REE Signatures in Vertebrate Fossils from Sewell, NJ: Implications for Location of the K-T Boundary

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

“…The rare earth elements (REE) provide excellent provenance indicators in fossil bone as they are fractionated during many earth surface processes (Sholkovitz et al, 1994;Dia et al, 2000;Johannesson and Hendry, 2000;Tang and Johannesson, 2003;Johannesson et al, 2004;Sonke and Salters, 2006), are physiologically inert and are readily incorporated into bone apatite post-mortem (e.g., Bernat, 1975;Henderson et al, 1983;Wright et al, 1984;Trueman et al, 2004). Several recent studies have used the REE composition of fossil bones to determine the provenance of bones within mixed and/or disturbed deposits (Trueman, 1999;Staron et al, 2001;Patrick et al, 2002;Trueman and Tuross, 2002) and to assess the extent of mixing within vertebrate accumulations (e.g., Trueman et al, 2003Trueman et al, , 2005Metzger et al, 2004). At present however, few studies have attempted to measure spatial variation in the rare earth element composition of pore waters across land surfaces (e.g., Dia et al, 2000), and the limits of spatial resolution available using the REE composition of ancient bone as a provenance indicator are unknown.…”

“…;Trueman and Benton (1997);Samoilov et al (2001);Staron et al (2001);Patrick et al (2002);Picard et al (2002);Kemp and Trueman (2003); Lécuyer et al (2003); Trueman et al (2003); Metzger et al (2004); Patrick et al (2004); Martin et al (2005); Trueman et al (2005); Anderson et al (in press) and Trueman (unpublished data). cant aeolian sediment supply fall in this category (group 2 in Fig.…”

Stable isotope chemistry of fossil bone as a new paleoclimate indicator

“…Complete recrystallization and chemical alteration are believed to occur within a few kyr to tens of kyr, as indicated both by the presence of fossilized diffusion gradients in trace elements (Millard and Hedges, 1999;Trueman and Tuross, 2002), and the common occurrence of completely fossilized (collagen-absent) bones from the last glacial maximum, for example, the <25 ka fossils from Fossil Lake, Oregon (Martin et al, 2005). However, once fossilized and recrystallized, bones retain their (altered) compositions for millions of years, as indicated by trace elementbased provenance studies (Trueman and Benton, 1997;Staron et al, 2001;Metzger et al, 2004), Sr systematics in marine fossils (Wright et al, 1984;Staudigel et al, 1985), and comparability of fossil bone crystallinity to enamel (Ayliffe et al, 1994), which preserves isotopic signatures for tens of Myr (Wang and Cerling, 1994;Koch, 1998;Kohn and Cerling, 2002).…”

Quantification of diagenesis in Cenozoic sharks: Elemental and mineralogical changes

“…Through the processes of diagenesis trace element concentrations either increase or decrease relative to those of unaltered bone (Elderfield and Pagett, 1986;Wright et al, 1987;Williams, 1988;Grandjean and Albaréde, 1989;Koeppenkastrop and De Carlo, 1992;GrandjeanLécuyer et al, 1993;Denys et al, 1996;Hubert et al, 1996;Laenen et al, 1997;Reynard et al, 1999;Trueman, 1999;Starton et al, 2001). Trace elements are most likely incorporated into bone apatite during early diagenesis through substitution.…”