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Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes

Isotopes in fossil tooth enamel provide robust tools for reconstructing food webs, which have been understudied in Australian megafauna. To delineate the isotopic composition of primary consumers and understand dietary behaviour at the base of the food web, we investigate calcium (Ca) and strontium...

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Autores principales: Koutamanis, Dafne, McCurry, Matthew, Tacail, Theo, Dosseto, Anthony
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38026016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230991
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author Koutamanis, Dafne
McCurry, Matthew
Tacail, Theo
Dosseto, Anthony
author_facet Koutamanis, Dafne
McCurry, Matthew
Tacail, Theo
Dosseto, Anthony
author_sort Koutamanis, Dafne
collection PubMed
description Isotopes in fossil tooth enamel provide robust tools for reconstructing food webs, which have been understudied in Australian megafauna. To delineate the isotopic composition of primary consumers and understand dietary behaviour at the base of the food web, we investigate calcium (Ca) and strontium (Sr) isotope compositions of Pleistocene marsupial herbivores from Wellington Caves and Bingara (New South Wales, Australia). Sr isotopes suggest small home ranges across giant and smaller marsupial herbivores. Ca isotopes in Pleistocene marsupial herbivores cover the same range as those in modern wombats and placental herbivores. Early forming teeth are depleted in heavy Ca isotopes compared to late-forming teeth of a given individual, suggesting a weaning signal. Distinct Ca compositions between taxa can be interpreted as dietary niches. Some niches conform to previous dietary reconstructions of taxa, while others provide new insights into niche differentiation across Australian herbivores. Combined with the small roaming ranges suggested by Sr isotopes, the Ca isotope niche diversity suggests rich ecosystems, supporting a diversity of taxa with various diets in a small area.
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spelling pubmed-106637892023-11-22 Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes Koutamanis, Dafne McCurry, Matthew Tacail, Theo Dosseto, Anthony R Soc Open Sci Earth and Environmental Science Isotopes in fossil tooth enamel provide robust tools for reconstructing food webs, which have been understudied in Australian megafauna. To delineate the isotopic composition of primary consumers and understand dietary behaviour at the base of the food web, we investigate calcium (Ca) and strontium (Sr) isotope compositions of Pleistocene marsupial herbivores from Wellington Caves and Bingara (New South Wales, Australia). Sr isotopes suggest small home ranges across giant and smaller marsupial herbivores. Ca isotopes in Pleistocene marsupial herbivores cover the same range as those in modern wombats and placental herbivores. Early forming teeth are depleted in heavy Ca isotopes compared to late-forming teeth of a given individual, suggesting a weaning signal. Distinct Ca compositions between taxa can be interpreted as dietary niches. Some niches conform to previous dietary reconstructions of taxa, while others provide new insights into niche differentiation across Australian herbivores. Combined with the small roaming ranges suggested by Sr isotopes, the Ca isotope niche diversity suggests rich ecosystems, supporting a diversity of taxa with various diets in a small area. The Royal Society 2023-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC10663789/ /pubmed/38026016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230991 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Earth and Environmental Science
Koutamanis, Dafne
McCurry, Matthew
Tacail, Theo
Dosseto, Anthony
Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title_full Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title_fullStr Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title_full_unstemmed Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title_short Reconstructing Pleistocene Australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
title_sort reconstructing pleistocene australian herbivore megafauna diet using calcium and strontium isotopes
topic Earth and Environmental Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663789/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38026016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.230991
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