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Study published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry
The study, published in the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, is led by TU Darmstadt Marco Colombo and his supervisor Prof. Wolfgang Ensinger, in collaboration with paleontologists Dr Valentina Rossi and Dr Thomas Lehmann, from University College Cork and Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, respectively. The pioneering study opens up a new avenue for studying in detail the elemental chemistry of fossils conserved in both solid and liquid media in research and museum collections worldwide. The team discovered striking chemical signals associated with fur, feathers and internal organs in nearly all of the analyzed fossils. This also demonstrates that all conservation methods used on the Messel fossils so far enable the preservation of their chemical composition.