Abstract
The cellulose acetate peel technique has been and is widely used to study permineralized plant fossils. As part of the peel making process, the acetate retains some humidity and shrinks upon drying. We show that the amount of shrinkage is proportional to peel size and reduces the initial size of a peel by 4.76%, on average, for 0.003 thickness acetate. Peel drying and shrinkage is complete after about 7 days. The real sizes of plant features included in the peels are altered (diminished) by peel shrinkage. This requires a ×1.05 correction of all measurements to obtain and report the real sizes of plant features studied by cellulose acetate peel sectioning. This is important for studies on the taxonomy, systematics, and physiology of fossil plants. Further studies are needed to quantify the correlation between cellulose acetate thickness and amount of shrinkage. Until then, we recommend that future studies employing the cellulose acetate peel technique report the thickness of cellulose acetate used.
Published Version
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