Isotopic Evidence for Dietary Variability in the Early Hominin Paranthropus robustus

Description

No / Traditional methods of dietary reconstruction do not allow the investigation of dietary variability within the lifetimes of individual hominins. However, laser ablation stable isotope analysis reveals that the ¿13C values of Paranthropus robustus individuals often changed seasonally and interannually. These data suggest that Paranthropus was not a dietary specialist and that by about 1.8 million years ago, savanna-based foods such as grasses or sedges or animals eating these foods made up an important but highly variable part of its diet.

Links & Downloads

1. Lee-Thorp, J.A., De Ruiter, D., Passey, B. and Sponheimer, M.B.(2006). Isotopic Evidence for Dietary Variability in the Early Hominin Paranthropus robustus. Science. Vol. 314, No. 5801, pp. 980-982.
2. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/4065
3. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1133827

Tags

Paranthropus

Hominidae

Chordata

Vertebrata

Tetrapoda

Mammalia

Theria

Eutheria

Primates

Laser Methods

Chemical Analysis Methodology

Savanna

Seasonal Variations

C-13/C-12

Stable Isotopes

Diet

Reconstruction

Additional Fields

Identifer	oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4065
Date	January 2006
Creators	Lee-Thorp, Julia A., De Ruiter, D., Passey, B., Sponheimer, M.B.
Source Sets	Bradford Scholars
Language	English
Detected Language	English
Type	Article, No full-text available in the repository