Show me your yttrium, and I will tell you who you are: implications for fossil imaging

Pierre Guériau · Clément Jauvion · Cristian Mocuta

34 citations0/0 files storedPalaeontology

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques

Abstract

Abstract The development of X‐ray tomography in the last decade has led to a revolution in palaeontology by providing a means of imaging 3D fossils. In turn, imaging of flat fossils has strongly benefitted from critical improvement of synchrotron X‐ray fluorescence (XRF). The latter, which allows the mapping of 2D distributions of major‐to‐trace elements over decimetre‐scale objects, usually targets metals with atomic number (Z) up to strontium (K‐shell emission lines); in the same energy domain, L‐shell emission lines of heavier elements (particularly lead) can also be analysed. A fluorescence signal from strontium can escape from a depth of a few 100 μm in fossils, thereby revealing, due to its substitution for calcium in calcium phosphates (apatite group minerals and bone), hidden fossil bone or phosphatized remains. Nonetheless, strontium similarly substitutes for calcium in calcium carbonates, resulting in the absence of contrast when fossils are preserved in limestone. Here, we show that this issue can easily be overcome by using X‐rays slightly higher in energy (17.2 keV and above) to excite and detect yttrium fluorescence. Together with lanthanides (collectively known as the rare earth elements), yttrium preferentially substitutes for calcium in calcium phosphates, offering anatomical contrasts for a wider range of fossils. This is demonstrated here for three fossils (vertebrate and invertebrate) from different ages and depositional environments. We then discuss the different chemical behaviours of strontium and yttrium in calcium phosphates and carbonates. Although yttrium is also found in other (rarer) minerals, its mapping using synchrotron XRF could be used as a proxy to pinpoint calcium phosphates in fossils and other geological materials.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 34 citations exist upstream.

References

2012Development and trends in synchrotron studies of ancient and historical materials 2012Chemical Mapping of Paleontological and Archeological Artifacts with Synchrotron X-Rays 2013Synchrotron-based chemical imaging reveals plumage patterns in a 150 million year old early bird 2014Trace Elemental Imaging of Rare Earth Elements Discriminates Tissues at Microscale in Flat Fossils 2015The mapping and differentiation of biological and environmental elemental signatures in the fossil remains of a 50 million year old bird

Cited by

2020Visualizing mineralization processes and fossil anatomy using synchronous synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction mapping 2020Synchrotron radiation in palaeontological investigations: Examples from Brazilian fossils and its potential to South American palaeontology

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.