USE OF INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY ANALYSIS TO FOSSIL STRUCTURES OF BAURU BASIN, BRAZIL

Resumo

Analysis by infrared were carried out on powdered extracts of fossil elements like bones, eggshells and coprolites associated with crocodyliphorms. The material were collected from outcrops of Adamantina Formation of Upper Cretaceous Bauru Basin at General Salgado and Marília, State of São Paulo. The reference spectra used in the analytic procedures were those of powdered apatite, of synthetic salts of calcium carbonate and phosphate carbonate, and of fresh eggshells and excrements produced by current crocodylians, besides that of the host matrix in which the fossils occur. The analysis reveled that the fossil bones fragments and coprolites have strong similarity with calcium phosphate and apatite spectra, while the spectra of fossil eggshells and recent eggshells of modern crocodilian reveled strong similarity with calcium carbonate. The results from infrared analyses reveal that the technique is appropriate for the determination of fossilized bodies, with good precision and reliability.