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Journal of the Geological Society; 2003; v. 160; issue.6; p. 895-901;
DOI: 10.1144/0016-764903-019
© 2003 Geological Society of London

Original Article

Diagenetic effects on the oxygen isotope composition of bones of dinosaurs and other vertebrates recovered from terrestrial and marine sediments

Clive Trueman1,2, Carolyn Chenery3, David A. Eberth4 & Baruch Spiro3,5

1 1Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, 20560, USA
2 2Present address: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Building, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth PO1 3QL, UK (e-mail: clive.trueman@port.ac.uk)
3 3NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
4 4Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Box 7500, Drumheller, Alta., Canada T0J 0Y0
5 5Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK

Assessing effects of diagenesis on oxygen isotope composition of bone is essential to its use in reconstructing habitats and lifestyles of ancient vertebrates. These effects are a matter of controversy, particularly in the case of extinct animals such as dinosaurs. To investigate the effects of diagenesis on isotopic composition of fossil bone, bone samples from both marine and terrestrial Campanian sediments from Alberta, Canada, have been analysed. The isotopic compositions of oxygen ({delta}18OSMOW) were determined in bones sampled from articulated skeletons of exclusively terrestrial animals recovered from the terrestrial Dinosaur Park Formation, and compared with bones from the marine Bearpaw Formation. The articulated skeleton of an exclusively terrestrial dinosaur (hadrosaur) found in marine sediments yielded similar {delta}18O values for both structural carbonate and phosphate fractions (mean {delta}18OSMOW values 22.6{per thousand} and 16.9{per thousand}, respectively) in bone to marine reptiles (mosasaurs) recovered from the same locality (mean {delta}18OSMOW values 24.2{per thousand} and 17.3{per thousand}, respectively). The isotopic composition of both skeletons recovered from marine sediments was significantly more positive than that of articulated hadrosaur skeletons recovered from contemporaneous terrestrial sediments (mean phosphate {delta}18OSMOW value 12.9{per thousand}), and outside the range of phosphate {delta}18OSMOW values previously reported for terrestrial dinosaur skeletons (c. 9–14{per thousand}). These data suggest that the isotopic composition of oxygen in the phosphate and structural carbonate ions in the bone apatite was altered during diagenesis and can be used for neither palaeoclimate nor physiological reconstruction.

Key Words: bones • isotope • oxygen • dinosaurs • diagenesis




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