Amino acid dating

The amino acid dating ( also Aminosäureracemisierung, amino acid method, Aminosäureuhr, Eiweißuhr or Racematmethode called ) is a dating method for fossil bone material. It is because mainly existing in the living organism of the amino acids L-form is racemized by slow the death of the D- form. Knowing the speed of this process, one can infer the age of the sample from the ratio of D- and L- amino acids in fossil material. However, this applies only if the fossil was exposed to a stable climatic conditions and is not older than 100,000 years. Since the racemization is highly temperature dependent, large errors in the age determination may occur.