Claims for the widespread preservation of fossilized biomolecules in many fossil animals have recently been reported in six studies, based on Raman microspectroscopy. Here, we show that the putative Raman signatures of organic compounds in these fossils are actually instrumental artefacts resulting from intense background luminescence. Raman spectroscopy relies upon the detection of photons scattered inelastically by matter as a result of its interaction with a laser beam. For many natural materials, this interaction also generates a luminescence signal that is often orders of magnitude more intense than the light produced by Raman scattering. Such luminescence, coupled with the transmission properties of the spectrometer, induced quasi-periodic ripples in the measured spectra that have been incorrectly interpreted as Raman signatures of organic molecules. Although several analytical strategies have been developed to overcome this common issue, Raman microspectroscopy as used in the studies questioned here cannot be used to identify fossil biomolecules.

中文翻译：

---

将拉曼光谱推向极限：化石中有机分子的据称特征是仪器人工制品

最近有六项基于拉曼显微光谱的研究报告称，许多化石动物中的生物分子化石得到广泛保存。在这里，我们表明这些化石中有机化合物的推定拉曼特征实际上是由强烈背景发光产生的仪器人工制品。拉曼光谱依赖于检测由于物质与激光束相互作用而被物质非弹性散射的光子。对于许多天然材料，这种相互作用还会产生发光信号，其强度通常比拉曼散射产生的光强几个数量级。这种发光，再加上光谱仪的透射特性，在测量光谱中引起准周期性波纹，这些波纹被错误地解释为有机分子的拉曼特征。尽管已经开发了几种分析策略来克服这个常见问题，但此处所质疑的研究中使用的拉曼显微光谱不能用于识别化石生物分子。