Distinguishing between factors influencing the bone diagenesis

The geochemical dataset of trace elements composition for dinosaur bones from Gobi. The samples were analyzed via LA-ICP-MS. The dataset contains the data in ppm, the PAAS-normalized data, the calculated values for REE anomalies and ratios and metadata (locality, type of skeletal part...) in the folder "Data". The file "DataAnalysis-Factors-RDA.Rmd" contains RMarkdown Notebook with the data analysis.

The data were analyzed using partial redundancy analysis to estimate the independent impact on the diagenesis of three factors: locality, cortical thickness and type of skeletal part (that is - the type of the bone). The most important factor is locality, while cortical thickness is stronger factor than skeletal part. However, tibiae have significant influence on the pRDA models as a single category, together with the bones with short cortical thickness. Additionally, the results demonstrate that bones with longer profiles tend to uptake more uranium over rare earth elements during diagenesis (contrary to the bones with short profiles, which tend to be enriched in REE). Moreover, the tibiae also have higher Ca concentrations than the other bones.