Antoine
Years ago Hal Krueger did an experiment in which he soaked
bones in a highly enriched (13C enriched) synthetic groundwater
solution. The same paper also reports a 'natural' experiment in which
he measured mastodon teeth after 10 000 years under the sea. He
did not check structural changes.  The reference: Krueger, H. (1991)
Exchange of carbon with biological apatite. J. archaeol. Sci. 18,
355-361.
I've done some 'natural' experiments analysing time series of
bones and enamel of animals with predictable d13C from sites with
isotopically different matrices, including seawater (due out in a
very tardy book). Mat Sponheimer did a couple of lab experiments on
tooth enamel changes including isotopes in carbonate & FTIR in his
PhD.
I suggest that you control for moisture in your experiments.

Julia Lee-Thorp
Associate Professor
Faculty of Science
University of Cape Town
> Date:          Thu, 25 Jan 2001 11:07:27 +0100
> Reply-to:      Stable Isotope Geochemistry <[log in to unmask]>
> From:          Antoine Zazzo <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject:       diagenesis experiment
> To:            [log in to unmask]

> Good morning,
>
> I am currently working on stable isotopic signatures (d13C, d18O) in fossil
> bioapatite for my PhD thesis in Paris (France). I am more especially
> interested in diagenetic processes that happen during fossilization of
> skelettal remains
>
> In this respect, I am about to set an experiment of diagenetic alteration
> of modern enamel and bone under controlled conditions (T C, d13C and d18O
> composition of the surrounding soil etc...). The experiment is going to
> last about 6 months and I will look both isotopic (d13C, d18Oin PO4 and
> CO3, d15N) and cristalline (Raman spectrometry) changes in organic and
> mineral phases of enamel and bone. A rapid survey of the bibliography did
> not yield any similar experiment.
> Has anyone heard about such "in vitro" diagenetic alteration experiment
> focussed on stable isotopes ??
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Antoine
>
>