TY  - JOUR
A1  - Denys, Christiane
A1  - Otero, Olga
A1  - Kullmer, Ottmar
A1  - Sandrock, Oliver
A1  - Bromage, Timothy
A1  - Schrenk, Friedemann
A1  - Dauphin, Yannicke
T1  - Biominerals fossilisation: fish bone diagenesis in plio–pleistocene african hominid sites of Malawi
T2  - Minerals
N2  - Fish fossilisation is relatively poorly known, and skeletal element modifications resulting from predation, burial and diagenesis need to be better investigated. In this article, we aim to provide new results about surface, structural and chemical changes in modern and fossil fish bone. Fossil samples come from two distinct localities of roughly the same age in the Pliocene–Pleistocene Chiwondo Beds adjacent to Lake Malawi. Optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analyses and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry were carried out on three categories of fish bones: (i) fresh modern samples collected in the lake, (ii) extracted from modern fish eagle regurgitation pellets, and (iii) fossils from Malema and Mwenirondo localities. A comparison of these data allowed us to detect various modifications of bone surfaces and structure as well as composition changes. Some differences are observed between fresh bones and modern pellets, and between pellets and fossils. Moreover, fossil fish bone surface modifications, crystallinity, and chemical composition from Malema and Mwenirondo differ despite their chronological and spatial proximities (2.5–2.4 Ma, 500 m). In both sites, the post-predation modifications are strong and may hide alterations due to the predation by bird of prey such as the fish eagle. The combination of the used methods is relevant to analyses of diagenetic alterations in fish bones.
KW  - taphonom
KW  - fish bones
KW  - regurgitation pellets
KW  - tropical Africa
KW  - Pliocene–Pleistocene
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/57038
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-570387
SN  - 2075-163X
VL  - 10
IS  - Article 1049
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -