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A recently published experimental protocol, involving scientists from the University of Bristol, could change the way fossilization is studied.
In addition to directly studying the fossils themselves, experimental treatments of fresh organic remains can be used to study fossilization.
A commonly used experimental approach is known as "artificial ripening", where heat and pressure accelerate chemical degradation reactions. This normally happens for millions of years when a fossil is buried deep underground and exposed to geothermal heat and pressure from overlying sediments.
Maturation is a staple of organic geochemists who wish to study the formation of fossil fuels. More recently, maturation has been used to study the formation of unique fossils that conserve soft tissues in the form of dark, organic films in addition to mineralized tissues such as bones, including fossil dinosaurs in the region. China with organically preserved feathers.
However, a lot of maturation equipment is often limited by the use of small sealed chambers that trap not only highly stable organic molecules of interest to paleontologists and organic geochemists, but also the degradation products of less stable molecules that are less likely to be retained in fossils. As a result, direct comparisons between experiments and fossils become complicated.
For example, when Evan Saitta, who recently presented his Ph.D. at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, ran these more traditional feathering maturing experiences during his mastery ( also in Bristol), the result was a nauseating fluid
Jakob Vinther, lecturer at the School of Earth Sciences and the Bristol School of Biological Sciences, as well as Ph.D. from Saitta. and MSc advisor, added, "What we do realize is that fossils are not just a consequence of the rate at which they are decaying, but rather the molecular composition of different tissues. On the other hand, it is inherently difficult to do the same. conceptual leap "
Saitta said," At the end of my master's degree, I became somewhat ambitious: if we knew that maturation was a useful simulation of fossilization processes, I told myself that the Conducting these experiments on specimens compacted in sediments could produce "synthetic" fossils, fossils forming in sedimentary rocks that could be porous and allow volatile decay products to escape. "
with Tom Kaye of the Foundation for Scientific Advancement who provided the engineering experience required to see the idea come to fruition.
Kaye said: "My The abortion process deals with high-pressure appliances all the time. y to compress the matrix around the specimens which was the game changer simulating the burial. Our next step is to expand the system to take large specimens. "
As the researchers describe in their new article, published this week in the journal Paleontology the results have not disappointed.
Saitta explains:" The sediment acts as a filter allowing unstable molecules to escape from the sample, revealing flattened, browned bones surrounded by dark, organic films where soft tissues once lay
"These results closely resemble microscopic, revealed by a scanning electron microscope. "
Microscopic, pigment-bearing structures called melanosomes reside in organic films in feathers and lizards treated with the new method while unstable proteins and adipose tissues degrade and are lost, while as in exceptional fossils that have been used by scientists such as Vinther to reconstruct the original colors of din osaures.
Preliminary tests on leaves and beetles are also Researchers say the new sediment filtration method is an improvement over previous maturation experiments and will test many fossil species. Assumptions about organic conservation in fossils and sediments.
Future additions to the protocol will incorporate other aspects of fossilization beyond simulating the heat and pressure of deep burial.
Learn more:
Dinosaur blood? New Research Urges Caution Regarding Fossilized Soft Tissue
More information:
"Maturation in sediments: a new method for simulating diagenesis in the conservation of organic fossils" E. Saitta, T. Kaye and J. Vinther, Paleontology 2018.
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