Chimpanzee fauna isotopes provide new interpretations of fossil ape and hominin ecologies

Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes within modern and fossil tooth enamel record the aspects of an animal's diet and habitat use. This investigation reports the first isotopic analyses of enamel from a large chimpanzee community and associated fauna, thus providing a means of comparing fossil ape...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences Biological sciences, 2013-12, Vol.280 (1773), p.20132324-20132324
Main Author: Nelson, Sherry V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Ardipithecus
Carbon Isotopes - analysis
Chimpanzees
Dental Enamel - chemistry
Diet
Ecology
Ecosystem
Feeding Behavior
Fossils
Hominidae - metabolism
Hominidae - physiology
Oxygen Isotopes - analysis
Pakistan
Pan troglodytes
Pan troglodytes - metabolism
Pan troglodytes - physiology
Primates
Sivapithecus
Stable Isotopes
Trees
Uganda
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Summary:Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes within modern and fossil tooth enamel record the aspects of an animal's diet and habitat use. This investigation reports the first isotopic analyses of enamel from a large chimpanzee community and associated fauna, thus providing a means of comparing fossil ape and early hominin palaeoecologies with those of a modern ape. Within Kibale National Park forest, oxygen isotopes differentiate primate niches, allowing for the first isotopic reconstructions of degree of frugivory versus folivory as well as use of arboreal versus terrestrial resources. In a comparison of modern and fossil community isotopic profiles, results indicate that Sivapithecus, a Miocene ape from Pakistan, fed in the forest canopy, as do chimpanzees, but inhabited a forest with less continuous canopy or fed more on leaves. Ardipithecus, an early hominin from Ethiopia, fed both arboreally and terrestrially in a more open habitat than inhabited by chimpanzees.
ISSN:0962-8452
1471-2945
1471-2954
DOI:10.1098/rspb.2013.2324