Combined oxygen and sulphur isotope analysis—a new tool to unravel vertebrate (paleo)-ecology

Abstract

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The ecology of modern and fossil vertebrates revisited by lithium isotopes

“…Water salinity thus has a noticeable effect on Li accumulation, transport, and/or excretion in vertebrate mineralized tissues. In contrast, O and S isotopes need to be considered jointly to distinguish fish species living in transitional environments (Goedert et al, 2020(Goedert et al, , 2018 (Figs. 3a and 3b).…”

“…To this end, stable isotopes are commonly used as modern and past ecological proxies (Fry, 2006). They are notably applied to vertebrate mineralized tissues (bones, teeth, eggshells, scales, fish otoliths) to investigate current to past biological and physiological characteristics such as body temperature (Amiot et al, 2006;Séon et al, 2020), mobility (Fricke et al, 2009;Lazzerini et al, 2021;Lugli et al, 2019), trophic ecology (Hassler et al, 2018;Wißing et al, 2019), and to reconstruct living environments of ancient animals (Amiot et al, 2010;Goedert et al, 2020Goedert et al, , 2018.…”

“…In recent decades, stable (δ 13 C, δ 18 O, δ 34 S) and radiogenic isotope systems ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) applied to vertebrate mineralized tissues have proved to be the best relevant palaeoecological proxies for reconstructing salinity and/or the environmental conditions of their aquatic environments (i.e. seawater vs freshwater) (Clementz et al, 2006;Fischer et al, 2012;Goedert et al, 2020Goedert et al, , 2018Kocsis et al, 2009;Schmitz et al, 1997). However, they also hold limitations.…”

“…Clementz et al, 2006). Furthermore, species migrating between waters of different salinities or living in brackish waters can have δ 18 O or δ 34 S signatures indistinguishable from species living in seawater (Goedert et al, 2020). Only the joint application of these two isotopic systems might overcome such potential bias, as two recent studies indicate (Goedert et al, 2020(Goedert et al, , 2018.…”

Revealing capture sites and movements by strontium isotope analyses in bones of Caiman yacare in the Beni river floodplain, Bolivia

“…Even with a more precise baseline, overlapping of 87 Sr/ Sr values between some sampling sites will probably occurred. Examination of other isotopic proxies like oxygen and sulphur isotope (Goedert et al 2020) could also be appropriate to resolve the situations of overlap. Improve this geographic information would be of importance for population dynamics analysis, as it makes it possible to determine more precisely if the yacares captured at one site or sector were born in this site or sector or if they moved from one site/sector to another during their life.…”