Isotopic reconstructions of habitat change surrounding the extinction of Oreopithecus, the last European ape

Abstract

Objective: Oreopithecus bambolii was the last hominoid to survive in Europe. The purpose of this investigation was to reconstruct, through stable isotope analyses, Oreopithecus' habitat, subsistence behavior, and changes in habitat that may have led to its extinction.Methods: Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes from inorganic carbonate in tooth enamel from Oreopithecus and its contemporaneous faunas from localities in Tuscany and Sardinia were sampled. Also the fauna from localities in Tuscany shortly after Oreopithecus went extinct were sampled.

The Owen Ridge uplift in the Arabian Sea: Implications for the sedimentary record of Indian monsoon in Late Miocene

“…8), 344 which provides a likely origin for the hydrological change pointed out by Huang et al (2007) River over more than 400 km (Waheed and Wells, 1990;, which is at its present-day location 351 since only 5 Ma (Clift and Blusztajn, 2005). Surface uplift in Pakistan reduced monsoon precipitation 352 coming from the ocean and increased aridity, without affecting the seasonality (consistently with 353 environment reconstructions of Nelson, 2006). Surface uplift also explains the greater fraction of 354 precipitation coming from continental sources in the Siwalik area, revealed by geochemical studies of 355 Huang et al (2007).…”

“…This environmental change is characterized by a shift 333 from the dominance of C 3 to C 4 plants in the vegetation (C 3 and C 4 plants using a different 334 photosynthesis pathway) (Quade et al, 1989;Cerling et al, 1997;Molnar, 2005). The estimated 335 decrease in annual precipitation (~120 mm), the increase in annual temperature (+3°C), as well as the 336 decrease in atmospheric CO 2 (Cerling et al, 1997) at ~8-9 Ma cannot account for the ecological 337 transition alone (Nelson, 2006;Huang et al, 2007). Huang et al (2007) propose that the ecological 338 transition resulted from a large-scale hydrological change over Pakistan and he Himalayan foreland, 339 but the origin of this hydrological change is unknown.…”

Palaeodietary and Palaeoclimatic Interpretations for Herbivore Fauna From Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene Siwaliks of Pakistan

“…These values indicate that the water intake behavior of Pliocene Rhinos was different from Pleistocene Rhinos with former drinking under shaded ecosystem while later drinking on open water bodies with higher rates of evaporation. Alternatively, there was a shift in rainfall seasons or amount rainfall from Pliocene to Pleistocene due to further uplift of Himalaya which caused more pronounced seasonality (Nelson, 2007).…”

“…The carbon isotope composition is a reliable tool to reconstruct the palaeoecology of the extinct animals (DeNiro and Epstein, 1978;ven der Merwe and Medina, 1991;Quade et al, 1995;Nelson, 2007;Cerling et al, 2011;Uno et al, 2011). The rates of assimilation for C 3 and C 4 vegetation are different and these are preferred in different environments.…”

Is the deciduous/permanent molar enamel thickness ratio a taxon-specific indicator in extant and extinct hominids?

“…The four extant and four extinct hominid genera represented in our analysis are known for exploiting, or are reported to have exploited, respectively, a wide range of food resources in a variety of diverse environments (Fleagle, 2013;Guatelli-Steinberg, 2016;Hartwig, 2002;Merceron et al, 2005;Nelson and Rook, 2016;Scott et al, 2005;Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp, 2015;Ungar, 2007;Ungar and Sponheimer, 2013). Depending on the taxonspecific feeding habits, the time spent feeding may be considered as another variable which, together with food abrasiveness, likely plays a role in the selection of enamel thickness because of dental wear resistance, i.e., adaptation is not only resistance to fracture, but also to prolonged periods of wear to which enamel thickness can be related (Grine and Daegling, 2017;Pampush et al, 2013).…”