Fake News in Paleoenvironmental and Paleophysiological Interpretations: Diagenetic Changes of Biominerals

Dear Colleagues,

Our knowledge of biodiversity of the past comes from the remains of living organisms: fossils. Unfortunately, most often, only originally mineralized parts of the organisms, such as bones, teeth, and "shells", are preserved in the fossil record. In contrast to synthetically or geologically formed minerals, those formed by organisms (biominerals) exhibit taxa-specific composite organic–mineral structures and heterogenous biogeochemical compositions, making biominerals prone to selective diagenetic alteration and/or dissolution. Consequently, at a given fossil locality, different preservation behaviors of biominerals can be a source of significant biases in paleoenvironmental and paleobiological interpretations, including past biodiversity.

This Special Issue is dedicated to papers dealing with fossilization mechanisms of biominerals, based on analyses of modern and fossil samples, and experimental data. New data on alterations of samples in collections are also welcome.

Dr. Yannicke Dauphin
Prof. Dr. Jaroslav Stolarski
Guest Editors

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