UST College of Science Department of Biological Sciences

1 Recreating fossil imprints and modelling the half-life concept

2
3 Normin Gem U. Tubaon1, John Christian W. Uy1, John Jerald B. Villamanca1, Carl Jonnen
4 C. Villanueva1, & Alicia Monique C. Yamamoto1
5
1
6 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Santo Tomas, Manila
7
8 ABSTRACT
9 Fossils and other rock formations are found even in the most remote places. These may be
10 subjected to either relative or absolute dating methods. In this experiment, smooth and rough
11 limestone rocks were made for recreating fossil imprints both of plants and animals,
12 respectively, while 50 coins of the same type were used with a container to demonstrate the
13 half-life concept. The fossil imprints were made with plants Lagerstroemia speciosa, Psidium
14 guajava, Persea sp., and Origanum vulgare, and animals Perna viridis, Decapterus
15 macarellus, and Pecten sp. The half-life model yielded a graph with an exponential decline
16 of the number of coins that remained tails up after shaking in the container. These coins
17 were halved every half-life in a manner similar to the radioactive decay of elements in nature.
18 Actual fossils and geologic deposits may be analyzed using the same fundamental concepts.
19
20 Keywords: fossils, radioactive half-life, radiometric dating
21
22 INTRODUCTION
23 Life is old. The dinosaurs are perhaps the most famous extinct creatures, and they had their
24 beginnings 250 million years ago. But life dates back much further. The age of the Earth is
25 about 4.6 billion years. However, the oldest known fossils are around 3.5 billion years old,
26 14 times the age of the oldest dinosaurs (Nutman, 2016).
27 Fossils are mineralized or otherwise preserved remains, remnants, or impressions of
28 animals, plants, and other organisms. These are evidences of life in a certain geologic time.
29 A fossil normally preserves only a portion of the deceased organism, usually one that was
30 partially mineralized in life such as the bones and teeth of vertebrates, or the chitinous
31 exoskeletons of invertebrates. Preservation of soft tissues is rare in the fossil records.
32 While most fossils are several thousands to billions of years old, there is no minimum
33 age for a fossil. Paleontologists, scientists who study fossils and their phylogenetic
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34 implications across geological timescales, determine the age of fossils via two methods:
35 relative and absolute dating (Peppe & Deino, 2013).
36 Relative dating is used to determine a fossils approximate age by comparing it to
37 similar rocks and fossils of known ages. Geologists have established a set of principles that
38 can be applied to sedimentary and volcanic rocks that are exposed at the Earth's surface to
39 determine the relative ages of geological events preserved in the rock record. Scientists can
40 also use certain types of fossils referred to as index fossils to assist in relative dating via
41 correlation. Index fossils are fossils that are known to occur only within a very specific age
42 range. Typically, these include the fossils that had a widespread geographic distribution such
43 as brachiopods, trilobites, and ammonites.
44 Another method used by paleontologists to determine the age of fossils is radiometric
45 dating. It is used to determine the precise age of the fossil being studied, by taking advantage
46 of the radioactive minerals that occur in rocks and fossils, almost like a geological clock.
47 More often, it is much easier to date volcanic rocks than the fossils themselves or the
48 sedimentary rocks in which they are found. Hence, the layers of volcanic rocks above and
49 below the layers containing fossils can be dated to provide the date range for the fossil-
50 bearing rocks.
51 The atoms in some elements have different forms called isotopes. These elements
52 break down at a constant rate over time through radioactive decay into their respective
53 isotopes. By measuring the ratio of the amount of the parent isotope to the amount of the
54 daughter isotope, an age can be determined.
55 While most people are more familiar with carbon dating, carbon dating is rarely
56 applicable to fossils. Carbon-14, the radioactive isotope of carbon used in carbon dating, has
57 a half-life of 5730 years. Thus, it decays too fast. It can only be used to date fossils younger
58 than about 75,000 years. On the other hand, Potassium-40 has a half-life of 1.25 billion years
59 and is common in rocks and minerals. This makes it ideal for dating older rocks and fossils.
60 Truly, fossils provide solid evidence that organisms from the past are not the same
61 as those found today—they show a progression of evolution. Fossils, along with the
62 comparative anatomy of organisms today, constitute the morphological record. By
63 comparing the anatomies of both modern and extinct species, paleontologists can infer the
64 lineages of said species. This approach is most successful for organisms that bore hard
65 body parts such as shells, bones, or teeth. The resulting fossil record tells the story of the
66 past and shows the evolution of form over millions of years.
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68 MATERIALS AND METHODS

69 The exercise is divided into two parts: making fossil imprints and modelling the half-life
70 concept. Smooth and rough limestones were created for the imprints while 50 coins of the
71 same type were used for the illustration of the half-life concept.
72 To create a smooth limestone dough for the plant fossil imprints, 1 cup of cornstarch,
73 2 cups of baking soda, and 1 ¼ cups of cold water were poured and mixed in a container.
74 This mixture was stirred over medium heat until it thickened into a moist mashed potato
75 consistency. Once this consistency was obtained, the mixture was removed from the hot
76 plate and cooled. The mixture was then kneaded and shaped into dough balls.
77 The rough limestone “rock” was created for the fossil imprints of the shells and fish
78 specimens. This was made by mixing 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon of vegetable
79 oil, and 1 teaspoon of alum powder while gradually adding ½ to 1 cup of water. The mixture
80 was then kneaded into a dough and shaped into dough balls as well.
81 The smooth and rough limestone doughs were then placed and pressed on a wax
82 paper. Plant specimens were placed and pressed onto the smooth limestone dough. The
83 plant specimens used were the leaves of Persea sp. (avocado), Lagerstroemia speciosa
84 (banaba), Psidium guajava (guava), and Origanum vulgare (oregano). On the other hand,
85 the shell and fish specimens were Pecten sp., Perna viridis or Tahong, and Decapterus
86 macrosoma or Galunggong, were placed and pressed onto the rough limestone dough. The
87 specimens were then removed from the doughs after being pressed, leaving imprints, after
88 which they were left to dry.
89 As for the half-life concept, 50 coins of the same type were placed in a covered
90 container. After shaking said container for 10 seconds, it was carefully placed and opened
91 on the table in such a way as to prevent any coin from flipping any further after shaking. All
92 coins that landed “heads up” were counted and removed. These steps were then repeated
93 with the remaining coins until no “tails up” coins were left to return to the container. The entire
94 process was repeated for three (3) times.
95
96 RESULTS
97 The smooth limestone was used for the plant imprints. This type of limestone had a very fine
98 texture. Although both plant and animal fossils are usually found in rougher limestones in
99 nature (Kerp & Bomfleur, 2011), this sample rock was chosen in order to more accurately
100 see the detail of the leaf venation and margins.
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101 Imprinted were the leaves of four (4) plant species: Persea sp. (avocado),
102 Lagerstroemia speciosa (banaba), Psidium guajava (guava), and Origanum vulgare
103 (oregano).
104

105

106
107 Figure 1. Clockwise from upper left: Lagerstroemia speciosa, Psidium guajava, Persea sp.,
108 and Origanum vulgare fossil imprints on smooth limestone rocks.
109
110 A different composition was chosen for the material on which animal fossil imprints were
111 made. Animal fossils occur naturally in limestones of similar texture (Chen et al., 2014). The
112 drying of the material took long hours but, unlike the smooth limestone models, did not easily
113 crack as it cured.
114 Nine (9) animal specimens found in marine environments were imprinted on rough
115 limestone: one (1) shell of Perna viridis (tahong), six (6) shells of Pecten sp. (scallops), and
116 two (2) backbones of Decapterus macarellus (galunggong). Said specimens were pressed
117 against the dough which, upon removal of the specimen, were left to dry.
118
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119

