Phytolith

Bioinorganic materials Carbonated hydoxyapatite in mammals silica or calcium oxalate in weeds Provide structural support to the body Bones, teeth, and shell in animals phytolithes in plants about 5... 

Pearsall, D. M. and D. R. Piperno (1993), Current Research in Phytolith Analysis Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology, MASCA, Univ. Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 

Piperno, D. R. (1988), Phytolith Analysis An Archaeological and Geological Perspective, Academic Press, San Diego. 

Tsutsuki, K., Kondo, R. and Shiraishi, H. (1993). Composition of lignin-degradation products, lipids and opal phytoliths in a peat profile accumulated since 32,000 years B.P. in Central Japan. Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 39 463-474. 

Riquier, J., Les phytolithes de certains sols tropicaux el des podzols, Trans. 7th Internat. Congress Soil Sci., Madison, WI, Vol. 4, 1960. 

Figure 5. Abundance of opal phytoliths as summarized from original petrographic data. Key 0, absent R, rare C, common and A, abundant. Sample coordinates same as in Figure 3. Note essential absence of phytoliths in the Sierra units 1 and 2 (Palenque), and 7 (Xupa orientation).

As must be obvious, we have only touched on the natural occurrences of crystalline fibrous Si02- For example, Si02, usually quartz, often replaces fibrous minerals of another composition as rock masses are altered. Si02 also occurs in fibrous form within some plants (phytoliths) and in the soil. To summarize, in addition to the usual and common occurrences of the mineral quartz and its varieties, several silica polymorphs occur as fibers in a variety of biologic and geologic environments. 

Norgren, A. (1973). Opal phytoliths as indicators of soil age and vegetative history. Ph.D. dissertation. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, Dissertation. Abstr. Intern. 33,3421B. 

Parr, J. F., Dolic, V., Lancaster, G, and Boyd, W. E. (2001). A microwave digestion method for the extraction of phytoliths from herbarium specimens. Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 116, 203-212. 

Parr, J. F., and Sullivan, L. A. (2005). Soil carbon sequestration in phytoliths. Soil Biol. Biochem. 37,117-124. 

Pease, D. S., and Anderson, J. U. (1969). Opal phytoliths in Bouteloua eriopoda Torr. roots and soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc. 33,321-322. 

Riquier, J. (1960). Les phytoliths de certain sols Tropicaux et des podzols. Transactions of the Seventh International Congress of Soil Science, Madison, WI, pp. 425—431. 

Due to their persistent silica skeletons and their diversity, diatom remains provide a good record of past and present environmental conditions. Cameron (2004) recently showed that they could be used to compare samples that had been in contact with water and for the investigation of time of death in drowning. Through the recent advances in analytical quality control and use of multivariate statistics, their use in forensics is likely to develop further. In a similar way, phytoliths (the plant opal silica structure that accumulates in some plants) have been used to differentiate soils with otherwise similar mineralogy (Marumo and Yanai 1986). 

Marumo, Y. and Yanai, H. (1986). Morphological analysis of opal phytoliths for soil discrimination in forensic-science investigation. J. Forensic Sci. 31,1039-1049. 

Phytoliths opal accumulations in vascular plant tissues. 

Romero, O.E., Dupont, L., Wyputta, U., Jahns, S., and Wefer, G (2003) Temporal variability of fluxes of eolian-transported freshwater diatoms, phytoliths, and pollen grains off Cape Blanc as reflection of land-atmosphere-ocean interface in northwest Africa. J. Geophys. Res. 108, 3153. 

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