains 0.4% carbon and is indeed frozen at time of development. Unfortunately, we're limited to post-nuclear testing because without the atmospheric diffusion C14 has very low precision due to the half-life of 5730 years.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2957015/
https://www.nature.com/articles/437333a https://www.nature.com/articles/437333a
- iguy 7y agoThanks! That's interesting, to use the post-nuclear curve as a modern clock, instead of using C14's half life for an ancient clock. For a given tooth they seem to assume all enamel was from one date, during childhood.