Isotopic evidence for dietary differences between two extinct baboon species from Swartkrans

https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2484(89)90048-1Get rights and content

Abstract

We report a stable carbon isotope study of two species of extinct baboons, Papio robinsoni and Theropithecus darti, dating approximately to 1·7 – 1·9 my, from the Member 1 deposits at Swartkrans cave, South Africa. 13C12C ratios were measured using tooth enamel carbonate as sample material, after appropriate chemical pretreatment. The results for the fossil baboons, compared with those of known browsers and grazers from the same member, show that P. robinsoni had a C3-based diet, while T. darti was mainly dependent on C4 grasses. The study shows that carbon isotope analysis of tooth enamel clearly distinguishes graminivorous and C3-based diets in fossil primates.

References (40)

  • R.I.M. Dunbar et al.

    Ecological relations and niche separation between sympatric terrestrial primates in Ethiopia

    Folia primat.

    (1974)
  • L. Freedman

    The fossil Cercopithecoidea of South Africa

    Ann. Transv. Mus.

    (1957)
  • F.E. Grine

    Trophic differences between “gracile” and “robust” Australopithecines: a scanning electron microscope analysis of occlusal events

    S. Afr. J. Sci.

    (1981)
  • F.E. Grine et al.

    Early hominid diets from quantitative image analysis of dental microwear

    Nature

    (1988)
  • P.E. Hare

    Organic geochemistry of bone and its relation to the survival of bone in the natural environment

  • A.A. Hassan

    Geochemical and mineralogical studies of bone and their implications for radiocarbon dating

  • C.J. Jolly

    The seed-eaters: a new model of hominid differentiation based on a baboon analogy

    Man

    (1970)
  • C.J. Jolly

    The classification and natural history of Theropithecus (Simopithecus) (Andrews, 1916), baboons of the African Plio-Pleistocene

    Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Geology

    (1972)
  • H.W. Krueger et al.

    Models for carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bone

  • Lee Thorp, J. A. (n.d.). Stable carbon isotopes in deep time. Ph.D Dissertation, University of Cape...
  • Cited by (134)

    • Problems with Paranthropus

      2023, Quaternary International
      Citation Excerpt :

      We agree that a fractionation of 14‰ (from Cerling and Harris, 1999) is almost certainly inappropriate for most hominins. Indeed, a <14‰ diet-enamel fractionation is consistent with existing data on chimpanzees (Carter, 2001; Smith et al., 2010), baboons, and humans (Lee-Thorp et al., 1989a; Lee-Thorp, 1989; Kellner and Schoeninger, 2007). However, it is crucial to note that few hominin isotopic studies employ a 14‰ fractionation.

    • TOOTHFIR: Presenting a dataset and a preliminary meta-analysis of Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy indices from archaeological and palaeontological tooth enamel

      2023, Quaternary International
      Citation Excerpt :

      Stable carbon (δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope analysis of tooth enamel bioapatite, in particular, respectively record the signals of the dietary carbon mix consumed and ingested water imbibed during the time window of enamel formation (Lee-Thorp et al., 1989; Bocherens et al., 1991; Fricke and O'Neil, 1996; Passey et al., 2005; Fernandes et al., 2012). These isotopic proxies have demonstrated broad temporal, geographical, and theoretical scope, including in the reconstruction of hominid and faunal diets back to more than 9 million years ago (Lee-Thorp et al., 1989; Bocherens et al., 1991; Quade et al., 1995; Richards et al., 2000; Nelson, 2007; Lee-Thorp, 2008; Levin et al., 2008; White et al., 2009; Uno et al., 2011; Roberts et al., 2017). Other proxies of interest applied to tooth enamel include trace elements employed in paleodietary studies, strontium isotopes to study mobility, and U-series for dating purposes (Lee-Thorp and Sponheimer, 2003; Sponheimer and Lee-Thorp, 2006; Benson et al., 2013).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text