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Solving the woolly mammoth conundrum: amino acid ¹⁵N-enrichment suggests adistinct forage or habitat

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Rachel Schwartz-Narbonne

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Abstract

Understanding woolly mammoth ecology is key to understanding Pleistocene community dynamics and evaluating the roles of human hunting and climate change in late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions. Previous isotopic studies of mammoths’ diet and physiology have been hampered by the ‘mammoth conundrum’: woolly mammoths have anomalously high collagen δ¹⁵N values, which are more similar to coeval carnivores than herbivores, and which could imply a distinct diet and (or) habitat, or a physiological adaptation. We analyzed individual amino acids from collagen of adult woolly mammoths and coeval species, and discovered greater ¹⁵N enrichment in source amino acids of woolly mammoths than in most other herbivores or carnivores. Woolly mammoths consumed an isotopically distinct food source, reflective of extreme aridity, dung fertilization, and (or) plant selection. This dietary signal suggests that woolly mammoths occupied a distinct habitat or forage niche relative to other Pleistocene herbivores.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Schwartz-Narbonne R, Longstaffe FJ, Metcalfe JZ, Zazula G

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Scientific Reports

Year: 2015

Volume: 5

Online publication date: 09/06/2015

Acceptance date: 17/03/2015

Date deposited: 15/03/2018

ISSN (electronic): 2045-2322

Publisher: Nature Publishing Group

URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep09791

DOI: 10.1038/srep09791

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