Confession time as “experts in mass extinctions, ancient climate and the art of dating rocks got together to work out plans for a more accurate and complete geological timescale,” reports an article in Nature vol.425, p550, 9 Oct 2003. Samuel Bowring from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge commented: “The record is hopelessly incomplete.”
The Nature article goes on to say: “ … researchers often simply estimate rock ages by comparing the fossils found in one stripe of rock to another of known age. What’s more, many historically important layers of rocks were dated before the more accurate techniques were invented”.
Editorial Comment: A good quote to help your geology profession eat a little humble pie on fossils, dating and evolution.