22 Working Up an Apatite: Teeth as Paleo -Ecological and -Climatological Archives
Teeth are used as archives of paleo -ecological, -climatological, and -biological information. This session welcomes presentations using teeth as archives or testing new methods; from morphology, microwear, and histology to geochemical tools.
Sunday, 19 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 304A
The Impact of Wet Spells on Stone Age Foragers of the Mediterranean: Case Studies in the Use of Enamel Stable Carbon Isotopes in C4-Sparse Environments
Paper number: 22-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:35 AM – 8:55 AM
Authors
Abstract
Stable carbon isotopes are among the most commonly measured geochemical archives in fossil teeth, and their ability to assess the proportions of C3 and C4 plant components in animal diets has been applied widely in Quaternary paleoecology and paleoclimatology to great success. In environments where C4 plants are sparse or absent, the variability of stable carbon isotope values in the biosphere is reduced, but remains useful for elucidating paleoenvironmental conditions affecting C3 vegetation. Two archaeological case studies from the circum-Mediterranean where C3 plants dominate illustrate how stable carbon isotopes in ungulate enamel apatite record short periods of increased environmental moisture, corresponding to important changes in Stone Age hunter-gatherer lifeways. At the sites of Üçağızlı I Cave, Türkiye, and Taforalt & Rhafas Caves, Morocco, isotope-inferred “wet spells” at different intervals in the Late Pleistocene correspond strongly to reduced forager mobility, suggesting a relationship between climate, food resource distributions, and, potentially, Stone Age human population densities.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-412166
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