Visualizing mineralization processes and fossil anatomy using synchronous synchrotron X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction mapping.

ABSTRACT: Fossils, including those that occasionally preserve decay-prone soft tissues, are mostly made of minerals. Accessing their chemical composition provides unique insight into their past biology and/or the mechanisms by which they preserve, leading to a series of developments in chemical and elemental imaging. However, the mineral composition of fossils, particularly where soft tissues are preserved, is often only inferred indirectly from elemental data, while X-ray diffraction that specifically provides phase identification received little attention. Here, we show the use of synchrotron radiation to generate not only X-ray fluorescence elemental maps of a fossil, but also mineralogical maps in transmission geometry using a two-dimensional area detector placed behind the fossil. This innovati

SUBMITTER: Gueriau P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7482561 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature