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According to the KQED video Science on the SPOT: Lupe the Mammoth Comes to Life, how can you tell the biological age of a mammoth (how old it was when it died, NOT the age of its fossils?

User Elysire
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Final answer:

The biological age of a mammoth can be determined using carbon dating by comparing the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 found in the remains of the mammoth with the ratio in living tissue.

Step-by-step explanation:

The biological age of a mammoth can be determined by using carbon dating. Carbon-14 dating is a method used to estimate the age of organic materials up to 50,000 years old.

By comparing the ratio of the isotope carbon-14 (¹4C) to carbon-12 (¹2C) found in the remains of a mammoth with the ratio in living tissue, scientists can determine how old the mammoth was when it died.

The ratio of ¹4C to ¹2C in a mammoth would be similar to the ratio in living elephants.

User Navid Rezaei
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