Vibrational spectroscopy of fossils

Over the last two decades, there has an been increasing interest in applying vibrational spectroscopy in palaeontological research. For example, this chemical analytical technique has been used to elucidate the chemical composition of a wide variety of fossils, including Archaean putative microfossi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Palaeontology 2015-03, Vol.58 (2), p.201-211
Main Authors: Olcott Marshall, Alison, Marshall, Craig P., Smith, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algae
Arthropoda
biopolymers
Burgess Shale‐type preservation (BST)
Conodonta
fossil palynomorphs
Fossils
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy
Paleontology
Raman spectroscopy
Scolecodonts
Spectrum analysis
vibrational spectroscopy
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Summary:Over the last two decades, there has an been increasing interest in applying vibrational spectroscopy in palaeontological research. For example, this chemical analytical technique has been used to elucidate the chemical composition of a wide variety of fossils, including Archaean putative microfossils, stromatolites, chitinozoans, acritarchs, fossil algae, fossil plant cuticles, putative fossil arthropods, conodonts, scolecodonts and dinosaur bones. The insights provided by these data have been equally far ranging: to taxonomically identify a fossil, to determine biogenicity of a putative fossil, to identify preserved biologically synthesized compounds and to elucidate the preservational mechanisms of fossil material. Vibrational spectroscopy has clearly been a useful tool for investigating various palaeontological problems. However, it is also a tool that has been misapplied and misinterpreted, and thus, this review is dedicated to providing a palaeontologist who is new to vibrational spectroscopy with a basic understanding of these techniques, and the types of chemical information that can be obtained. Two example applications of these techniques are discussed in detail, one looking into fossil palynomorph taxonomy and other into the enigmatic Burgess Shale‐type preservation.
ISSN:0031-0239
1475-4983
DOI:10.1111/pala.12144