Implications of high-precision measurements of 13C-18O bond ordering in CO2 for thermometry in modern bivalved mollusc shells

We demonstrate that mollusc shell temperature calibrations originating from different laboratories that have not been corrected for instrument backgrounds may differ by as much as ∼0.07‰ in Δ47 over the ∼0 to 30 °C temperature range even where dΔ47/dT agree. Because recent calibrations for Δ47 vs. T from several different laboratories agree for bivalved mollusc shells, yet differ from an early calibration for bivalved molluscs, we suggest it is unlikely that temperature-Δ47 variability is attributable to phylum-specific vital effects, and instead conclude that differences in calibration slope between phyla and/or inorganic calcite are more easily explained by variability in measurements made in different laboratories. Discrepancies in both calibration slopes and/or intercepts indicate that Δ47 values measured in natural materials may be more significantly influenced by instrument-specific effects, as well as effects from sample preparation and handling and purification of CO2 than current techniques are able to correct for, and therefore, temperatures obtained by comparing measurements of Δ47 to independently determined calcite calibrations may err by a far greater amount than acknowledged in previous studies.