Question

Unit 1B Portfolio item for CA.
Shale often contains fossils of leaves. If the gastropods listed in line 3 and line 6 were collected from shale containing leaf fossils, could you use radiocarbon dating to assign a numerical date to this rock unit?

Answer 1

No. Radiocarbon dating has an effective range to only about 62,000 years ago (and the further back you go, the higher your error will be). The fossils in the shale are much older than that, so you can be sure that the leaves are not recent enough to be dated that way.