ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Bomb-curve radiocarbon measurement of recent biologic tissues and applications to wildlife forensics and stable isotope (paleo)ecology.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 87 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Life-history of Palaeoloxodon antiquus reveals Middle Pleistocene glacial refugium in the Megalopolis basin, Greece.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Increase on environmental seasonality through the European Early Pleistocene inferred from dental enamel hypoplasia.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- 14-Carbon demonstrates that some illegal ivory is being taken from government stockpiles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Palaeohistology reveals a slow pace of life for the dwarfed Sicilian elephant.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Bone need not remain an elephant in the room for radiocarbon dating.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Applying the principles of isotope analysis in plant and animal ecology to forensic science in the Americas.Oecologia · 2018Review
- Radiocarbon dating of seized ivory confirms rapid decline in African elephant populations and provides insight into illegal trade.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Article
- Hippopotamus (H. amphibius) diet change indicates herbaceous plant encroachment following megaherbivore population collapse.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Impact of fossil fuel emissions on atmospheric radiocarbon and various applications of radiocarbon over this century.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Above-ground thermonuclear weapons testing from 1952 through 1962 nearly doubled the concentration of radiocarbon ((14)C) in the atmosphere. As a result, organic material formed during or after this period may be radiocarbon-dated using the abrupt rise and steady fall of the atmospheric (14)C concentration known as the bomb-curve. We test the accuracy of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of 29 herbivore and plant tissues collected on known dates between 1905 and 2008 in East Africa. Herbivore samples include teeth, tusks, soft tissue, hair, and horn. Tissues formed after 1955 are dated to within 0.3-1.3 y of formation, depending on the tissue type, whereas tissues older than ca. 1955 have high age uncertainties (>17 y) due to the Suess effect. (14)C dating of tissues has applications to stable isotope (paleo)ecology and wildlife forensics. We use data from 41 additional samples to determine growth rates of tusks, molars, and hair, which improve interpretations of serial stable isotope data for (paleo)ecological studies. (14)C dating can also be used to calculate the time interval represented in periodic histological structures in dental tissues (i.e., perikymata), which in turn may be used as chronometers in fossil teeth. Bomb-curve (14)C dating of confiscated animal tissues (e.g., ivory statues) can be used to determine whether trade of the item is legal, because many Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species restrictions are based on the age of the tissue, and thus can serve as a powerful forensic tool to combat illegal trade in animal parts.
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