a C3 di et of open ca nopy forest in a n environment of semi-open woodland or forested ... C4 ve ge ta tion would have had a s mall fra ction i n their diet.
Dietary and palaeoenvironmental inferences in Neolicaphrium recens Frenguelli, 1921 (Litopterna, Proterotheriidae) using carbon and oxygen stable isotopes (Late Pleistocene; Uruguay) Elizabeth Morosi and Martin Ubilla Fa cultad de Ci encias, Dpto. Paleontologia, ICG , Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo, Uruguay ABSTRACT
The Proterotheriidae (Early Pa laeocene-Late Pleistocene) were small to medium sized cursorial native South American ungulates (Order Li topterna), having had i ts diversity peak in the Miocene. During the Pl eistocene, the proterotheriid diversity decreased to a single species, Neolicaphrium recens Frenguelli (1921), a nd few specimens are a vailable from a relatively narrow area a t medium latitudes of South America. The fi rst s tudy using stable isotopes (δ13C a nd δ18O) a s proxies i s provided here, in order to known dietary preferences a nd testing previous environmental inferences. The a nalys ed specimens belong to outcrops wi th OSL a ges of 40–30 ka (Late Pl eistocene, Sopas Formation of northern Uruguay). The δ13C res ults of both s pecimens suggest that at this latitude a nd tempo, N. recens ha d browser-feeding preferences, mostly a C3 di et of open ca nopy forest in a n environment of semi-open woodland or forested savannahs a nd that C4 vegeta tion would have had a s mall fra ction i n their diet. δ18O da ta s uggests a diet composed mostly by frui ts , follow by floor plants, with few i ndication of a folivore diet. The s pecialized forest browsing diet does not s i gnificantly va ry based on its site of origin, since both specimens remain i n the same isotopic range.
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