The Old Man from Olduvai
Fossil skull of Zinjanthropus, nearly 2,000,000 years old, discovered in 1959 by Dr. L. S. B. Leakey in Olduvai Gorge. Accurate dating of this earliest human ancestor was possible by using the potassium-argon method.
One of the most talked-about age measurements in recent years was the determination of the unexpectedly great age of fossil ancestors of man, found by the British anthropologist, Dr. L. S. B. Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The measurements were made by Garniss H. Curtis and Jack F. Evernden at the University of California in Berkeley by the potassium-argon method. The age came out a little less than 2 million years, about twice as old as it “should be” in the view of many scientists. Human remains of such great antiquity had never been found before, and much doubt was raised about the validity of the figures.
Time periods as short as two million years are not easy to measure by potassium-argon. The amount of argon produced in that time is extremely small, and contamination by argon from the air is a serious problem. Still, the measurements were repeated, the rocks were studied again, and the result did not change: The fossils were still about 2 million years old.
In cases like this, one tries to find some other method to check the results in an independent way. After many attempts it was discovered that the same rock strata dated by potassium-argon also contained some pumice—a porous volcanic glass—and that this glass was suitable for uranium fission-track dating. The measurements were made in the General Electric Research Laboratory. What was the result? Just about 2 million years!
When such altogether different techniques give the same number, one can have some confidence that the number is exact. It would be difficult to imagine a disturbance in nature that would cause these unrelated methods to give the same wrong number—in both cases by a factor of two. The double check simply means the Olduvai man is 2 million years old. There is not much doubt about it.