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Radiocarbon Dating

All articles tagged with #radiocarbon dating

Your body changes atom by atom, but your sense of self endures as a pattern
science1 day ago

Your body changes atom by atom, but your sense of self endures as a pattern

A science article explains that while the body replaces most of its atoms over years (roughly 330 grams per day), personal identity persists not through fixed matter but through organized patterns: memories, neural connections, and continuing biological processes. Some components—like eye lens proteins, teeth, and certain neurons—last for decades, but overall continuity arises from how the body and mind maintain structure and memory, making the self a process rather than a static object.

via Space Daily|
#aging#biology#identity
Hidden Charcoal Sets New Ages for Font-de-Gaume Ice Age Paintings
archaeology19 days ago

Hidden Charcoal Sets New Ages for Font-de-Gaume Ice Age Paintings

A CNRS-led team used noninvasive Raman microspectrometry and hyperspectral imaging to detect charcoal in the black pigments of Font-de-Gaume’s Paleolithic cave paintings, proving carbon was present and enabling direct radiocarbon dating for the first time. They dated the bison panel to about 13,461–13,162 calBP and parts of a mask to roughly 9,000–15,000 calBP, suggesting Dordogne cave art is older than previously thought and paving the way to date other sites like Lascaux. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 9, 2026.

via SciTechDaily|
#archaeology#charcoal-pigment#dordogne
Nearly 400-Year-Old Greenland Shark Upends Lifespan Expectations
science24 days ago

Nearly 400-Year-Old Greenland Shark Upends Lifespan Expectations

A 2016 study estimated a Greenland shark could be as old as about 392 years, likely born around the end of Shakespeare’s era, and unlikely to reach sexual maturity until roughly age 150. Researchers dated the eye lens nucleus using radiocarbon dating, using the 1950s nuclear-test carbon-14 spike as a time stamp, and analyzed 28 females with a margin of error about 120 years. This extreme longevity makes it the longest-lived vertebrate and implies very slow population recovery, posing conservation challenges for the species.

via Space Daily|
#conservation#greenland-shark#lifespan
70-Year Fossil Mix-Up Reveals Ancient Whales in Mammoth Labels
science1 month ago

70-Year Fossil Mix-Up Reveals Ancient Whales in Mammoth Labels

Alaskan fossils long labeled as mammoth bones were found to be two whale species (minke whale and North Pacific right whale) after radiocarbon dating showed ages of 2,000–3,000 years — far younger than mammoths. Isotopic and DNA testing confirmed cetacean origin and marine diets, and the remains, stored for seven decades in a museum, were likely mislabeled or misattributed since the 1950s. The discovery prompts questions about how coastal whale remains ended up inland and adds to a growing pattern of fossil misidentification.

via New York Post|
#dna-analysis#fossils#misidentification
Alaska Fossil Mix-Up: Whale Bones Misidentified as Mammoths for 70 Years
science1 month ago

Alaska Fossil Mix-Up: Whale Bones Misidentified as Mammoths for 70 Years

Fossils housed for decades at the University of Alaska Museum of the North were long labeled as woolly mammoths, but new radiocarbon dating and isotope analyses show they are two whales (likely a Northern Pacific right whale and a common minke whale) dating to about 2,000–3,000 years ago, far younger than mammoths. Mitochondrial DNA confirmed whale identity. How they ended up inland remains unclear, with hypotheses including inland whale incursions, transport by ancient humans, or a museum mix-up; the study concludes the specimens are not mammoths.

via ScienceAlert|
#isotopes#mammoth#paleontology
Greenland sharks live for centuries and still see in the deep, debunking the 'blind for life' myth
science1 month ago

Greenland sharks live for centuries and still see in the deep, debunking the 'blind for life' myth

A 2026 Nature Communications study shows Greenland sharks can live for centuries and retain a functional visual system, overturning the long-standing claim that they are nearly blind due to an eye parasite. Earlier radiocarbon dating suggested lifespans up to ~392 years, but the new work finds preserved retinal tissue and active low-light vision, prompting a rethink of how we understand ultra-long-lived deep-sea animals.

via Space Daily|
#eye-parasite#greenland-shark#longevity
Shroud of Turin DNA: Plant Traces Suggest Post-1492 Contamination
science2 months ago

Shroud of Turin DNA: Plant Traces Suggest Post-1492 Contamination

Researchers analyzing dust and fibers from the Shroud of Turin report plant DNA—carrot, bread wheat and other crops—signalling contamination over time rather than confirming the relic’s age; they caution metagenomics can’t reliably date the cloth, even as radiocarbon dating in 1988 placed it medieval (1260–1390 AD) and 2024 WAXS results broadly align with a two-millennium history.

via Fox News|
#archaeogenetics#contamination#dna-analysis
Bow and Arrow Arrive in North America About 1,400 Years Ago, Study Finds
science3 months ago

Bow and Arrow Arrive in North America About 1,400 Years Ago, Study Finds

Radiocarbon dating of carefully selected North American weapons places the bow and arrow’s emergence at roughly 1,400 years ago. Adoption was rapid in the south, where the bow quickly supplanted the atlatl, while in the north the bow coexisted with the atlatl for centuries, implying a single origin with regionally varying diffusion. The study highlights a context-dependent pattern of technological evolution influenced by environment and social networks, with faster replacement in some regions and prolonged toolkit diversity in others.

via Ars Technica|
#atlatl#bow-and-arrow#diffusion
science3 months ago

Bow and Arrow Transform Western North America About 1,400 Years Ago

A study analyzing 136 radiocarbon-dated organic weapons from western North America shows the bow-and-arrow spread across the region roughly 1,400 years ago, quickly replacing the atlatl in the southern parts while northern areas used both for over a thousand years, suggesting rapid diffusion through cultural networks with regional variation in adoption.

via Ground News|
#archaeology#bow-and-arrow#cultural-diffusion
28,000-Year-Old Lapedo Child Re-dating Narrows Neanderthal Hybrid Debate
science4 months ago

28,000-Year-Old Lapedo Child Re-dating Narrows Neanderthal Hybrid Debate

A new radiocarbon reassessment using hydroxyproline dating places the Lagar Velho burial in central Portugal at about 27,800–28,600 calibrated years ago, well after Neanderthals had vanished in Iberia, which narrows the window for late hybridization and suggests any Neanderthal traits reflect inherited modern-human ancestry rather than a recent interbreeding event; the find remains morphological without ancient DNA, and future work may use proteomics or DNA recovery to clarify admixture.

via The Daily Galaxy|
#gravettian#lapedo-child#neanderthal-admixture