A model of fossil tooth and bone diagenesis: implications for paleodiet reconstruction from stable isotopes

Wang, Yang; Cerling, Thure E.

doi:10.1016/0031-0182(94)90100-7

Cited by 342 publications

(218 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, the carbonate fraction has retained a usable oxygen signal in some fossil specimens (29), and this study considers these carbonate values to give reliable and useful information. ␦ 13 C values are more reliable than ␦ 18 O from apatite structural carbonate, because oxygen is more prone to diagenetic alteration than carbon (55). Diagenesis has also been hypothesized to cause ␦ 18 O values to equilibrate with those of the diagenetic fluid (37), but teeth may retain original oxygen isotope values if the diagenetic system is of both low temperature and water/biomineral ratio (55).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early proboscidean evolution

Liu

Seiffert

Simons

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The order Proboscidea includes extant elephants and their extinct relatives and is closely related to the aquatic sirenians (manatees and dugongs) and terrestrial hyracoids (hyraxes). Some analyses of embryological, morphological, and paleontological data suggest that proboscideans and sirenians shared an aquatic or semiaquatic common ancestor, but independent tests of this hypothesis have proven elusive. Here we test the hypothesis of an aquatic ancestry for advanced proboscideans by measuring ␦ 18 O in tooth enamel of two late Eocene proboscidean genera, Barytherium and Moeritherium, which are sister taxa of Oligocene-to-Recent proboscideans. The combination of low ␦ 18 O values and low ␦ 18 O standard deviations in Barytherium and Moeritherium matches the isotopic pattern seen in aquatic and semiaquatic mammals, and differs from that of terrestrial mammals. ␦ 13 C values of these early proboscideans suggest that both genera are likely to have consumed freshwater plants, although a component of C 3 terrestrial vegetation cannot be ruled out. The simplest explanation for the combined evidence from isotopes, dental functional morphology, and depositional environments is that Barytherium and Moeritherium were at least semiaquatic and lived in freshwater swamp or riverine environments, where they grazed on freshwater vegetation. These results lend new support to the hypothesis that Oligocene-to-Recent proboscideans are derived from amphibious ancestors.Barytherium ͉ Eocene ͉ Fayum ͉ Moeritherium ͉ Proboscidea T he elephants Elephas and Loxodonta (order Proboscidea) are the only living remnants of a major adaptive radiation whose origin can now be traced back to the earliest Eocene (Ϸ55 million years ago) in Africa (1). Genomic data place proboscideans within the placental mammalian superorder Afrotheria (2) and the more restricted supraordinal clade Paenungulata, which also contains the aquatic manatees and dugongs (order Sirenia) and terrestrial hyraxes (order Hyracoidea). Genetic evidence has thus far failed to resolve relationships among paenungulate orders (2, 3), but a recent analysis of genomic and morphological evidence provided weak support for a Proboscidea-Sirenia clade (Tethytheria) to the exclusion of Hyracoidea (4). A monophyletic Tethytheria has long been seen as the best explanation for available morphological evidence (5) and is key to the hypothesis [also based on developmental (6) and paleontological (5, 7) evidence] that the common ancestor of elephants and sea cows might have been at least semiaquatic.Eocene proboscideans were radically different from living elephants in their size, skeletal and dental morphology, and presumably many aspects of their ecology and behavior as well (5,(7)(8)(9)

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early proboscidean evolution

Liu

Seiffert

Simons

2008

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Isotopic values of enamel reflect the isotopic values of an animal's diet and drinking habits during tooth formation [11][12][13][14]. Tooth carbon (d 13 C) values in the range of 220 to 28‰ reflect feeding on C 3 plants, or all trees and shrubs, whereas values of þ1 to þ4‰ reflect a diet of pure grazing on C 4 grasses or sedges in environments with hot, wet growing seasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chimpanzee fauna isotopes provide new interpretations of fossil ape and hominin ecologies

Nelson

2013

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes within modern and fossil tooth enamel record the aspects of an animal's diet and habitat use. This investigation reports the first isotopic analyses of enamel from a large chimpanzee community and associated fauna, thus providing a means of comparing fossil ape and early hominin palaeoecologies with those of a modern ape. Within Kibale National Park forest, oxygen isotopes differentiate primate niches, allowing for the first isotopic reconstructions of degree of frugivory versus folivory as well as use of arboreal versus terrestrial resources. In a comparison of modern and fossil community isotopic profiles, results indicate that Sivapithecus, a Miocene ape from Pakistan, fed in the forest canopy, as do chimpanzees, but inhabited a forest with less continuous canopy or fed more on leaves. Ardipithecus, an early hominin from Ethiopia, fed both arboreally and terrestrially in a more open habitat than inhabited by chimpanzees.

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“…Bone and dentine are relatively porous and contain w30% (dry weight) organic matter, and the mineral fraction is composed of small and highly reactive hydroxyapatite crystals. High porosity and solubility allow increased water/mineral interactions favouring extensive post-mortem geochemical changes in bone and dentine (Wang and Cerling, 1994). We chose to conduct analyses on enamel because it is less porous than bone or dentine being composed of larger, more tightly packed crystals with smaller amounts intercrystalline organic matter ( 2%) (Driessens and Verbeeck, 1990), thus reducing permeability to diagenetic fluids.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Oxygen and strontium isotopes as provenance indicators of fish at archaeological sites: the case study of Sagalassos, SW Turkey

Dufour

Holmden

Neer

et al. 2007

Journal of Archaeological Science

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In this paper, we investigate the potential use of oxygen and strontium isotope ratios (d 18 O p and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) measured in archaeological fish enamel as provenance indicators. d 18 O p and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr were measured in a suite of archaeological carp remains recovered from the Anatolian townsite of Sagalassos dated to the Early Byzantine period (AD 450e650) and compared to that of modern fish, river and lake waters from the Anatolian region. We used sequential leaches in weak acetic acid to remove diagenetic Sr from fossil tooth enamel, monitoring the effectiveness of this approach by measuring the Sr/Ca ratios of the leachates via an isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry method (ID-TIMS). d 18 O p values mostly excluded a riverine origin. 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios of one fish overlapped with the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures of two lakes in the Anatolian region, and at least one lake (Gölcük) could be removed as a candidate owing to a very distinctive 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signature not found in any of the fish remains. Most of the tooth samples analyzed could not be assigned a precise geographical origin since the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios measured in enamel did not match that of any of the local lakes selected as potential origin. This result suggests that carp may have originated from lakes that have not yet been sampled, although this conclusion is not supported by other archaeological evidence. Alternatively, the lack of correspondence between lakes and fish Sr isotope ratios highlights several possible sources of uncertainties including spatial heterogeneity in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratio within a lake, the contribution of dietary strontium to the 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratio of fish tooth enamel, and post-mortem alteration of the tooth Sr isotope signal during fossilization. In spite of the high precision of the strontium isotope analyses and the wide range of variation in the surface waters of the Anatolian lakes and rivers, this method may remain limited to distinguishing between lakes situated in regions of bedrock of very distinct age and geology until these sources of uncertainty are more fully investigated.

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A model of fossil tooth and bone diagenesis: implications for paleodiet reconstruction from stable isotopes

Cited by 342 publications

References 24 publications

Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early proboscidean evolution

Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early proboscidean evolution

Chimpanzee fauna isotopes provide new interpretations of fossil ape and hominin ecologies

Oxygen and strontium isotopes as provenance indicators of fish at archaeological sites: the case study of Sagalassos, SW Turkey

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