Paleobiology Commons^™

Nitrogen Isotopes Suggest A Change In Nitrogen Dynamics Between The Late Pleistocene And Modern Time In Yukon, Canada, Farnoush Tahmasebi, Fred J. Longstaffe, Grant Zazula

Earth Sciences Publications

A magnificent repository of Late Pleistocene terrestrial megafauna fossils is contained in ice-rich loess deposits of Alaska and Yukon, collectively eastern Beringia. The stable carbon (δ¹³C) and nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) isotope compositions of bone collagen from these fossils are routinely used to determine paleodiet and reconstruct the paleoecosystem. This approach requires consideration of changes in C- and N-isotope dynamics over time and their effects on the terrestrial vegetation isotopic baseline. To test for such changes between the Late Pleistocene and modern time, we compared δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N for vegetation and bone …