scholarly journals Late Pleistocene human paleoecology in the highland savanna ecosystem of mainland Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kantapon Suraprasit ◽  
Rasmi Shoocongdej ◽  
Kanoknart Chintakanon ◽  
Hervé Bocherens
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Lower Latitude ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Northwestern Thailand ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

AbstractThe late Pleistocene settlement of highland settings in mainland Southeast Asia by Homo sapiens has challenged our species’s ability to occupy mountainous landscapes that acted as physical barriers to the expansion into lower-latitude Sunda islands during sea-level lowstands. Tham Lod Rockshelter in highland Pang Mapha (northwestern Thailand), dated between 34,000 and 12,000 years ago, has yielded evidence of Hoabinhian lithic assemblages and natural resource use by hunter-gatherer societies. To understand the process of early settlements of highland areas, we measured stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of Tham Lod human and faunal tooth enamel. Our assessment of the stable carbon isotope results suggests long-term opportunistic behavior among hunter-gatherers in foraging on a variety of food items in a mosaic environment and/or inhabiting an open forest edge during the terminal Pleistocene. This study reinforces the higher-latitude and -altitude extension of a forest-grassland mosaic ecosystem or savanna corridor (farther north into northwestern Thailand), which facilitated the dispersal of hunter-gatherers across mountainous areas and possibly allowed for consistency in a human subsistence strategy and Hoabinhian technology in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia over a 20,000-year span near the end of the Pleistocene.

Peninsular Thailand as a part of the Pleistocene savanna corridor: isotopic evidence of mammalian tooth enamel from the cave of Tham Phedan

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kantapon Suraprasit ◽  
Hervé Bocherens
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Peninsular Malaysia ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Large Mammals ◽  
Southern Thailand ◽  
Fossil Records ◽  
Mammal Faunas ◽  
Mainland Southeast Asia

<p>How climatic and environmental conditions contributed to early human migration between mainland and island Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene is one of the most hotly debated topics in paleoanthropological communities today. As Peninsular or Southern Thailand is regarded as an obligatory pathway for humans and mammals during their dispersal between these two terrestrial areas, the understanding of paleoenvironments and vegetation covers in this region is highly relevant. The hypothesis of a “savanna corridor” or a band of open vegetation (seasonal forests and grasslands) stretching from Central Thailand to Java during several periods of lowering sea level and exposed land bridges though the Pleistocene has been suggested for explaining the facilitated route of early humans and associated large mammals in migrating out of mainland Southeast Asia towards Sundaland southwards. However, the existence of savanna grasslands in Peninsular Thailand during the Pleistocene has rarely been demonstrated due to the scarcity of available proxies.</p><p>Here we reconstructed the Pleistocene vegetation and environments of the region using stable isotope analyses of mammalian tooth enamel from the channel cave deposits of Tham Phadan (Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in Peninsular Thailand) where diversified large mammal fossils were collected. The mammal fauna is tentatively attributed to a late Middle to early Late Pleistocene age according to the presence of an extirpated spotted hyaena <em>Crocuta crocuta ultima</em>. The stable carbon isotope results, ranging from -13.9‰VPDB to +4.3‰VPDB, reveal that an open vegetation/forest-grassland mosaic was dominant in this region, unlike the present-day landscapes that are mostly covered by rainforests, thus confirming the existence of a savanna corridor in Peninsular Thailand during that time. The extreme southward distribution of some grassland-related taxa (such as spotted hyaenas and Himalayan gorals), which were common in mainland Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene, reflects the habitat continuity from north to south of Thailand. However, the lack of fossil records of these two taxa in Peninsular Malaysia and the islands of Indonesia suggests that the open vegetation band did not extend far beyond the transequatorial region. Further investigations of the Pleistocene mammal faunas in the Thai-Malay Peninsula will be helpful to identify such a corridor and to examine the paleobiogeographic affinities of Southeast Asian large mammals in the future, providing empirical data for understanding the timing and pathways of human migrations into island South-East Asia.</p>

scholarly journals Sampling and Pretreatment of Tooth Enamel Carbonate for Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis

10.3791/58002 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Ventresca Miller ◽  
Ricardo Fernandes ◽  
Anneke Janzen ◽  
Ayushi Nayak ◽  
Jillian Swift ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope

Mobility and origin of camels in the Roman Empire through serial stable carbon and oxygen isotope variations in tooth enamel

2020 ◽  
Vol 557 ◽  
pp. 80-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie G. Habinger ◽  
Bea De Cupere ◽  
Franziska Dövener ◽  
Erich Pucher ◽  
Hervé Bocherens
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Oxygen Isotope ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Carbon And Oxygen Isotope

