Body mass predicts isotope enrichment in herbivorous mammals.

ABSTRACT: Carbon isotopic signatures recorded in vertebrate tissues derive from ingested food and thus reflect ecologies and ecosystems. For almost two decades, most carbon isotope-based ecological interpretations of extant and extinct herbivorous mammals have used a single diet-bioapatite enrichment value (14‰). Assuming this single value applies to all herbivorous mammals, from tiny monkeys to giant elephants, it overlooks potential effects of distinct physiological and metabolic processes on carbon fractionation. By analysing a never before assessed herbivorous group spanning a broad range of body masses-sloths-we discovered considerable variation in diet-bioapatite δ13C enrichment among mammals. Statistical tests (ordinary least squares, quantile, robust regressions, Akaike information criterion

SUBMITTER: Tejada-Lara JV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6030519 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature