Applications
Data from the geochronological analysis of amino acid racemization has been building for thirty-five years. Archeology, stratigraphy, oceanography, paleogeography, paleobiology, and paleoclimatology have been particularly affected. Their applications include dating correlation, relative dating, sedimentation rate analysis, sediment transport studies, conservation paleobiology, taphonomy and time-averaging, sea level determinations, and thermal history reconstructions.
Paleobiology and archaeology have also been strongly affected. Bone, shell, and sediment studies have contributed much to the paleontological record, including that relating to hominoids. Verification of radiocarbon and other dating techniques by amino acid racemization and vice versa has occurred. The 'filling in' of large probability ranges, such as with radiocarbon reservoir effects, has sometimes been possible. Paleopathology and dietary selection, paleozoogeography and indigineity, taxonomy and taphonomy, and DNA viability studies abound. The differentiation of cooked from uncooked bone, shell, and residue is sometimes possible. Human cultural changes and their effects on local ecologies have been assessed using this technique.
The slight reduction in this repair capability during aging is important to studies of longevity and old age tissue breakdown disorders, and allows the determination of age of living animals.
Amino acid racemization also has a role in tissue and protein degradation studies, particularly useful in developing museum preservation methods. These have produced models of protein adhesive and other biopolymer deteriorations and the concurrent pore system development.
Forensic science can use this technique to estimate the age of a cadaver or an objet d'art to determine authenticity.
Read more about this topic: Amino Acid Dating