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Recent progress in recovering microvertebrate fossils using Interfacial Methods

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2015

Eric F. Freeman*
Affiliation:
146 Haydons Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 1AE, England

Extract

Interfacial methods are a group of newly emerging techniques for recovering phosphatic microfossils from disaggregated sediment residues by exploiting the lipophilic surface properties of apatite (Freeman, 1982). When a sediment residue is placed in a two-phase mixture of water and a water-insoluble organic liquid, the organic liquid wets the phosphate particles in preference to the gangue minerals, most species of which are wetted by the water instead.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

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