• DOI:10.5710/AMGH.02.06.2015.2842
• Corpus ID: 87012003

Diet and Habitat for Six American Pleistocene Proboscidean Species Using Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotopes

@article{PrezCrespo2016DietAH,
  title={Diet and Habitat for Six American Pleistocene Proboscidean Species Using Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotopes},
  author={V{\'i}ctor Adri{\'a}n P{\'e}rez-Crespo and Jos{\'e} L Prado and Mar{\'i}a Teresa Alberdi and Joaqu{\'i}n Arroyo‐Cabrales and Eileen McAllister Johnson},
  journal={Ameghiniana},
  year={2016},
  volume={53},
  pages={39 - 51}
}

• V. A. Pérez-Crespo, J. Prado, +2 authors E. Johnson
• Published 9 March 2016
• Environmental Science, Geography
• Ameghiniana

Abstract.
Diet and habitat were estimated, based on stable isotopes, for six species of proboscideans inhabiting the Americas during the Pleistocene. In North America, Mammuthus columbi (Elephantidae) was a mixed C3/C4 herbivore inhabiting open areas, while Mammut americanum (Mammutidae) fed exclusively on C3 plants and preferred closed areas. In contrast, members of the family Gomphotheriidae showed a wide range of food preference and habitats. This is the case of Cuvieronius tropicus, a mixed-diet herbivore living in open areas. In South America, another gomphothere — Cuvieronius hyodon — inhabited open areas and had a C3-plant diet similar to others from some Southern plains such as Stegomastodon platensis. On the other hand, S. waringi from tropical South America lived in open areas and had a C3/C4 mixed diet. The fact that gomphotheres had more flexible diet habits could explain why those animals were able to cross the Panamanian Isthmus, while mammoths and mastodons did not.