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How mineralisation preserved a pterosaur for 113 million years

Microbial decay created acidic, oxidative microenvironments that promoted early fluorapatite mineralisation, stabilising pterosaur bone and soft-tissue structures before extensive degradation.
Three later stages of calcite cementation sealed the fossil, helping preserve organic molecules through deep time via a multi-stage mineralisation pathway.
Preserved steroid biomarkers and stable carbon isotope values provide the first steroid evidence from pterosaurs, supporting a diet of fish and cephalopods.

Grice, K., Poropat, S. F., Schwark, L., Diaz Mateus, M. A., Greenwood, P. F., Brosnan, L. M., Tripp, M., Elson, A. L., Jian, A. J. Y., Saraiva, A. A. F., Bantim, R. A. M., Demore, J., Holman, A. I., Böttcher, M. E., Pentland, A. H., Madden, R. H. C., Hopper, P., Sun, X., Dodd, A., de Oliveira, A. V., Visscher, P. T., Rickard, W. D. A., Sayão, J. M., Rahimpour-Bonab, H., Schmiedinger, I., Leshyk, V. O. & Kellner, A. W. A. (2026). Multi-staged mineralization and biomarker preservation in a 113-million-year-old pterosaur bone via redox shifts in diagenesis. iScience, 29, 116199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.116199

Environmental Geoscience

Organic Geochemistry

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CFIGS · CFIGS Research Spotlight - Episode 32 (Fossilised in Layers)

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Geomicrobiology

Palaeontology

Organic Geochemistry

Organic Stable Isotope analysis

Mapping crustal lead isotopes across southeastern Australia reveals magma source signatures

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Continental-scale lead (Pb) isotopic mapping shows how relative uranium and thorium enrichment shaped crustal Pb over billions of years.
Combining K‑feldspar (records initial Pb) with whole‑rock (ingrowth‑corrected) data provides time‑resolved constraints on magma sources.
Lead isotope “isoscapes” delineate crustal domains, boundaries, and zones of mixing/re‑equilibration, while supporting mineral systems targeting, geochronology, and environmental/forensic applications.

Liebmann, J., Ware, B., Mole, D.R., Kirkland, C.L., Fraser, G., Waltenberg, K., Bodorkos, S., Huston, D.L., Evans, N.J., McDonald, B.J., Rankenburg, K., Datta, P. & Tessalina, S. (2024). A crustal Pb isotope map of southeastern Australia. Scientific Data, 11, 1222. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03996-5.

Geochemistry

Resource Geoscience

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CFIGS · CFIGS Research Spotlight - Episode 31 (Mapping Crustal Lead Isotopes)

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Pb Isotope Geochemistry

De-risking underground hydrogen storage: What makes a reservoir ready?

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Sandstone reservoirs offer strong potential, with generally high geochemical stability and negligible geochemical hydrogen loss, although reactive mineral cements require site-specific assessment.
Carbonate reservoirs present greater integrity risks, as mineral reactions can consume hydrogen, generate methane or hydrogen sulphide, and weaken the reservoir rock.
Storage integrity depends on more than geology: caprock, fractures, microbial activity, wellbore degradation and repeated hydrogen cycling can all create containment risks.

Zeng, L., Sarmadivaleh, M., Saeedi, A., Chen, Y., Zhong, Z. & Xie, Q. (2023). Storage integrity during underground hydrogen storage in depleted gas reservoirs. Earth-Science Reviews, 247, 104625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104625.

Structural Geology and Tectonics

Resource Geoscience

Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

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CFIGS · CFIGS Research Spotlight - Episode 30 (Keeping Hydrogen Secure Underground)

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High-grade Terrain Geological Mapping

Smarter grain selection for reliable sediment provenance

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Choosing the largest or smallest mineral grains for geochronological analysis can skew age profiles, especially in poorly sorted sediment.
Representative grain size sub-sampling or truly random grain selection reduces potential operator bias and strengthens comparisons between sediment provenance studies.
About 240 well-selected grains capture facies-level age variability, supporting faster, reproducible mineral fingerprinting without sacrificing geological confidence.

Zametzer, A., Dröllner, M., Barham, M., Kirkland, C. L. & Norris, C. A. (2025). Grain selection for representative detrital zircon age populations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 671, 119619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119619.

Geochronology

Regolith and Sedimentology

Resource Geoscience

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CFIGS · CFIGS Research Spotlight - Episode 29 (Choosing the Right Grains)

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Particle Analysis

U–Pb Geochronology

Mineral Geochronology

Ocean Listening for Antarctic Minke Whales

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A bespoke convolutional neural network detected Antarctic minke whale “bio-duck” calls across nine East Antarctic and Western Australian soundscapes.
Performance was strongest in quieter Antarctic winter recordings, where lower ambient noise helped distinguish whale calls more reliably.
Industrial and biological sounds, including vessels, seismic airguns, humpback whales and dwarf minke whales, drove false detections in northern sites.

Darias-O’Hara, A. K., Nguyen Hong Duc, P., Madhusudhana, S., McCauley, R., Tollefsen, C., Erbe, C. & Miller, B. S. (2026). Machine learning methods for the detection of Antarctic Minke Whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) in East Antarctica and Western Australia. Marine Mammal Science, 42, e70118. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70118.

Acoustics

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CFIGS · CFIGS Research Spotlight - Episode 28 (Listening for Antarctic Minke Whales)

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Marine mammal habitat modelling

Soundscape measurement

Underwater signature measurement

Underwater noise modelling

Tracking Columbia's Slow Dance: Ancient magnetic clues reveal supercontinent stabilisation

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High-precision magnetic signatures from 1.70–1.68 billion-year-old mafic dykes in the North China Craton offer rare insights into Earth’s ancient continental positions.
Subtle shifts between the North China and North Australian cratons between 1.73 and 1.65 billion years ago mark a key transitional phase in Columbia's formation.
Findings suggest Columbia's tectonic configuration became more stable during the Statherian period, refining our models of early supercontinent assembly.

Wang, C., Peng, P., Mitchell, R.N., Deng, C., Salminen, J., Liu, Y. & Kirscher, U. (2025). Toward a more stable supercontinent Columbia in the Statherian. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2025GL116097. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL116097.

Magnetism and Palaeomagnetism