TY - JOUR
T1 - Tooth enamel nitrogen isotope composition records trophic position
T2 - a tool for reconstructing food webs
AU - Leichliter, Jennifer N.
AU - Lüdecke, Tina
AU - Foreman, Alan D.
AU - Bourgon, Nicolas
AU - Duprey, Nicolas N.
AU - Vonhof, Hubert
AU - Souksavatdy, Viengkeo
AU - Bacon, Anne Marie
AU - Sigman, Daniel M.
AU - Tütken, Thomas
AU - Martínez-García, Alfredo
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank F. Rubach, S. Brömme, M. Schmitt, and B. Hinnenberg (Climate Geochemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany) for technical support, D. Winkler (Zoological Institute, University of Kiel, Germany) and T. Kaiser (Center of Natural History, University of Hamburg, Germany) for assistance in sampling the modern African fauna. We thank J. Broska and P. Held for collagen preparation and δC/δN analysis of bone collagen. We also thank S. Luangaphay (Department of National Heritage, Ministry of Information and Culture in Vientiane, Laos) for the authorization to study the published fauna of Tam Hay Marklot, P.O. Antoine, who aided in taxonomic identification and analysis of the fauna, and researchers who are part of the Laos project and participated in the fieldwork (F. Demeter, L. Shackelford, P. Duringer, J.L. Ponche, Q. Boesch, E. Patole-Edoumba, T.E. Dunn, A. Zachwieja, E. Suzzoni, S. Frangeul, S. Duangthongchit, T. Sayavonkhamdy, P. Sichanthongtip, and D. Sihanam). This study was funded by the Max Planck Society (A. Martínez-García), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement 681450) (ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement to T. Tütken); the Paul Crutzen Nobel Prize fellowship of the Max Planck Society to N.N. Duprey; and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant LU 2199/1-2 and the Emmy Noether Fellowship LU 2199/2-1 to T. Lüdecke. Prior method development work was supported by the Scott Fund of the Department of Geosciences, Princeton University (to D.M.S.). 13 15
Funding Information:
We thank F. Rubach, S. Brömme, M. Schmitt, and B. Hinnenberg (Climate Geochemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany) for technical support, D. Winkler (Zoological Institute, University of Kiel, Germany) and T. Kaiser (Center of Natural History, University of Hamburg, Germany) for assistance in sampling the modern African fauna. We thank J. Broska and P. Held for collagen preparation and δ13C/δ15N analysis of bone collagen. We also thank S. Luangaphay (Department of National Heritage, Ministry of Information and Culture in Vientiane, Laos) for the authorization to study the published fauna of Tam Hay Marklot, P.O. Antoine, who aided in taxonomic identification and analysis of the fauna, and researchers who are part of the Laos project and participated in the fieldwork (F. Demeter, L. Shackelford, P. Duringer, J.L. Ponche, Q. Boesch, E. Patole-Edoumba, T.E. Dunn, A. Zachwieja, E. Suzzoni, S. Frangeul, S. Duangthongchit, T. Sayavonkhamdy, P. Sichanthongtip, and D. Sihanam). This study was funded by the Max Planck Society (A. Martínez-García), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (Grant Agreement 681450) (ERC Consolidator Grant Agreement to T. Tütken); the Paul Crutzen Nobel Prize fellowship of the Max Planck Society to N.N. Duprey; and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Grant LU 2199/1-2 and the Emmy Noether Fellowship LU 2199/2-1 to T. Lüdecke. Prior method development work was supported by the Scott Fund of the Department of Geosciences, Princeton University (to D.M.S.).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Nitrogen isotopes are widely used to study the trophic position of animals in modern food webs; however, their application in the fossil record is severely limited by degradation of organic material during fossilization. In this study, we show that the nitrogen isotope composition of organic matter preserved in mammalian tooth enamel (δ15Nenamel) records diet and trophic position. The δ15Nenamel of modern African mammals shows a 3.7‰ increase between herbivores and carnivores as expected from trophic enrichment, and there is a strong positive correlation between δ15Nenamel and δ15Nbone-collagen values from the same individuals. Additionally, δ15Nenamel values of Late Pleistocene fossil teeth preserve diet and trophic level information, despite complete diagenetic loss of collagen in the same specimens. We demonstrate that δ15Nenamel represents a powerful geochemical proxy for diet that is applicable to fossils and can help delineate major dietary transitions in ancient vertebrate lineages.
AB - Nitrogen isotopes are widely used to study the trophic position of animals in modern food webs; however, their application in the fossil record is severely limited by degradation of organic material during fossilization. In this study, we show that the nitrogen isotope composition of organic matter preserved in mammalian tooth enamel (δ15Nenamel) records diet and trophic position. The δ15Nenamel of modern African mammals shows a 3.7‰ increase between herbivores and carnivores as expected from trophic enrichment, and there is a strong positive correlation between δ15Nenamel and δ15Nbone-collagen values from the same individuals. Additionally, δ15Nenamel values of Late Pleistocene fossil teeth preserve diet and trophic level information, despite complete diagenetic loss of collagen in the same specimens. We demonstrate that δ15Nenamel represents a powerful geochemical proxy for diet that is applicable to fossils and can help delineate major dietary transitions in ancient vertebrate lineages.
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U2 - 10.1038/s42003-023-04744-y
DO - 10.1038/s42003-023-04744-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 37029186
AN - SCOPUS:85152072397
SN - 2399-3642
VL - 6
JO - Communications Biology
JF - Communications Biology
IS - 1
M1 - 373
ER -