The use of the terrestrial snails of the genera Megalobulimus and Thaumastus as representatives of the atmospheric carbon reservoir.
In Brazilian archaeological shellmounds, many species of land snails are found abundantly distributed throughout the occupational layers, forming a contextualized set of samples within the sites and offering a potential alternative to the use of charcoal for radiocarbon dating analyses. In order to confirm the effectiveness of this alternative, one needs to prove that the mollusk shells reflect the atmospheric carbon isotopic concentration in the same way charcoal does. In this study, 18 terrestrial mollusk shells with known collection dates from 1948 to 2004 AD, around the nuclear bombs period, were radiocarbon dated. The obtained dates fit the SH1-2 bomb curve within less than 15 years range, showing that certain species from the Thaumastus and Megalobulimus genera are reliable representatives of the atmospheric carbon isotopic ratio and can, therefore, be used to date archaeological sites in South America.
Laboratório de Radiocarbono, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/n, Niterói, 24210-346, RJ, Brazil.
Kita D
KD
Macario
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom.
Eduardo Q
EQ
Alves
Departamento de Geoquímica, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Outeiro São João Batista, s/n, Niterói, 24001-970, RJ, Brazil.
Carla
C
Carvalho
Laboratório de Radiocarbono, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Av. Gal. Milton Tavares de Souza, s/n, Niterói, 24210-346, RJ, Brazil.
Fabiana M
FM
Oliveira
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom.
Christopher Bronk
CB
Ramsey
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom.
David
D
Chivall
Departamento de Biologia Marinha, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Outeiro São João Batista, s/n, Niterói, 24001-970, RJ, Brazil.
Rosa
R
Souza
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré, 481, São Paulo, 04263-000, SP, Brazil.
Luiz Ricardo L
LR
Simone
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Nazaré, 481, São Paulo, 04263-000, SP, Brazil.
Daniel C
DC
Cavallari
D000818:Animals; D001272:Atmosphere; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism*; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000378:metabolism*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D012908:Snails / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*; D013045:Species Specificity
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D002244:Carbon