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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Testing the limits of tiny tooth enamel d18O and d13C analyses

Résumé

Small rodent teeth are found in abundance at many archaeological sites and have the potential to provide complementary environmental insights alongside large mammal-based palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. As such, multiple labs, including authors on this paper, have developed creative methods for isotopically analysing extremely small rodent teeth enamel (e.g. <2 mm length, ~100 m thickness). These alternatives to the conventional methodology have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we present a comparative study used to vigorously test the capabilities and relative accuracy of these refined methods using fossil teeth from northwest Africa. Our study includes consideration of the impact of secondary carbonate contaminants specific to each methodology. An exceptional concentration of microvertebrate remains are found in a deep stratigraphic sequence at El Harhoura 2 cave (near Rabat, Morocco). We target three layers in the El Harhoura 2 stratigraphy which contain large numbers of small rodent fossil teeth and which are likely to be isotopically distinct. This a priori knowledge stems from previously published taphonomic and palaeoecological studies of the micromammals of El Harhoura 2, palaeoclimate model simulations, and relationships between modern rodent enamel isotopes and the environment. We use these samples to test: i) the influence of a pre-treatment method used for secondary carbonate removal on both intact enamel and powdered enamel isotopes, and ii) the robustness of relative isotope variability measured using two different CO2-extraction methodologies: laser ablation of total enamel and acid digestion of enamel structural carbonates.
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Dates et versions

hal-04580917 , version 1 (21-05-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04580917 , version 1

Citer

Stacy Carolin, Scott A Blumenthal, Chris Day, Emmanuelle Stoetzel, Jensen Wainwright, et al.. Testing the limits of tiny tooth enamel d18O and d13C analyses. UK Archaeological Sciences Conference (UKAS), Apr 2024, York, United Kingdom. ⟨hal-04580917⟩
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