Study of characterization of trace elements in marine shells of Sambaqui: correlation between recent and old shells

Calcium carbonate of recent and ancient C. rhizophorae oyster shells was analyzed for the determination of trace elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis. The ancient shells belong to a Sambaqui located in Cananeia region, South of Sao Paulo state and the recent ones are from an oyster production farm in the same region Studies related to the element concentrations in molluscs shell has been done as a tentative of establishing the element concentrations with palio-environmental factor. In this study it was aimed to verify differences in the elemental constitution of recent and ancient oyster shells that present potential for being used as indicator of marine changes. Results indicated that the elements Br, Ce, La, Na, Sm and An are higher in recent shells and the elements Cr, Fe Sc and Th are higher in ancient shells. Statistical analyses performed indicated that the enrichment of the light rare earth elements related to Ca are possibly good candidates for these palio-environmental studies. (author)