The second caution, however, calls into question the reliability of dating coalescent events.
Calendar landmarking instruments have been widely used across many research fields to increase the reliability of dating, and to improve consistency and completeness of data [ 6].
However, our results do suggest that the search for biological correlates of molecular rates may uncover important patterns that may be used to assess the reliability of molecular dates, or develop new dating methods that can incorporate prior knowledge of molecular evolutionary rates.
Since the early trials in the 50's, the reliability of 14C dates obtained from bioapatites has always been questioned.
The bone fragments were originally dated at Oxford in 1989, but the reliability of the dating was called into question when scientists spotted traces of modern glue that had been used to stick the teeth in place.
Such arguments have been dismissed by scientists on the grounds that independent methods have confirmed the reliability of radiometric dating as a whole; additionally, different radiometric dating methods and techniques have independently confirmed each other's results.
Richard G. Klein, a paleoanthropologist at Stanford University who has favored a more sudden and recent origin of modern behavior, about 50,000 years ago, questioned the reliability of the dating method for the tools, noting that "there is another team that has already argued for a much longer" time period for the toolmaking culture.
But Dr White raised doubts over the reliability of OSL dating, saying the technique was more or less "in constant development" - especially at this time range.
For this later group of participants, the failure to accept the existence of a large amount of evidence supporting the theory of evolution may, at least partially, be a direct result of their questioning the reliability of scientific dating methods.
