A complex mineralogical geochemical study of the bone detritus of large Pleistocene mammals inhabiting the Pechora Fore-Urals, the northernmost European part of their geographical range, is performed for the first time. The chemical composition, microstructure, content of 50 chemical elements are analyzed. The taphonomy of bones, extent of preservation of their initial properties, character and extent of fossilization are considered. The ultraporosity in the nanometer range is examined for the first time; it is established that it can be a marker of epigenetic changes in bones, beginning from the earliest stage of their fossilization. Based on X-ray structure and spectroscopic data, bone bioapatite is referred to carbonate–apatite of the B type. The results of thermal, chromatographic, and spectroscopic studies of collagen extracted from the bones of Pleistocene animals are discussed for the first time. The general trend of chemical degradation of bone proteins during fossilization is determined. The amino acid composition of bone collagen, the isotope composition of C, O, and N in biomineral and organic components of bones in the course of two-stage mass-spectrometer analysis of a complex sample are analyzed for the first time. Based on isotope-geochemical data conclusions concerning the diet and paleoclimatic and paleolandscape conditions of Pleistocene mammals are made.

The particles of native aluminum that were extracted from ejecta of the 1988 Klyuchevskoi eruption were found to contain numerous inclusions of ultramicrodiamonds of the cuboctahedral habitus. We discuss the results of X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray structural, and spectroscopic studies of minerals that support the previous inference as to electric-shock–stimulated crystallization of diamonds from volcanic gases.

This paper discusses results from mineralogic, petrographic, and petrochemical studies of diamond-bearing volcanic rocks that were erupted by the 2012–2013 Tolbachik Fissure Eruption. This is the first time that the reader can find an integrated description of crystal-morphologic, spectroscopic, thermal, and isotopic-geochemical properties of diamonds extracted from fresh basaltoids. We examined the micromineralizations that are accessory to the diamonds and provide a rationale for why the type (previously unknown) of non-kimberlite diamond findings should exist in nature.