Using carbon isotope data of fossil bovid communities for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
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2003
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South African Journal of Science
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
Reconstructing palaeoenvironments is a major focus of palaeoanthropological research. While many techniques are now available for exploring past environments, fossil bovids remain amongst the most widely utilized sources of environmental information. Most studies of fossil bovids, however, assume implicitly that bovid ecology is the same now as it was in the distant past. Because such uniformitarianist assumptions are not always valid, we have developed a method to provide palaeoenvironmental information from fossil bovids that requires no ecological assumptions. Here, we show that the percentages of C<sub>3</sub> and C<sub>4</sub> vegetation-consuming bovids in modern environments generally vary according to the amount of woody vegetation present. Application of this C<sub>3</sub> / C<sub>4</sub> index to the fossil bovid assemblage at Makapansgat shows that, based on carbon isotope data, the percentage of C<sub>3</sub>-consuming bovids is high, suggesting a great deal of woody vegetation in this vicinity about 3 million years ago.
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Sponheimer, M., & Lee-Thorp, J. A. (2003). Using carbon isotope data of fossil bovid communities for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction: research articles: human origins research in South Africa. South African Journal of Science, 99(5 & 6), p-273.