Isotopic biogeochemistry (13C,15N) of fossil vertebrate collagen: application to the study of a past food web including Neandertal man

Abstract

TheC/Nratio and amino acid composition of organic matter extracted from fossil mammal bones from the Paleolithic site at Marillac (Charentes, France) shown that this organic matter comes from collagen.δ¹³Candδ¹⁵Nvalues of known-diet fossil species demonstrate that these values have been preserved through fossilization processes, and that these fossil mammals can be used as ecological references to determine the Neandertal position in the past food web. Initial Neandertalδ¹³Candδ¹⁵N values suggest that he was mostly carnivorous.