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A structural approach in the study of bones: fossil and burnt bones at nanosize scale

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Abstract

We review the different factors affecting significantly mineral structure and composition of bones. Particularly, it is assessed that micro-nanostructural and chemical properties of skeleton bones change drastically during burning; the micro- and nanostructural changes attending those phases manifest themselves, amongst others, in observable alterations to the bones colour, morphology, microstructure, mechanical strength and crystallinity. Intense changes involving the structure and chemical composition of bones also occur during the fossilization process. Bioapatite material is contaminated by an heavy fluorination process which, on a long-time scale reduces sensibly the volume of the original unit cell, mainly the a-axis of the hexagonal P63/m space group. Moreover, the bioapatite suffers to a varying degree of extent by phase contamination from the nearby environment, to the point that rarely a fluorapatite single phase may be found in fossil bones here examined. TEM images supply precise and localized information, on apatite crystal shape and dimension, and on different processes that occur during thermal processes or fossilization of ancient bone, complementary to that given by X-ray diffraction and Attenuated Total Reflection Infrared spectroscopy. We are presenting a synthesis of XRD, ATR-IR and TEM results on the nanostructure of various modern, burned and palaeontological bones.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Àngel Galobart (Institut Català de Paleontologia, Sabadell-Barcelona, Spain) for supplying the fossil osseous materials employed in this study. The authors also thank the Serveis de Microscopia, Dr. Eva Pellicer and Elisa Tolu (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) for their technical assistance. This work is supported by Autonomous Region of Sardinia (LR3/2008-R.Cervelli, S.Politiche), with the research project titled: “Archaeometric and physico-chemical investigation using a multi-technique approach on archaeological, anthropological and paleontological materials from the Mediterranean area and Sardinia”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. POLCOMING-Department of Political Science, Communication, Engineering and Information Technologies, University of Sassari, Viale Mancini 5, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Giampaolo Piga

  2. Departament de Física, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 01893, Bellaterra, Spain

    Maria Dolors Baró & Irati Golvano Escobal

  3. Department of Life Sciences, Research Centre for Anthropology and Health, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    David Gonçalves

  4. Archaeosciences Laboratory, Directorate General for Cultural Heritage and LARC/CIBIO/InBIO, Rua da Bica do Marquês 2, 1300-087, Lisbon, Portugal

    David Gonçalves

  5. Department of Life Sciences, Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    David Gonçalves & Calil Makhoul

  6. Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ana Amarante

  7. GROB (Grup de Recerca en OsteoBiografia), Unitat d’Antropologia Biològica, Dept. BABVE, Facultat de Biociències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 01893, Bellaterra, Spain

    Assumpció Malgosa

  8. Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100, Sassari, Italy

    Stefano Enzo & Sebastiano Garroni

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  1. Giampaolo Piga
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Correspondence to Giampaolo Piga.

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Piga, G., Baró, M.D., Escobal, I.G. et al. A structural approach in the study of bones: fossil and burnt bones at nanosize scale. Appl. Phys. A 122, 1031 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-016-0562-1

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