Abstract
SummaryA sequence of paleosols date at 80, 7 000, 20 000 and 41 000 years developed on similar parent material in the North Island of New Zealand have been used to study the fate of amino acids with time.Some amino acids were released by hydrolysis with 6M HC1 for 24 h at 110 °C while others were only released after the mineral matrix had been destroyed by HF.The mineral bound amino acids were hydrolysed from each paleosol and their composition analysed. The simplicity of the composition of the older paleosols confirms that the amino acids are fossil. This technique could be used for determining whether paleosol samples submitted for carbon dating are contaminated by more recent material. The differential disappearance of amino acids from a paleosol could be used as a dating system and if this was done quantitatively it may be possible to date paleosols beyond the range of carbon dating.
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