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Darryl Granger is a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue University’s College of Science. In this video, he explains how a new dating method he developed shows that some fossils of early human relatives are older than previously thought. Granger says this dating method uses a rare isotope that is produced near the surface and begins to decay when dropped into a cave. Other dating methods make use of volcanic rocks to help determine a fossil's age, but in a cave environment this was not possible. This makes Granger’s method of dating one of the few that could be used to date these fossils. Thanks to this new method, the fossils of Austrelopithicus were found to be millions of years older than previously thought.

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