Understanding specifics in generalist diets of carnivorans by analyzing stable carbon isotope values in Pleistocene mammals of Florida

Paleobiology ◽  
10.1666/13055 ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 477-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Feranec ◽  
Larisa R. G. DeSantis
Keyword(s):  
Food Webs ◽  
Carbon Isotope ◽  
Prey Species ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Trophic Relationships ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Generalist Diet ◽  
Ancient Food

Within ancient ecosystems, it is generally difficult to determine the specific diets of species from higher trophic levels, which in turn hinders our understanding of trophic relationships and energy flow through these systems. To better understand the ecology of taxa at higher trophic levels, we used analysis of tooth enamel stable carbon isotope values to infer the dietary preferences of Canis edwardii and Smilodon gracilis from the Leisey Shell Pit 1A (LSP 1A) and Inglis 1A, two Pleistocene localities in Florida. The goals of the analyses were to (1) determine whether these carnivorans specialized in particular prey types or maintained a generalist diet; (2) ascertain whether carbon isotope values support what was previously suggested about the ecology of these species; and (3) establish what ecological details of ancient food webs can be discovered by carbon isotope analyses at higher trophic levels. Results show that the sampled carnivoran carbon isotope values are distributed among suspected prey isotope values, suggesting that varied prey were taken at the study localities. Prey compositions were modeled for each carnivoran species by using Stable Isotope Analysis in R (SIAR). The modeled diets indicate that each studied carnivoran had a generalist diet; however, there are differences in how these taxa achieved dietary generalization. At the glacial Inglis 1A locality, sampled individuals of C. edwardii and S. gracilis show similar isotope values and modeled dietary prey proportions, although both carnivorans do show a preference for grazing prey species. The similar isotopic values, and calculated prey proportions, observed between these species may imply greater interspecific competition for food. At the interglacial LSP 1A locality, C. edwardii shows values similar to those observed at Inglis 1A. In contrast, the data for S. gracilis shows a preference for consuming browsing prey species. Further, its restricted range of carbon isotope values suggests that S. gracilis may have concentrated its feeding within a particular habitat. Examination of stable carbon isotope values among species at higher trophic levels reveals that some intricacies of ancient food webs can be discerned.

Stable isotopes, hypsodonty, and the paleodiet of Hemiauchenia (Mammalia: Camelidae): a morphological specialization creating ecological generalization

Paleobiology ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Feranec
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Isotope ◽  
Niche Breadth ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Feeding Strategy ◽  
Stable Carbon Isotope ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Photosynthetic Pathway ◽  
Stable Carbon ◽  
Morphological Specialization ◽  
Almost All

Morphological adaptations may indicate increased specialization (narrowing of ecological niche) or expansion of the suite of lifestyles available to an organism (increasing niche breadth). Hypsodonty in mammals generally has been interpreted as a specialization into a grazing niche from a browsing niche. Here I examine the feeding strategy of the extinct hypsodont camel Hemiauchenia through an analysis of stable carbon isotope values from its tooth enamel, which was used to clarify its feeding strategy and to resolve conflicting interpretations of dental versus muzzle attributes. The paleodiet of Hemiauchenia is then used to test whether hypsodonty correlates to grazing within fossil Lamini. This study focuses on fossils from Florida, which is geographically ideal because unlike other regions of the country almost all extant plants on which animals browse use the C3 photosynthetic pathway. In contrast, most of the grasses and sedges utilized by grazers use the C4 photosynthetic pathway. If Hemiauchenia was an obligate grazer, the stable carbon isotope values of tooth enamel should reflect primarily a diet of C4 grass and sedge (>−1.3%). If Hemiauchenia was mainly a browser, the isotopic value should be considerably more negative reflecting ingestion primarily of C3 browse (<−7.9%). The mean δ13C values for Hemiauchenia during each time interval average more negative than −8.0%, indicating a dominantly C3 browse diet, and there is no evidence for abandonment of the browsing niche from the Hemphillian through the Rancholabrean North American Land Mammal Ages. However, an increase in the range of isotopic values indicates a diet with a higher proportion of C4 grasses and sedges through time. This study therefore suggests that Hemiauchenia was a hypsodont intermediate feeder with preference for browse during the past 5 million years. Hypsodonty is not strictly associated with obligate grazing; instead it may, in this case, represent an adaptation to widen niche breadth that allowed grazing as well as browsing.

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