title: Solving the woolly mammoth conundrum: amino acid ¹⁵N-enrichment suggests a distinct forage or habitat.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schwartz-Narbonne
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 5B7, Canada.
authors.forename: Fred J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Longstaffe
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Jessica Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Metcalfe
authors.affiliation: Government of Yukon, Tourism &Culture (Palaeontology Program), Whitehorse, YT, Y1A 2C6, Canada.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zazula
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D057231:Climate Change; D003094:Collagen / Q000737:chemistry; D004463:Ecology; D017753:Ecosystem; D004606:Elephants / Q000502:physiology; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005580:Fossils; D006801:Humans; D056665:Mammoths / Q000502:physiology*; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes; D003094:Collagen