Toward a δ13C isoscape for primates

Abstract

A primate δ13C isoscape is not yet available; but pilot data on nine different primate populations that all have extensive and detailed information on diet and habitat use suggest clinal variation associated with canopy cover. The nine C3-feeding primate species from MesoAmerica, South America, Africa and Madagascar have δ13C values that vary by 6‰ in association with reported canopy cover irrespective of their specific diets. Capuchin and spider monkeys from tropical wet forest with continuous forest canopy in Costa Rica have the lowest values. Costa Rican howler monkeys, Brazilian muriqui monkeys, two Kenyan prosimian species, and a population of chimpanzees from the DRC live in areas with broken forest canopy and show intermediate values. The highest values occur in a Madagascar prosimian species and a second population of Tanzanian chimpanzees who live in open savanna woodlands. Newly published data on sifakas (a large prosiman species) and Lemur catta (a cat-sized ground-living lemur) from Madagascar, and a third population of chimpanzees from Senegal, which have less-detailed dietary information, have δ13C values that generally fit expectations based on accounts of their habitat canopy cover. If confirmed through additional studies, a primate isoscape could reveal a range of habitats inhabited by primates collected in the last century and now housed in museums with only general location information. Applied to the human fossil record, the preliminary primate δ13C isoscape suggests open country adaptations of early fossil hominins and open country hunting by Neandertals. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.