The Role of Stratigraphy in Dating Fossils. Stratigraphy involves studying rock layers (strata) to determine the relative ages of fossils.

Estimating the age of hominid fossils is usually a painstaking, two-part process, involving both "absolute" and "relative" dating. "Absolute" dating means finding a specific age for an object.

Fossils are invaluable archives of the past. They preserve details about living things from a few thousand to hundreds of ...

For nearly a century, scientists have been puzzling over fossils from a strange and robust-looking distant relative of early ...