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Giant Beaver (Castoroides) Palaeoecology Inferred From Stable Isotopes, Tessa Plint
Giant Beaver (Castoroides) Palaeoecology Inferred From Stable Isotopes, Tessa Plint
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Stable isotope analysis was used to explore unresolved questions about the palaeoecology of the extinct Pleistocene giant beaver (Castoroides). The δ13C, δ15N, and δ18O of bone collagen and structural carbonate from enamel served as proxies for palaeodiet and palaeoclimate. A new baseline for freshwater and terrestrial plant δ13C and δ15N was utilized in a mixing model (SIAR) to assess rodent feeding niche. SIAR analysis indicated that Castoroides’ consumed a diet of predominantly macrophytes, making them reliant on wetland habitat for food. Based on isotopic data for potential …
Reframing The Mammoth Steppe: Examining Mammoth Steppe Ecology Using Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Compositions Of Megafauna Collagen, Rachel E. Schwartz-Narbonne
Reframing The Mammoth Steppe: Examining Mammoth Steppe Ecology Using Carbon And Nitrogen Isotopic Compositions Of Megafauna Collagen, Rachel E. Schwartz-Narbonne
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The Pleistocene mammoth steppe was a vast biome that stretched from northwestern Europe to central Canada. A diverse set of megaherbivore and megacarnivore species lived within this biome and there was significant ecosystem faunal and floral homogeneity. At the end of the Pleistocene, this biome disappeared, with the extinction or extirpation of many of the megafaunal species that inhabited it. This thesis reconstructs the ecology of the mammoth steppe using the isotopic compositions of carbon and nitrogen from megafaunal collagen. The reconstruction is done at a variety of ecological scales, beginning with individual animal- and season-specific isotopic studies of antlers, …