A chronological framework for the British Quaternary based on Bithynia opercula. ...

• Main Authors: Penkman, Kirsty EH, Preece, Richard C, Bridgland, David R, Keen, David H, Meijer, Tom, Parfitt, Simon A, White, Tom S, Collins, Matthew J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2011
• Subjects: Amino Acids; Animals; Archaeology; Biodiversity; Chronology as Topic; Fossils; Fresh Water; Gastropoda; Humans; Proteins; United Kingdom; ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.38640; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/291473

Marine and ice-core records show that the Earth has experienced a succession of glacials and interglacials during the Quaternary (last ∼2.6 million years), although it is often difficult to correlate fragmentary terrestrial records with specific cycles. Aminostratigraphy is a method potentially able to link terrestrial sequences to the marine isotope stages (MIS) of the deep-sea record. We have used new methods of extraction and analysis of amino acids, preserved within the calcitic opercula of the freshwater gastropod Bithynia, to provide the most comprehensive data set for the British Pleistocene based on a single dating technique. A total of 470 opercula from 74 sites spanning the entire Quaternary are ranked in order of relative age based on the extent of protein degradation, using aspartic acid/asparagine (Asx), glutamic acid/glutamine (Glx), serine (Ser), alanine (Ala) and valine (Val). This new aminostratigraphy is consistent with the stratigraphical relationships of stratotypes, sites with ...