by relative dating or radiometric dating
This is called an unconformity...
top will be younger bottom older
refers to how old a certain rock or rock layer is compared to another rock
A. the top layerof sedimentary rock isn't as old as the layers beneath it.
Absolute- Actual Age of a rock Relative- The age of something compared to other things Relative age does not tell how old something is but tells us in what order events have happened relative- the age of a rock or fossil compared to the surrounding rocks and fossil
fossils are formed in Sedimentary rock
There are layers of earth that are deposited over time and based on where a fossil is in the layers a scientist can understand what the age of the fossil is relevant to another fossil in a different layer of earth. The law of superposition says that new sediment is deposited on top of old sediment so, the sediment in the bottom layer is the oldest and the sediment at the top is the youngest. Because of this the fossils in the bottom layer are the oldest and the fossils near the top are the youngest. Say you have 10 layers of rock, and the top layer is number 1 (the youngest) and the bottom layer is number 10 (the oldest). Even if a scientist can't tell exactly how old a fossil is if they know it is in a layer deeper than another fossil they know it is older than that fossil so, a fossil from layer 9 is older than a fossil from layer 5 which is also older than a fossil from layer 3. This is relative age. If we take it a step further... If a scientist knows that the fossil in layer 4 is 65 million years old than we not only know the fossils in layer 5-10 are older than the one in layer 4, but that they are all older than 65 million years old. So, the fossils in layer 1-3 would be less than 65 million years old. Scientists can know how old a specific fossil is sometimes based on whether or not it is an index fossil (a fossil that only occurred during a very small, specific interval of time), or if it is possible to carbon date it or something in the same layer.
Relative dating
Because if you know how old the fossil is, and you find the fossil inside a rock, you know that rock has a maxium age corresponding with the age of the fossil.
rock layering is where you have one layer of old rock them a newer layer then an other newer layer.
The rock around a Phacops fossil is probably 405 and 365 million years old.
I can answer part of this question. If they can scientists use carbon dating to find the closest age of the fossil. If carbon dating is not possible they use a different technique such as this: If they look at the layers of the rocks, the rocks before and after the layer of rock the fossil was found in, can show an estimate of how old the fossil can be if they know the age of the rock layers before and after its layer.
Superposition is the theory that the rock layer that is on top is the youngest and the layer of rock on the bottom is the oldest.
1000 years
no
By using relative age. Over a long period of time, sediment will, layer by layer, coat and cover the fossil, making it difficult for paleontologists and scientists to figure out how old the fossil really is.
This is called an unconformity...