High-resolution records of location and stratigraphic provenance from the rare earth element composition of fossil bones

Multiproxy reconstruction of the palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment of the Middle Miocene Somosaguas site (Madrid, Spain) using herbivore dental enamel

“…5) did not show evidence of micro organisms affecting this tissue during the fossilization process and therefore it can be assumed that pristine 8 18 0P04 values have been maintained. (Elorza et al, 1999;Metzger et al, 2004;Martin et al, 2005;Trueman et al, 2006). However, the vast majority of studies deal preferentially with fossil bone that traditionally has been considered more prone to suffer diagenetic effects.…”

Mineralogía y cambios composicionales en fragmentos óseos atribuidos a un dinosaurio ornitópodo del yacimiento barremiense de Buenache de la Sierra (Formación Calizas de La Huérguina, Cuenca, España)

“…En los fragmentos de mayor longitud (N24, hueso fósil indeterminado; N40, N44, N55 y N56 fragmentos de costillas) se aprecia en la capa más externa del periostio un patrón de oquedades anastomosadas que forman parches bien diferenciados. Estas oquedades resultan ser de un diámetro de 0,5-2 mm por lo que el agente biológico que las produjo podría asimilarse a parches de líquenes (Trudgill, 1988;Fernández-Jalvo et al, 2002;Hospitaleche et al, 2011). Este tipo de bioerosión se localiza preferentemente en una de las superficies.…”

“…Los huesos tienen una estructura porosa y, por tanto, son susceptibles de la entrada o salida de iones, así como de la precipitación de minerales en las cavidades (Trueman et al, 2006). Se puede observar en la figura 7 que el calcio y el fósforo son los componentes mayoritarios de los huesos, tanto actuales como fósiles, produciéndose un enriquecimiento diagenético en los dos.…”

Alteration of the metal content in animal bones after 2.5-year experimental exposure to sediments

“…While chemical composition of the bone may be affected by some environmental and behavioral factors during life of animal or human (Balter et al 2002;Martínez-García et al 2005;Allmäe et al 2012;Martiniaková et al 2011), the concentration of metals in buried bones are usually much higher than in fresh ones, which indicates advanced post-mortem chemical alterations (Trueman 2007). Diagenetic parameters of bones, such as their chemical composition, are influenced by the environment, including the chemistry of surrounding sediment (Henderson et al 1983;Wright et al 1984;Plummer et al 1994;Johnsson 1997;Dauphin et al 1999;Trueman 1999;Pawlikowski and Niedźwiedzki 2002;Trueman et al 2003Trueman et al , 2006Martin et al 2005;Smith et al 2007;Cook and Trueman 2009;Rogers et al 2010). According to Kohn and Moses (2013), the bone acts as a sink for trace elements, causing the depletion of particular metals in the surrounding sediment.…”

“…Those additional factors may include not only moisture, porosity, pH, redox conditions, climate, and time (Pate and Hutton 1988;Nielsen-Marsh and Hedges 2000b;Smith et al 2007;Trueman 2007) but also the valence and ionic radii of accessible competing cations due to different fit to the crystal lattice of the bone apatite (Kohn and Moses 2013). Accordingly, Trueman et al (2006), Denys et al (1996), and Iliopoulos et al (2010) have demonstrated that various stratigraphic layers at the same site contain bones with different contents of trace elements. This phenomenon, called a Bgeochemical fingerprint,^can be used to identify the layer from which a particular bone originates.…”