New insights into the chemical composition of chitinozoans

Jérémy Jacob*, Florentin Paris, Olivier Monod, Merrell A. Miller, Peng Tang, Simon C. George, Jean Michel Bény

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    40 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The chemical structure of isolated chitinozoan specimens extracted from early Silurian marine rocks has been investigated by micro-FTIR, laser micro-Raman spectroscopy and laser micropyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (LmPy-GC-MS). The samples were subjected to relatively low thermal stress as attested by several indices. LmPy-GC-MS and micro-FTIR indicate that chitinozoans consist mostly of a kerogen network dominated by aromatic groups with a low contribution of aliphatics and oxygen- or nitrogen-bearing compounds. No chitin-related product was found in the pyrolysate of the chitinozoans, confirming previous findings on the occurrence of this biopolymer in the fossil record.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1782-1788
    Number of pages7
    JournalOrganic Geochemistry
    Volume38
    Issue number10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Oct 2007

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