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A comment on 3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor discovered in Ethiopia. Parent comment

Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by linnaeus on Thursday August 29, 2019 @07:47AM (#20828612)
> A fossil hominin cranium was discovered in mid-Pliocene deltaic strata in the Godaya Valley of the northwestern Woranso-Mille study area in Ethiopia. Here we show that analyses of chemically correlated volcanic layers and the palaeomagnetic stratigraphy, combined with Bayesian modelling of dated tuffs, yield an age range of 3.804 ± 0.013 to 3.777 ± 0.014 million years old (mean ± 1σ) for the deltaic strata and the fossils that they contain.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1514-7

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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by Yajirobe on Thursday August 29, 2019 @08:27AM (#20828855)
ELI5
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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by polymatter on Thursday August 29, 2019 @08:43AM (#20828956)
They found the bone in the rock. Scientists look at the rock and can tell the rocks age. They assume that the bone is about the same age as the rock it was found inside.
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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by Yajirobe on Thursday August 29, 2019 @09:01AM (#20829062)
And how did they determine the age of the rock?
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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by ralphhughes on Thursday August 29, 2019 @09:51AM (#20829451)
There are many methods of determining rock age. A common one is finding signature fossils that are known to only exist between certain ages. Putting the rock in a machine to record its magnetic field and correlating this with pole reversals on earth. Using isotope ratios (not just radiocarbon dating), chemical composition, identifying how the sediment was laid down by rivers or the sea etc.
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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by 8bitsrule on Thursday August 29, 2019 @10:00PM (#20835385)
This may be as close to ELI5 as it can be. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiometric_dating
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Re:3.8M-year-old skull of an early ape-like human ancestor d... by jcmoscon on Thursday August 29, 2019 @09:10AM (#20829131)
Scientists look at the bone and can tell the bones age. ((Just kidding))
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