120
121 Figure 2. Clockwise from upper left: Perna viridis, Decapterus macarellus, and two (2)
122 images of Pecten sp. fossil imprints on rough limestone rocks.
123
124 Those shown in Figure 2 do not include all specimen photos of the Pecten and Decapterus
125 fossil imprints. The rough limestone rocks seemed to show less cracks compared to the
126 smooth limestone rock samples.
127 The fossil imprint for Perna viridis seems the least appealing due to its natural
128 absence of physical crests and features distinguishable to the touch. Compared to the other
129 specimens, however, P. viridis exhibited colorations and were glossy. This is why it is not as
130 easy to infer the physical appearances of extinct creatures in terms of color as it is to infer
131 said appearances and morphological characters in terms of shape and size.
132 On the other hand, the entire process of shaking the container and demonstrating
133 the concept of half-life was repeated three (3) times. Results were recorded and averaged,
134 and the standard error was consequently computed.
135
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136 Table 1. The following are tabulated results of three (3) sets of trials for the half-life concept.
137
TABLE 1 TABLE 2 TABLE 3 AVERAGE
TRIALS NO. OF NO. OF NO. OF NO. OF NO. OF NO. OF NO. OF
HEADS TAILS HEADS TAILS HEADS TAILS TAILS
0 0 50 0 50 0 50 50
1 27 23 15 35 26 24 27.3333333
2 37 13 33 17 38 12 14
3 43 7 45 5 44 6 6
4 50 0 48 2 46 4 2
5 0 0 48 2 48 2 1.33333333
6 0 0 49 1 49 1 0.66666667
138
7 0 0 50 0 50 0 0
139
140 With the values obtained from the averaged data, we performed theoretical calculations on
141 the half-life of the theoretical Carbon-14 sample in this experiment using the formula:
𝑙𝑛(% 𝑟𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔)
142 𝑡= × 5730
−0.693
143 As expected for the beginning, the age was calculated to be 0 years old. This changed,
144 however, as the trials went on. Trials 1 through 6 averaged at 4993, 10525, 17531, 26615,
145 29967, and 35699 years old.
146 The model for half-life may also be used for other elements in lieu of Carbon-14, and
147 the half-life of the theoretical sample used in these computations merely have to be replaced.
148

149
150 Figure 1. Shown above is a graph illustrating the depreciating average number of coins
151 landing tails up as trials were repeated. Error bars are shown. Values taken from Table 1.
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152
153 The exponential trend of the graph illustrates the decreasing number of coins in a manner
154 similar to the radioactive decay of elements.
155 Worthy of note is the absolute lack of possible error at first where all trials started
156 with a complete set of 50 coins. The exponential decrease roughly halved the previous
157 number of coins for every succeeding trial.
158
159 DISCUSSION
160 For the creation of fossil imprints, we executed the same procedure commonly used amongst
161 other educational institutions (Mammoth Cave National Park, n.d.).
162 In the rough limestone model, ingredients with larger particles such as alum powder
163 and salt were used in making the rock. On the other hand, cornstarch and baking soda were
164 used in making the smooth limestone model. These contain very fine particles.
165 This allowed us to create samples that were fundamentally different in texture and
166 composition, with those made using alum powder and salt being far coarser than those made
167 using cornstarch and baking soda.
168 These limestones are very different from those that naturally occur in nature made
169 from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal, and fecal debris (King, n.d.).
170 The half-life concept, however, was illustrated in a much different way. Results
171 obtained were similar to the way radioactive isotopes decay over time in that the decay
172 happens in an exponential manner predictable via the use of radioactive half-lives (Mihailović
173 & Povh, 1958; Sinclair & Holloway, 1951; Yule, 1967).
174 In Figure 1, the line graph can be observed to have an exponential decrease from
175 the initial 100% theoretical Carbon-14 content. While the rate at which radioactive nuclei
176 decay from one form to a daughter isotope differ from element to element, it remains to be
177 a constant across the known substances that they are hardly and almost never completely
178 used up in decay (Sullivan, 1961).
179 This allows us to affirm in this experiment that, given samples with complete
180 radioisotope content, paleontologists are indeed capable of estimating the age of fossils and
181 the geologic deposits wherein they are located.
182 However, the half-life of certain radioisotopes must be considered in choosing
183 whether to perform absolute dating on a specimen using a certain type of element. Some of
184 them half half-lives that are too small to estimate the age of much older specimens.
185
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186 CONCLUSION
187 The exercise consisted of making fossil imprints and half-life models in succession. Both
188 parts of the experiment illustrated important aspects of different methods of dating fossils:
189 relative and absolute dating.
190 Recreating fossil imprints holds relevance to both relative and absolute dating. In the
191 former, rock layers are inferred to be older than the layers above them. In like manner, fossils
192 caught in between rock layers may be inferred to be older or younger than other fossils in
193 other rock layers.
194 For the latter, however, paleontologists utilize radiometric dating. The results may be
195 synthesized in that fossil imprints made are but one type of fossil. Others include and even
196 leave remnants of their own organic material.
197 These remnants may be subjected to radiometric dating as illustrated by the half-life
198 concept. The experiments performed here in the laboratory allow us to conceptualize the
199 methods used by scientists in accurately determining the age of fossils and rock formations.
200 Such advanced methods no doubt imply even more developments towards more
201 sophisticated means, thus allowing even greater accuracy in inferring the overarching history
202 of our geologic timeframes.
203
204 REFERENCES
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