Keele Research Repository

Intermediate resolution spectroscopy from the ESO Very Large Telescope is analysed for 63 photometrically selected low-mass (0.08-0.30 Msun) candidates of the open cluster NGC 2547. We have confirmed membership for most of these stars using radial velocities, and found that lithium remains undepleted for cluster stars with I>17.54+/-0.14 and K_{s}>14.86+/-0.12. From these results, several pre-main-sequence evolutionary models give almost model independent ages of 34-36 Myr, with a precision of 10 per cent. These ages are only slightly larger than the ages of 25-35 (+/-5) Myr obtained using the same models to fit isochrones to higher mass stars descending towards the zero age main sequence (ZAMS), both in empirically calibrated and theoretical colour-magnitude diagrams. This agreement between age determinations in different mass ranges is an excellent test of the current generation of low-mass pre-main sequence stellar models and lends confidence to ages determined with either method between 30 and 120 Myr.