Trace elemental imaging of rare earth elements discriminates tissues at microscale in flat fossils.

ABSTRACT: The interpretation of flattened fossils remains a major challenge due to compression of their complex anatomies during fossilization, making critical anatomical features invisible or hardly discernible. Key features are often hidden under greatly preserved decay prone tissues, or an unpreparable sedimentary matrix. A method offering access to such anatomical features is of paramount interest to resolve taxonomic affinities and to study fossils after a least possible invasive preparation. Unfortunately, the widely-used X-ray micro-computed tomography, for visualizing hidden or internal structures of a broad range of fossils, is generally inapplicable to flattened specimens, due to the very high differential absorbance in distinct directions. Here we show that synchrotron X-ray fluorescence

SUBMITTER: Gueriau P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3906100 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature