Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

Alemseged, Zeresenay

doi:10.1073/pnas.1516668112

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…A somewhat restrictive diet dominated by C 3 plants—as found in chimpanzees 11 , 49 —is often assumed to be somewhat mechanically narrow, i.e., associated with easy to process fruits and forest products. Our data indicate that this is not always the case.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fossil findings have also indicated that members of Pan have long used these habitat types in sympatry with early Homo , a relationship with the human lineage that may have endured since the divergence of Pan and hominins 51 . Middle Pliocene australopiths such as Ardipithicus ramidus and Australopithecus anamensis possess remarkably comparable isotopic signatures with savannah chimpanzees, suggesting they relied on a C 3 dominated diet 49 , 52 , 53 . Whilst perhaps savannah chimpanzees are an imperfect morphological analogy for these early hominins, there are some dental and gnathic similarities (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees

et al. 2018

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Chimpanzees are traditionally described as ripe fruit specialists with large incisors but relatively small postcanine teeth, adhering to a somewhat narrow dietary niche. Field observations and isotopic analyses suggest that environmental conditions greatly affect habitat resource utilisation by chimpanzee populations. Here we combine measures of dietary mechanics with stable isotope signatures from eastern chimpanzees living in tropical forest (Ngogo, Uganda) and savannah woodland (Issa Valley, Tanzania). We show that foods at Issa can present a considerable mechanical challenge, most saliently in the external tissues of savannah woodland plants compared to their tropical forest equivalents. This pattern is concurrent with different isotopic signatures between sites. These findings demonstrate that chimpanzee foods in some habitats are mechanically more demanding than previously thought, elucidating the broader evolutionary constraints acting on chimpanzee dental morphology. Similarly, these data can help clarify the dietary mechanical landscape of extinct hominins often overlooked by broad C3/C4 isotopic categories.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees

et al. 2018

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“…Similar %C 4 diet of A. anamensis and Ar. ramidus but different morphologies (Suwa et al, ; White, Ambrose, et al, ) may reveal the lag time between dietary change and morphological adaptations (Alemseged, ; Cerling et al, ; Levin et al, ) also evident in a number of African fossil mammalian species (Lister, ; Ségalen, Lee‐Thorp, & Cerling, ; Sponheimer, Reed, & Lee‐Thorp, ; Uno et al, ). The recalculated %C 4 diets of Ar.…”

Section: Broader Evolutionary Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic equifinality and rethinking the diet of Australopithecus anamensis

Quinn

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Australopithecus anamensis has comparable δ 13 C enamel values to Ardipithecus ramidus, and both have been characterized as C 3 feeders in open woodland habitats similar to "savanna" chimps. Unlike Ar. ramidus and "savanna" chimps, A. anamensis shows a derived dentognathic morphology for tough foods and a dental microwear pattern similar to the C 3 -C 4 -mixed-feeding A. afarensis. Here I test the hypothesis that changing the variables (ε * enamel-diet , δ 13 C C3, δ 13 C C4 values) used to calculate the percentage of dietary C 4 foods (%C 4 diet) by 1-2‰ does not make a substantial difference for hominin diet reconstructions [van der Merwe, Masao, & Bamford, 2008, South African Journal of Science 104:153-155]. Materials and Methods: I estimate vegetation structures for A. anamensis with pedogenic carbonate and faunal enamel δ 13 C values from the Pliocene Omo-Turkana Basin(4.2-3.9 Ma). I recalculate A. anamensis' %C 4 diet based on new body size-dependent estimates of the ε * enamel-diet value and alternative δ 13 C C3 and δ 13 C C4 values. Results: The Pliocene Omo-Turkana Basin shows evidence for dietary resources with a wide range of δ 13 C values including canopy-driven 13 C depleted ground C 3 foods. Alternative equation variables changed by 1-2‰ yield higher C 4 estimates forA. anamensis (15-31%) than previously thought (0-10%). The choice of δ 13 C C3 and δ 13 C C4 values for estimating %C 4 is not a perfunctory task and potentially explains the δ 13 C isotopic equifinality of A. anamensis and "savanna" chimps.Discussion: My integrative diet model reconciles the carbon isotopic data with the dentognathic and microwear evidence of A. anamensis' diet and suggests that "savanna" chimps are not proper dietary analogs of A. anamensis. A foraging strategy across heterogeneous habitats of the Pliocene Omo-Turkana Basin incorporating an array of 13 Cdepleted and 13 C-enriched C 3 foods and a portion of C 4 resources may have served as one of the selective pressures for A. anamensis, the earliest habitual biped [van der Merwe et al.

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“…Recent studies of early hominin tooth enamel have challenged conventional ideas regarding the evolution of hominin diets and feeding behaviors (Cerling et al, 2011;Henry et al, 2012;Lee-Thorp et al, 2012;Cerling et al, 2013;Klein, 2013;Sponheimer et al, 2013;Wynn et al, 2013;Alemseged, 2015;Levin et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The oxygen isotopic composition of tooth enamel provides additional paleodietary and paleophysiological information for individual specimens, while an analysis of taxa with a range of thermophysiological adaptations and behaviors may provide additional paleoclimatic information . The recent surge of stable isotopic data from hominins also makes it clear that the middle Pliocene marked significant hominin paleodietary change, when hominins first began to exploit substantial C 4 /CAM-based foods in more open environments (Lee-Thorp et al, 2012;Cerling et al, 2013;Sponheimer et al, 2013;Wynn et al, 2013;Alemseged, 2015;Levin et al, 2015). The timing of this C 4 dietary expansion, combined with other middle Pliocene discoveries, including possible hominin tool use and manufacture (McPherron et al, 2010;Harmand et al, 2015) and potentially increased diversity of hominin taxonomic diversity (Wood and Boyle, 2016), have heightened interest in the ecological, dietary, and behavioral patterns of hominins in the middle Pliocene (~3.8 -3.0 Ma).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary flexibility of Australopithecus afarensis in the face of paleoecological change during the middle Pliocene: Faunal evidence from Hadar, Ethiopia

Wynn

Reed

Sponheimer

et al. 2016

Journal of Human Evolution

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One approach to understanding the context of changes in hominin paleodiets is to examine the paleodiets and paleohabitats of contemporaneous mammalian taxa. Recent carbon isotopic studies suggest that the middle Pliocene was marked by a major shift in hominin diets, characterized by a significant increase in C4 foods in Australopithecus-grade species, including Australopithecus afarensis. To contextualize previous isotopic studies of A. afarensis, we employed stable isotopes to examine paleodiets of the mammalian fauna contemporaneous with A. afarensis at Hadar, Ethiopia. We used these data to inform our understanding of paleoenvironmental change through the deposition of the Hadar Formation. While the majority of the taxa in the Hadar fauna were C4 grazers, most show little change in the intensity of C4 food consumption over the 0.5 million-year interval sampled. Two taxa (equids and bovins) do show increases in C4 consumption through the Hadar Formation and into the younger, overlying Busidima Formation. Changes in the distributions of C4-feeders, C3-feeders and mixed-C3/C4-feeders in the sampled intervals are consistent with evidence of dietary reconstructions based on ecomorphology, and with habitats reconstructed using community structure analyses. Meanwhile, A. afarensis is one of many mammalian taxa whose C4 consumption does not show directional change over the intervals sampled. In combination with a wide range of carbon and oxygen isotopic composition for A. afarensis as compared to the other large mammal taxa, these results suggest that the C3/C4 dietary flexibility of A. afarensis was relatively unusual among most of its mammalian cohort.

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Stable isotopes serving as a checkpoint

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees

Food mechanical properties and isotopic signatures in forest versus savannah dwelling eastern chimpanzees

Isotopic equifinality and rethinking the diet of Australopithecus anamensis

Dietary flexibility of Australopithecus afarensis in the face of paleoecological change during the middle Pliocene: Faunal evidence from Hadar, Ethiopia

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