Tooth tales told by dental diet proxies: An alpine community of sympatric ruminants as a model to decipher the ecology of fossil fauna

Abstract Paleobiologists tend to use dietary information as an ecological indicator because diet is a fundamental link between an organism and its environment. However, the ecological information from fossilized hard tissues is often difficult to interpret, because links between environment, diet, and hard tissue biology are insufficiently studied in modern communities. To address this dilemma, we investigated dietary proxies commonly used by paleobiologists in a 4-ruminant community from the French Alps. Dental microwear texture analyses are applied to 82 specimens of roe deer, red deer, chamois, and mouflons. Intra-tooth serial enamel stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses of the struc…