0000000000379113
AUTHOR
Hubert B. Vonhof
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…
The magnesium isotope record of cave carbonate archives
Here we explore the potential of magnesium (&delta;<sup>26</sup>Mg) isotope time-series data as continental climate proxies in speleothem calcite archives. For this purpose, a total of six Pleistocene and Holocene stalagmites from caves in Germany, Morocco and Peru and two flowstones from a cave in Austria were investigated. These caves represent the semi-arid to arid (Morocco), the warm-temperate (Germany), the equatorial-humid (Peru) and the cold-humid (Austria) climate zones. Changes in the calcite magnesium isotope signature with time are compared against carbon and oxygen isotope records from these speleothems. Similar to other proxies, the non-trivial interaction of a …
Nitrogen isotopes in tooth enamel record diet and trophic level enrichment: results from a controlled feeding experiment
Nitrogen isotope ratios (δ15N) are a well-established tool for investigating the dietary and trophic behavior of animals in terrestrial and marine food webs. To date, δ15N values in fossils have primarily been measured in collagen extracted from bone or dentin, which is susceptible to degradation and rarely preserved in deep time (>100,000 years). In contrast, tooth enamel organic matter is protected from diagenetic alteration by the mineral structure of hydroxyapatite and thus is often preserved over geological time. However, due to the low nitrogen content (<0.01 %) of enamel, the measurement of its nitrogen isotopic composition has been prevented by the analytical limit…
Hydroclimate variability of western Thailand during the last 1400 years
Mainland Southeast Asia is located on the moisture transport route of the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) where hydroclimate records from speleothems have rarely been investigated. Here, we present a new multi-proxy (δ18O and δ13C values, trace element concentrations, and grayscale values) data set of stalagmite KPC1 from Khao Prae cave in western Thailand spanning the last 1400 years (500–1900 CE; the Common Era). These multi-proxy data reveal a high variability between the wet and dry periods during 500–850 CE and 1150–1300 CE, stable climate conditions during 850–1150 CE, and overall dry conditions since 1300 CE. The δ13C values, trace elements concentrations, and grayscale values show cente…
Last glacial millennial-scale hydro-climate and temperature changes in Puerto Rico constrained by speleothem fluid inclusion δ&lt;sup&gt;18&lt;/sup&gt;O and δ&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;H values
Abstract. We present speleothem fluid inclusion δ18Of and δ2Hf values from Larga Cave, Puerto Rico, that covers the interval between 46.2 to 15.3 ka before present on millennial scale, including the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and several stadial and interstadial cycles. The dataset can be divided in two main clusters of stable isotope compositions of the fluid inclusion water with respect to the global meteoric water line which coincide with strong variations in the water content of the stalagmite. In particular, this clustering is found to be climate related, where the first cluster comprises samples from cold and dry periods, such as Heinrich and Greenland stadials, as well as parts of th…
An evaluation of inoceramid single-prism sclerochronology
Abstract Inoceramid prisms are among the most common microfossils that can be found in Late Cretaceous strata. Since these biomineral units were formed by sequential accretion in the outer shell layer of the bivalves, they potentially serve as archives of short-term (circa-annual) paleowater temperature fluctuations. In the present study, we tested to what extent intra-prismatic stable isotope variations of individual inoceramid prisms reflect sub-annual δ13C and the δ18O patterns. We obtained multiple carbonate samples from prisms recovered from the sediment and from a cross-sectioned inoceramid shell fragment and compared data from these samples to data from classical sclerochronological …