CAN OXYGEN ISOTOPES FROM TURTLE BONE BE USED TO RECONSTRUCT PALEOCLIMATES

Abstract A substantial complication to using the oxygen isotope composition (δ18O) of vertebrate bioapatite in paleoclimate studies is the need to distinguish variation due to temporal changes in the δ18O of surface waters from that due to temperature-dependent fractionation during biomineralization. One solution is multiple-taxon comparisons using data from coexisting homeothermic and heterothermic animals. Fossil emydid turtles have been suggested to be potentially useful as functional homeotherms because (1) modern emydids employ behaviors, such as basking, to restrict skeletal growth to a narrow temperature range; (2) their aquatic habitat constrains the isotopic variability of dietary inputs; and (3) emydids have a dense fossil record. But because turtles lack teeth and therefore tooth enamel, sampling must focus on bone, which is potentially more susceptible to diagenetic alteration. This study examines the δ18O of carbonate (δ18Oc) and phosphate (δ18Op) in hydroxylapatite from co-occurring emydids ...