The age of ambergris
Ambergris, which is a coprolith originating from the sperm whale, has been found only rarely, but for centuries, as jetsam on beaches all over the world. There are no reliable data indicating how long such samples may have remained at sea, with unsubstantiated accounts suggesting maybe decades. Here...
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ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309.v1 2023-05-15T18:26:44+02:00 The age of ambergris Rowland, Steven John Sutton, Paul Andrew Knowles, Timothy D. J. 2018 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309.v1 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/The_age_of_ambergris/7379309/1 unknown Taylor & Francis https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1523163 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Genetics FOS Biological sciences Physiology 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Chemical sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry Text article-journal Journal contribution ScholarlyArticle 2018 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309.v1 https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1523163 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Ambergris, which is a coprolith originating from the sperm whale, has been found only rarely, but for centuries, as jetsam on beaches all over the world. There are no reliable data indicating how long such samples may have remained at sea, with unsubstantiated accounts suggesting maybe decades. Here, we obtained over forty jetsam samples, many collected on known dates, from mostly known beach locations across the globe. Such an inventory of verified jetsam ambergris is unprecedented. Each sample was characterised by analytical methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). We then determined the radiocarbon ages of some of the samples by well-described accelerator-MS techniques. Surprisingly, some samples of jetsam have remained in the environment for about a thousand years. Text Sperm whale DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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Genetics FOS Biological sciences Physiology 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Chemical sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry |
spellingShingle |
Genetics FOS Biological sciences Physiology 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Chemical sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry Rowland, Steven John Sutton, Paul Andrew Knowles, Timothy D. J. The age of ambergris |
topic_facet |
Genetics FOS Biological sciences Physiology 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences 39999 Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Chemical sciences Ecology Inorganic Chemistry |
description |
Ambergris, which is a coprolith originating from the sperm whale, has been found only rarely, but for centuries, as jetsam on beaches all over the world. There are no reliable data indicating how long such samples may have remained at sea, with unsubstantiated accounts suggesting maybe decades. Here, we obtained over forty jetsam samples, many collected on known dates, from mostly known beach locations across the globe. Such an inventory of verified jetsam ambergris is unprecedented. Each sample was characterised by analytical methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). We then determined the radiocarbon ages of some of the samples by well-described accelerator-MS techniques. Surprisingly, some samples of jetsam have remained in the environment for about a thousand years. |
format |
Text |
author |
Rowland, Steven John Sutton, Paul Andrew Knowles, Timothy D. J. |
author_facet |
Rowland, Steven John Sutton, Paul Andrew Knowles, Timothy D. J. |
author_sort |
Rowland, Steven John |
title |
The age of ambergris |
title_short |
The age of ambergris |
title_full |
The age of ambergris |
title_fullStr |
The age of ambergris |
title_full_unstemmed |
The age of ambergris |
title_sort |
age of ambergris |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309.v1 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/The_age_of_ambergris/7379309/1 |
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Sperm whale |
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Sperm whale |
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https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1523163 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309 |
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309.v1 https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1523163 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7379309 |
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