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Calcium oxalate crystals observed in a phytolith morphotype study of select native Great Basin plant taxa and on Utah valley Fremont ground stone

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Abstract

While developing a reference collection of silica phytoliths produced by plant species native to the Great Basin (Pearce and Ball 2019), we also observed another type of plant microfossil, calcium oxalate crystals, produced by the sampled taxa. Given that these crystals can be found in archaeological contexts, such as on six ground stone artefacts from Wolf Village, Utah, we report these observations, as they may be useful for researchers conducting microbotanical analyses of archaeological sites.

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Correspondence to Madison Pearce.

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Communicated by L. A. Newsom.

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Pearce, M., Pearce, A. Calcium oxalate crystals observed in a phytolith morphotype study of select native Great Basin plant taxa and on Utah valley Fremont ground stone. Veget Hist Archaeobot 32, 133–141 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-022-00887-w

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