caa a22 4500 469097868 CHVBK 20180323133036.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170328e19921001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00650328 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00650328 Stable carbon isotope ratios in Asian elephant collagen: implications for dietary studies [Elektronische Daten] [R. Sukumar, R. Ramesh] Summary: Stable carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen have been used in a variety of dietary studies in modern and fossil animals, including humans. Inherent in the stable isotope technique is the assumption that the isotopic signature is a reflection of the diet and is persistent in collagen because this is a relatively inert protein. Carbon isotope analyses of bones from a southern Indian population of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), a long-lived mammal that alternates seasonally between a predominantly C3 (browse) and C4 (grass) plant diet, showed two patterns that have important implications for dietary interpretation based on isotopic studies. Relative to the quantity of the two plant types consumed on average, the δ13C signal in collagen indicated that more carbon was incorporated from C3 plants, possibly due to their higher protein contribution. There was a much greater variance in δ13C values of collagen in sub-adult (range -10.5‰ to-22.7‰, variance=14.51) compared to adult animals (range -16.0‰ to -20.3‰, variance=1.85) pointing to high collagen turnover rates and non-persistent isotopic signatures in younger, growing animals. It thus seems important to correct for any significant relative differences in nutritive value of food types and also consider the age of an animal before drawing definite conclusions about its diet from isotope ratios. Springer-Verlag, 1992 Stable carbon isotopes nationallicence Collagen nationallicence Diet nationallicence Asian elephant nationallicence Elephas maximus nationallicence Sukumar R. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, 560012, Bangalore, India aut Ramesh R. Physical Research Laboratory, 380009, Ahmedabad, India aut Oecologia Springer-Verlag 91/4(1992-10-01), 536-539 0029-8549 91:4<536 1992 91 442 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00650328 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00650328 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Sukumar R. Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, 560012, Bangalore, India aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Ramesh R. Physical Research Laboratory, 380009, Ahmedabad, India aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Oecologia Springer-Verlag 91/4(1992-10-01), 536-539 0029-8549 91:4<536 1992 91 442 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer