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Our new study delivers the most extensive calibration to date of Patella caerulea (the Mediterranean limpet) as a recorder of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) across the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. The study combined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for measuring Mg/Ca ratios with isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) to analyse oxygen isotope values (δ¹⁸O). By analysing 131 modern shells from 22 sites, we explored the relationship between magnesium-to-calcium (Mg/Ca) ratios and oxygen isotope values as palaeotemperature proxies.

Alejandro León Cristóbal is a doctoral researcher from the University of La Rioja (Spain). He does research in marine mollusc shells, ethnoarchaeology, oxygen isotope analysis, Palaeolithic Archaeology and Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition. The main objective in his doctoral thesis is to improve the understanding of the last hunter-gatherer-fisher societies of the Cantabrian Region.

We have been busy in the last few months and decided to give you an overview of all the things we did in one go, so that not a single output gets forgotten. This includes several trips of our team, but also guests coming to visit us at LEIZA.