Comparison of different preparation methods for oxygen isotope determination of phosphate in mammal tooth enamel

Abstract We tested several sample pre-treatment protocols for the study of oxygen isotope ratios in the phosphate phase of mammalian enamel of ten different fossil samples. We investigated the effect of different pre-treatment methods and the duration of the hydrogen fluoride treatment on enamel samples from skeletal phosphate with known δ 18 O values. The samples had been measured previously, so we could compare the ratios measured in our laboratory with the previous values to choose the best chemical preparation procedure. Four pre-soaking methods and two different time intervals of 2 mol dm −3 hydrogen fluoride treatment were compared during our experiments. In our experimental conditions, the distilled water wash and the 6 h of soaking in hydrogen fluoride gave the closest results to the expected δ -values. The steps of the tested preparation processes were repeated at least three times on each sample, so the reproducibility of the process could be also investigated.