Seasonal Cyclicity in Trace Elements and Stable Isotopes of Modern Horse Enamel

Winter, Niels J. de; Snoeck, Christophe; Claeys, Philippe

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166678

Cited by 28 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 125 publications

(213 reference statements)

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“…The oxygen isotope results also suggest these cattle did not grow/graze in the same place as their bulk oxygen isotope ratios range from − 7.5 to − 4.6‰. Two of the five specimen have oxygen isotope ratios (− 5.3 and − 4.6‰) consistent with the results obtained on modern horse teeth from the Scheldt basin (very close to Bazel) that exhibit seasonal variation between − 7 and 0‰ with an average value around − 4.5‰ 41 . The other three samples with δ 18 O ap values between − 7.5 and − 6.9‰ are similar to values seen in Roman and Medieval sheep from salt-marshes and salt-meadows in the nearby Belgian coast with average values between − 8.3 and − 6.3‰ 42 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe

Crombé

Aluwé

Boudin

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The distribution of the first domesticated animals and crops along the coastal area of Atlantic NW Europe, which triggered the transition from a hunter-gatherer-fisher to a farmer-herder economy, has been debated for many decades among archaeologists. While some advocate a gradual transition in which indigenous hunter-gatherers from the very beginning of the 5th millennium cal BC progressively adopted Neolithic commodities, others are more in favor of a rapid transition near the end of the 5th millennium caused by a further northwest migration of farmers-herders colonizing the lowlands. Here, radiocarbon dated bones from sheep/goat and possibly also cattle are presented which provide the first hard evidence of an early introduction of domesticated animals within a hunter-gatherer context in NW Belgium, situated ca. 80 km north of the agro-pastoral frontier. Based on their isotope signal it is suggested that these first domesticates were probably not merely obtained through exchange with contemporaneous farmers but were kept locally, providing evidence of small-scale local stockbreeding in the lowlands maybe as early as ca. 4800/4600 cal BC. If confirmed by future in-depth isotope analyses, the latter testifies of intense contact and transmission of knowledge in this early contact period, which is also visible in the material culture, such as the lithic and pottery technology. It also implies direct and prolonged involvement of farmer-herders, either through visiting specialists or intermarriage, which follows recent genetic evidence demonstrating much more hunter-gatherer ancestry in early farmer’s genes in western Europe compared to central and SE Europe.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe

Crombé

Aluwé

Boudin

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…Previous studies have noted patterns in carbon and oxygen isotopes that provide insight into the diet of animals during different seasons ( 13 , 15 , 16 ). Since sloth teeth continue to grow throughout their life, changes in the isotope patterns along the length of the tooth reflect the last few years of the animal’s life, with the isotope value at the base of the tooth reflecting diet and climate shortly before the time of the animal’s death (the time lag may represent days, weeks, or months, depending on the rate of tooth mineralization and eruption) [e.g., ( 28 )]. Depending on the rate of tooth wear through mastication and the rate at which new tooth material is produced, the number of seasons recorded in the tooth and which ones are represented will vary based on the season of death of the individual.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As is common in tropical environments, postdepositional diagenetic processes affected the collagen within the tooth, a fact further complicated by the specimen’s deposition in a cenote where it was submerged for thousands of years, causing the leaching of collagen. In this case, because of the lack of collagen, dentin was used as a replacement, as has been done in previous studies ( 28 , 41 ). Although this has not been specified in previous studies, to ensure that the results were accurate, we only sampled the inner orthodentin layer, the portion of bioapatite expected to be most resistent to diagenesis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A year in the life of a giant ground sloth during the Last Glacial Maximum in Belize

et al. 2019

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Stable isotope analysis of the first fossilized Eremotherium laurillardi remains from Belize offers valuable insights into the conditions within which this individual lived and its ability to adapt to the increasing aridity of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy was used to identify chemical alteration of the tooth during fossilization. Results demonstrate that the inner orthodentin resists diagenesis, yielding potentially unaltered values. Using an intensive “vacuum milling” technique, the inner orthodentin produced an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) date of 26,975 ± 120 calibrated years before the present. The stable carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of this layer shows that the tooth recorded two wet seasons separated by one longer dry season and that this sloth was able to adapt its diet to the marked seasonality of the LGM. This study offers new insights into obtaining reliable isotope data from fossilized remains and suggests that this individual adapted to climate shifts, contributing to the conversation surrounding megafauna extinction.

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“…Enamel from vertebrate teeth constitute a useful archive for paleoenvironmental and paleoecological change in the terrestrial realm, complementing the carbonate records discussed in this work (e.g. Luz and Kolodny, 1985;Fricke et al, 1996;Balasse, 2002;Van Dam and Reichart, 2009;de Winter et al, 2016).…”

Section: Tooth Bioapatitementioning

confidence: 90%

Optimizing sampling strategies in high-resolution paleoclimate records

Winter¹,

Agterhuis²,

Ziegler³

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. The aim of paleoclimate studies to resolve climate variability from noisy proxy records can in essence be reduced to a statistical problem. The challenge is to isolate meaningful information on climate events from these records by reducing measurement uncertainty through a combination of proxy data while retaining the temporal resolution needed to assess the timing and duration of the event. In this study, we explore the limits of this compromise by testing different methods for combining proxy data (smoothing, binning and sample size optimization) on a particularly challenging paleoclimate problem: resolving seasonal variability in stable isotope records. We test and evaluate the effects of changes in the seasonal temperature and hydrology cycle as well as changes in accretion rate of the archive and parameters such as sampling resolution and age model uncertainty on the reliability of seasonality reconstructions based on clumped and oxygen isotope analyses in 33 real and virtual datasets. Our results show that strategic combinations of clumped isotope analyses can significantly improve the accuracy of seasonality reconstructions if compared with conventional stable oxygen isotope analyses, especially in settings where the isotopic composition of the water is poorly constrained. Smoothing data using a moving average often leads to a dampening of the seasonal cycle, significantly reducing the accuracy of reconstructions. A statistical sample size optimization protocol yields more precise results than smoothing. However, the most accurate results are obtained through monthly binning of proxy data, especially in cases where growth rate or water composition cycles dampen the seasonal temperature cycle. Our analysis of a wide range of natural situations reveals that the effect of temperature seasonality on isotope records almost invariably exceeds that of changes in water composition. Thus, in most cases, isotope records allow reliable identification of growth seasonality as a basis for age modelling and seasonality reconstructions in absence of independent chronological markers in the record. These specific findings allow us to formulate general recommendations for sampling and combining data in paleoclimate research and have implications beyond the reconstruction of seasonality. We discuss the implications of our results for solving common problems in paleoclimatology and stratigraphy, including cyclostratigraphy, strontium isotope dating and event stratigraphy.

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Seasonal Cyclicity in Trace Elements and Stable Isotopes of Modern Horse Enamel

Cited by 28 publications

References 125 publications

New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe

New evidence on the earliest domesticated animals and possible small-scale husbandry in Atlantic NW Europe

A year in the life of a giant ground sloth during the Last Glacial Maximum in Belize

Optimizing sampling strategies in high-resolution paleoclimate records

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