Review the section Investigating Life Clues to the Origin of

Review the section \"Investigating Life: Clues to the Origin of Language.\" Scientists know that the mutations to FOXP2 arose before Neandertals. To determine how old the Neandertal fossils are, researchers must use radiometric dating. They use an isotope with a half-life of 12,000 years, and find that fossils from one Neandertal have 1/256^th (=1/2^8) of the isotope found In currently living organisms. How old would you predict these Neandertal fossils to be? about 50,000 years about 200,000 years about 400,000 years about 10,000 years about 100,000 years

Solution

age of substannce = no of halflives passed * half life

here no of half lives passed are 8 beacuse 1/256 of orginal sample is left

and half life of isotope is 12000

so age would be 12000*8 years = 96000

so the rough age is about 100,000 (which is most close to 96000)