Some radiometric dating methods give values of
millions to hundreds of millions of years for the
rocks surrounding fossils. But when we examine
the data, we find that dating rock layers can give
vastly different ages depending on the method
used. For example, a particular rock formation in
the Grand Canyon has been dated at 516 million
years, 892 million years, 1,111 million years, 1,385
million years and 1,588 million years depending on
the method used.* So how old would you say that
rock was?
Volcanic rocks formed during a 1950s New
Zealand eruption were subjected to modern
radiometric dating techniques. Although the rocks
were known to be only 50 years old, the dating
methods gave ages ranging from hundreds of
millions to thousands of millions of years.* If these
methods assign old ages to recent rocks, how can
we know with confidence the age of any rock?
Carbon-14 dating, the only method that
actually dates the fossils (and not merely the rocks
around them), appears to be the most accurate
technique. It can give dates only in thousands (as
opposed to millions) of years. Recent discoveries of
soft tissue and DNA fragments in fossils, including
dinosaur fossils supposedly millions of years old,