New dinosaur dating technique paper released
PhysOrg.com [USA], February 16, 2011
Antonio Simonetti, a research associate professor in the Department of
Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences at the University of Notre
Dame, is the coauthor of an important new paper describing a novel
method for age dating dinosaur fossils. Simonetti and colleagues from
the University of Alberta used a U-Pb (uranium-lead) dating technique to
analyze a fossilized dinosaur bone discovered in New Mexico. In a paper
in the prestigious journal Geology, the researchers discuss their method
and reveal that it determined that the femur bone from a giant hadrosaur
dinosaur was 64.8 million years old. The finding has caused a
significant stir in scientific circles. There has been wide agreement
among paleontologists that dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65.5 million
years ago. Various theories as to the cause of this extinction have been
suggested, ranging from a huge asteroid striking the earth to changes in
global sea levels and climate to sustained periods of volcanism.
However, the method used by Simonetti and his colleagues determined that
the New Mexico plant eating dinosaur was alive roughly 700,000 years
after the surmised giant extinction event.
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-dinosaur-dating-technique-paper.html
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