Abstract
Vertebrate fossils embedded in amber represent a particularly valuable paleobiological record as amber is supposed to be a barrier to the environment, precluding significant alteration of the animals’ body over geological time. The mode and processes of amber preservation are still under debate, and it is questionable to what extent original material may be preserved. Due to their high value, vertebrates in amber have never been examined with analytical methods, which means that the composition of bone tissue in amber is unknown. Here, we report our results of a study on a left forelimb from a fossil Anolis sp. indet. (Squamata) that was fully embedded in Miocene Dominican amber. Our results show a transformation of the bioapatite to fluorapatite associated with a severe alteration of the collagen phase and the formation of an unidentified carbonate. These findings argue for a poor survival potential of macromolecules in Dominican amber fossils.
Highlights
Fossil bones represent valuable paleontological archives for reconstructing the paleobiology and -environments of vertebrates throughout geological time and represent an important window into the evolution of life on Earth
We examine the left forelimb of an Anolis sp. indet. in a piece of 15 to 20 Million years old Dominican amber, including a fairy wasp (Mymaridae, Fig 1A and S1 Fig), by micro-Raman spectroscopy, electron microprobe, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS)
It has been demonstrated that the integrated intensity ratio of the doublet near 1650 cm-1 and the band at 1450 cm−1 is a good indicator of the maturity of fossilized resins
Summary
Fossil bones represent valuable paleontological archives for reconstructing the paleobiology and -environments of vertebrates throughout geological time and represent an important window into the evolution of life on Earth. The remains are affected by various chemical processes like dissolution or pseudomorphosis, so the original material, especially the organic soft tissue, is often lost or severely modified. A detailed understanding of the preservation and fossilization of bone at the microscopic scale is still lacking. This is partly because bone is a complex hierarchical composite material. It consists of a nano-crystalline, hydrated, hydroxylated, and carbonated calcium phosphate phase (hydroxylapatite (HAp)-like) that is embedded in a fibrous organic matrix of predominately collagen and subordinately lipids.
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