Isotopic paleoecology (δ13c, δ18o) of a late pleistocene vertebrate community from the Brazilian intertropical region

Abstract

Isotopes are one of the best tools to reconstruct the paleoecology of extinct taxa, allowing us to evaluate their diet (through carbon; C3 and C4 plants), their niche breadth (BA) and the environment in which they lived. In the present work we go deeper in the use of isotopes, and explore a mathematical mixing model with the stable isotopic composition of one (carbon) and two elements (carbon and oxygen) to evaluate (i) the relative contributions of three types of food resources (leaves, fruits and C4 grass) for meso-and megaherbivores (body mass > 100 kg) that lived during the late Pleistocene in Sergipe, Brasil, and (ii) which of these herbivores (together with some faunivorous taxa) could be potential preys for Smilodon populator and Caiman latirostris. Finally, we reconstructed the paleoenvironment in which the vertebrate community of Sergipe lived and concluded that the environment of Sergipe was a closer and drier landscape than African savannah nowadays, at least between 27 ka to 11 ka.