Radiocarbon dating has given two different dates for the same mammoth

Claim

  • “One part of the Vollosovitch mammoth carbon dated at 29,500 years old and another part at 44,000″ (Troy L. Pewe, Quaternary Stratigraphic Nomenclature in Unglaciated Central Alaska, Geological Survey Professional Paper 862)
  • “One part of Dima [a baby frozen mammoth] was 40,000, another part was 26,000 and the ‘wood immediately around the carcass’ was 9-10,000″ (Troy L. Pewe, Quaternary Stratigraphic Nomenclature in Unglaciated Central Alaska, Geological Survey Professional Paper 862)
  • “The lower leg of the Fairbanks Creek mammoth had a radiocarbon age of 15,380 RCY (radio carbon years), while its skin and flesh were 21,300 RCY.” (Harold E. Anthony, “Natures Deep Freeze,” Natural History, Sept. 1949, p. 300)

Rebuttal

  1. The citation given for the Vollosovitch mammoth and Dima does not claim that two different dates were obtained for the same mammoth. Instead it provides 3 different dates for 3 different mammoths. One is dated to 32,700 (+/-980), the second to 15,380 (+/-30) and the last to 21,300 (+/-1,300).
    1. It is worth noting that none of these dates match the ones provided by the creationist.
    2. Dima was not discovered until 1977, two years after the citation given was published.

  2. The radiocarbon dates for the Fairbanks Creek mammoth were allegedly published in September, several months before the first ever radiocarbon resultswere published in December. As such they are unlikely to be true otherwise they would be acknowledged as the first ever radiocarbon results published.
    1. The first ever radiocarbon results do not include dates for a mammoth

References

Guthrie, Russell Dale. 1990. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: The Story of Blue Babe. University of Chicago Press.
 Pewe T. 1975. Quaternary Stratigraphic Nomenclature in Unglaciated Central Alaska. Geological Survey Professional Paper 862
Taylor & Aitken, M., 1997. Chronometric Dating in Archaeology, New York: Plenum Press.