Cementum and the incremental markings it contains have been widely studied as a means of ageing animals and retrieving information about diet and nutrition. The distribution of trace elements in great ape and fossil hominin cementum has not been studied previously. Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF) enables rapid scanning of large tissue areas with high resolution of elemental distributions....

Combustion of fossil fuels has been the backbone of the power generation, manufacturing and transportation industries in the twentieth century. Although the mix of fuels has changed, at the close of the century we find that combustion systems have not changed overmuch. Operational caused by inorganic elements in fossil fuels (corrosion, slagging, and fouling) continue to present problems in com...

Kinneyia is the commonly used term to describe a class of trace fossil that is strongly associated with microbial mats. The appearance of Kinneyia (or wrinkle structures) in the fossil record has recently led to a number of possible mechanisms being proposed to explain its formation. Here, we outline, and critically compare, three of these models, involving formation of the characteristic rippl...

The recognition of fossil material as organic represented a sea change in European understanding geology. Throughout the Renaissance and Early Modern periods, several thinkers approached sam...

Despite subaqueous fossils tracks of tetrapods being quite common in the fossil record, few studies discuss their classification and morphofunctional interpretation. Even with their simple morphology, some important information about the trackmakers can be retrieved from these tracks. Subaqueous traces were found in Brazil in the Irati Formation (Cisuralian, Permian), Paraná Basin, and describe...

Arsenic is a trace element and a global contaminant. There are currently large uncertainties associated with our understanding and quantification of the arsenic cycles in the global environment. This study proposes a research framework where the major anthropogenic processes affecting anthropogenic arsenic cycles (AACs) are identified. A characteristic of this framework is that it divides AACs ...