A preliminary study of serial stable isotope analysis tracks foraging ecology of fossil Asian elephants in South China
A preliminary study of serial stable isotope analysis tracks foraging ecology of fossil Asian elephants in South China
复制标题
连续稳定同位素分析追踪华南亚洲象化石觅食生态的初步研究
DOI：
10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.190327
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发表时间：
2019
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Hu Yaowu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ma Jiao;Wang Yuan;Jin Changzhu;Zhang Hanwen;Hu Yaowu
Until now, feeding ecology has been found to play a significant role in the evolution of Asian elephant Elephas maximus. As the most widely-applied method in this field, bulk stable isotope analysis on tooth enamel had revealed important evidence on their paleodiet and paleoecology. However, it might be not skilled at reflecting the overview of the paleoecology of elephants, considering their huge tooth mophology and long dental ontogeny process. A newly-developing serial sampling strategy on tooth enamel sections could provide an effective approach to reconstruct the long-term individual life history of mammals covering the whole tooth formation time with higher precision. In this study, serial sampling isotope analysis was firstly undertaken on tooth enamel of Asian elephants from Baxian Cave, South China during the Late Pleistocene. The within-tooth isotopic variations of three teeth(one DP4 and two Mls) are all surprisingly subtle(standard deviations of δ~(13)C and δ~(18)O values are all less than 0.6‰), though some obvious variations might be caused by weaning and/or possible migration. No seasonal variation was observed, possibly indicating that these elephants had a stable foraging ecology. Back to our previous bulk tooth enamel isotope analysis on this same site, we could confirm that the varied bulk isotope results of Asian elephants factually represent their flexible foraging ecology. We may thereby conclude that the increasing bulk isotopic analysis in this region can provide a reliable paleoecological proxy for Pleistocene proboscidea in the warm regions of South and Southeast Asia.
