An Effective Polychromatic X-ray Beam for Quantitative Analysis of Fossil Compositions
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Abstract
A presentation of preliminary results of an ongoing study of fossils deposited in the Frenchman Formation near Eastend, Saskatchewan and the Wapiti Formation in westcentral Alberta, Canada, is given in this thesis. Specifically, those of a tyrannosaur and a hadrosaur from the Frenchman and Wapiti Formations, respectively, are studied and compared to others from these formations. The bulk of the analysis is done using Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence data collected at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatchewan, Canada. Several methods to facilitate both qualitative and quantitative analysis of this data are used and developed. In particular, a method for replacing a polychromatic X-ray spectrum with an effective set of monochromatic beams is explored. Using these methods, the depositional and diagenetic conditions are analyzed. A clear difference can be drawn between the sample locations, offering an explanation for the exceptional preservation of a three dimensional skin fossil in the latter locality.