Thanks for the welcomes.
Anglagard--
quote:
The fossils are not carbon dated because radiocarbon dating is not generally accurate beyond 50,000 years and not at all accurate beyond 100,000 years due to having so few atoms of leftover C14. Generally, such fossils are dated by their placement in the geologic record which is dated using various argon isotopes and paleomagnetism in associated volcanic deposits that must have occurred at roughly the same time according to basic geologic principles such as superposition.
I was aware of the inaccuracy of carbon dating after so many years, as you've said, and, silly of me enough, I learned just yesterday that that's how such fossils as those are generally dated, yet was still stuck on carbon. I digress.
quote:
The various fossils associated with the human lineage over the last 5 million years are not themselves separated by millions of years but rather orders of tens to hundreds of thousands. In fact in several instances different species actually overlap in time as shown here.
I guess I was speaking of the earliest stages of humans, which after consulting my biology book, the earliest was 6-7 millions of years ago, and various gradual changing ones with every million years or so. Maybe not MILLIONS of years apart, but still some pretty daring gaps for the best clarity? I guess that's just an open opinion though, like I said, I'm still trying to get into this stuff, so, shows how much I know anyway, lol.
CosmicChimp--
quote:
Small changes (micro-) can accumulate. The sum total of that type of accumulation can and often times does add up to a large scale change (macro-). You can see that as true right?
Surely. Maybe I differentiated between the two on a scale larger than it actually was. Makes sense.
And, RAZD... very well-put collection of the concept at hand. But for me, I'm going by more than just belief. But that's just experience that I can't put on anyone else, however explains my aspiration for this subject. I'll by no means be close-minded to evidence, yet to a degree, I guess I am ultimately close-minded at the end. I look forward to further future discussion--probably still in this board, but as Anglagard said, not straying as far from the OP as we may already have.
Need to read me some books and good websites after finals... maybe even that long Wikipedia article, lol.