Two decades of progress towards understanding fossilization processes and isotopic signals in calcified tissue minerals

摘要: Techniques for dietary and palaeoclimate reconstruction based on stable isotope ratios in the mineral phase of calcified tissues show great promise, but their pathways development have not been smooth. Two separate trajectories, phosphate carbonate compartments respectively, pursued, usually by different protagonists. There are parallels these two 'fields', however. A fundamental commonality lies constraints imposed nature tissue minerals diagenesis, although realization significance has perhaps slower amongst practitioners. In this paper I how incomplete understanding biological apatites, coupled with our often limited natural variability carbon oxygen isotopes animals, impeded progress both areas. Nevertheless, enormous strides taken over past or so decades. Some important milestones techniques chronicled. With emerging variation mammalian apatites consequences behavioural interpretations, fields drawing closer together.