Paleodieta, ecología y extinción de los gonfoterios (Proboscidea) de la Región Pampeana (Argentina)

Abstract

To reconstruct the paleodiet and habitat preference of gomphotheres, we measured the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of 32 bone and tooth samples of Stegomastodon platensis (AMEGHINO, 1888) from 10 different Pleistocene localities in Pampean Region (Argentina). In order to compare the different stratigraphic levels we have divided the samples in two groups: middle and late Pleistocene. Samples from the middle Pleistocene are more homogeneous, with a range of 13C values between –9.0 to –5.9‰. This data indicates a mixed C3 y C4 diet. On the contrary, samples from late Pleistocene show a wide range of diet adaptation (with a range 13C values between –12.11 to –6.09 ‰), since specimens that indicate an exclusively C3 diet from latest Pleistocene, to others with a mixedfeeder diet. Several nutritional hypotheses to explain late Pleistocene extinctions adopt the assumption that extinct taxa had specialized diets. The resource partitioning preference of Stegomastodon platensis from latest Pleistocene supports in part this hypot