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

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 9791
• Main Authors: Schwartz-Narbonne, Rachel, Longstaffe, Fred J., Metcalfe, Jessica Z., Zazula, Grant
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09-06-2015; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 704/158/2462; 704/158/2466; 704/2151/209; 704/2151/414; Amino acids; Amino Acids - chemistry; Animals; Carnivores; Climate Change; Collagen - chemistry; Dung; Ecology; Ecosystem; Elephants - physiology; Extinction, Biological; Forage; Foraging behavior; Fossils; Habitats; Herbivores; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Mammoths - physiology; Mammuthus primigenius; multidisciplinary; Nitrogen enrichment; Nitrogen Isotopes - chemistry; Physiology; Pleistocene; Quaternary; Science
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep09791

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 δ
15
N 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  
15
N 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.