MORBID · Unravelling the formation of Mesozoic bonebeds using rare earth element geochemistry of bioapatites integrated with in-situ dating

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Project objective

Fossil bonebeds are unique windows into ancient ecosystems and the biology of extinct vertebrate species. However, most existing datasets from bonebeds are collected in a qualitative manner and cannot differentiate efficiently between the various biological and geological processes responsible for bonebed formation. MORBID aims to solve this conundrum, by developing a cutting-edge geochemical toolkit focusing on determining the concentrations of rare earth elements within well-preserved bone and tooth material from Mesozoic bonebeds. This rapid in-situ workflow combines non-destructive micro-X-ray fluorescence element mapping with quantitative Laser Ablation ICP-MS profiling at a micrometer level spatial resolution. Bonebed material is selected based on varying geological age and palaeoenvironment and the presence of outstanding taphonomic and paleobiological questions. Once fossilized, bone and teeth retain a geochemical fingerprint of their early diagenetic conditions. This information will be used in MORBID to differentiate between a rapid burial or a reworked bone assemblage, to characterize the depositional environment, and to provenance fossils of unknown location and stratigraphy. In addition, innovative in-situ uranium-lead geochronology is applied on well-preserved bioapatite material to obtain minimum depositional ages of poorly age-constrained fossil strata. MORBID will be based at the Natural History Museum in London and will benefit from the ample experience in-house in dinosaur palaeontology and rare earth element applications, combined with the access to a world-class fossil reptile collection and state-of-the-art laser ablation ICP-MS facilities. This excellent working environment will lead to the development of an independent tool to disentangle post-mortem alteration effects versus potential behavioural components of fossil vertebrates in a critical period of their evolution.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom

Links

• View on CORDIS
• DOI: 10.3030/101210570