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Finding by Syracuse University and University of Michigan researchers reveals secret to mass extinction events

as a fellow of the Michigan Society and assistant professor of geological sciences. She began the project in 1998.

Lohmann developed a method to collect tiny microsamples of calcium carbonate that could then be chemically analyzed for their stable isotopic composition. Patterson, working with Lohmann, refined the technique and applied it to fossilized otoliths, which are made of calcium carbonate, to determine seasonal climate conditions during a fish's lifetime. Because the chemical composition of otoliths changes with the temperature of the water in which the fish live, researchers can use the ratio of the stable isotopes of oxygen atoms (oxygen-16 and oxygen-18) found in the calcium carbonate to determine water temperature.

New material forms on the otolith in a series of growth rings much like those found in trees. When the water is cool, the material accumulates relatively more of the heavier oxygen-18 isotope. By analyzing samples of calcium carbonate taken from individual otolith rings, the researchers can, among other things, recover seasonal temperature records for periods of time where none now exist.

It was Ivany's idea to use this technique to study seasonal variations in an attempt to determine the cause of the mass extinction events at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary. "While scientists often develop methods of resolving Earth history at time scales of days to weeks or months, it takes the insight of researchers like Dr. Ivany to apply existing analytical techniques to questions that address global scale problems," Lohmann says.

In order to obtain the samples, Patterson and Lohmann created precision instruments and computer programs that allow them to take slices of calcium carbonate that are a fraction of the size of a grain of salt. The researchers used three such instruments for this study--one at SU, which Patterson developed in 1997, and two at the University of Michigan, one of which Patterson and Lohmann used to develop otolith-
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Contact: Judy Holmes
jlholmes@syr.edu
315-443-3784
Syracuse University
17-Oct-2000


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