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.

本数据集为戈壁地区恐龙骨骼的微量元素组成地球化学数据集。样本通过激光剥蚀电感耦合等离子体质谱法（LA-ICP-MS）完成分析。数据集包含以ppm（百万分比）为单位的原始数据、经后太古宙澳大利亚页岩（Post-Archean Australian Shale，PAAS）标准化的数据、计算得到的稀土元素（REE）异常值与比值数据，以及元数据（采样地点、骨骼部位类型等），相关文件均存储于“Data”文件夹中。文件“DataAnalysis-Factors-RDA.Rmd”为包含数据分析内容的RMarkdown笔记。

本次研究采用偏冗余分析（partial redundancy analysis, pRDA），以评估采样地点、骨骼皮质厚度及骨骼部位类型（即骨骼种类）三个因素对恐龙骨骼成岩作用的独立影响。其中采样地点为最关键的影响因素，骨骼皮质厚度的影响程度强于骨骼部位类型。不过，胫骨作为单一类别，与皮质较薄的骨骼一同对偏冗余分析（pRDA）模型产生了显著影响。此外，研究结果显示，在成岩过程中，长剖面骨骼相较于稀土元素，更易富集铀（与短剖面骨骼相反，后者更易出现稀土元素富集现象）。再者，胫骨的钙（Ca）浓度也高于其他骨骼类型。