Body mass predicts isotope enrichment in herbivorous mammals
| Autor: | Gianmarco Rojas, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, John J. Flynn, Lizette Bermudez, Bruce J. MacFadden, Julia V. Tejada-Lara |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Evolution chemistry.chemical_element stable isotopes Biology 010502 geochemistry & geophysics Models Biological 01 natural sciences General Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.06.00 [https] Isotope fractionation Apatites biology.animal Animals Ecosystem mammals Herbivory 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science Carbon Isotopes Herbivore Ecology General Immunology and Microbiology Isotope Stable isotope ratio Paleontology Vertebrate sloths General Medicine Body weight body mass digestive physiology Isotope separation chemistry Isotopes of carbon FOS: Biological sciences isotope fractionation Stable isotopes in ecological research General Agricultural and Biological Sciences Carbon Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
| Popis: | 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 δ 13 C enrichment among mammals. Statistical tests (ordinary least squares, quantile, robust regressions, Akaike information criterion model tests) document independence from phylogeny, and a previously unrecognized strong and significant correlation of δ 13 C enrichment with body mass for all mammalian herbivores. A single-factor body mass model outperforms all other single-factor or more complex combinatorial models evaluated, including for physiological variables (metabolic rate and body temperature proxies), and indicates that body mass alone predicts δ 13 C enrichment. These analyses, spanning more than 5 orders of magnitude of body sizes, yield a size-dependent prediction of isotopic enrichment across Mammalia and for distinct digestive physiologies, permitting reconstruction of foregut versus hindgut fermentation for fossils and refined mean annual palaeoprecipitation estimates based on δ 13 C of mammalian bioapatite. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|