It makes intuitive sense that herbivore movements are driven by the nutritional landscapes in which they live. But understanding the details requires we move beyond coarse landcover classifications to considerations of forage quality variation across plant functional types and vegetation communities. Here, we present an example and model linking landcover type, plant functional type, and nutritional composition for the Sattasniemi reindeer herding district in northern Finland. We analyzed 2,645 leaf plant samples (representing 52 taxa from 72 sites spanning nine landcover types), measuring crude protein, acid detergent fiber, and neutral detergent fiber using near-infrared spectroscopy calibrated against wet chemistry analyses. Wetlands, particularly forested peatlands and mires, exhibited the highest crude protein content (13.4–15.0%) and moderate fiber levels, making them nutritionally superior to deciduous, mesic, and nutrient-poor dry forests, which did not differ significantly from one another. Among plant functional types, deciduous tall shrubs and trees showed the highest crude protein (> 15%), while bryophytes exhibited exceptionally high fiber content (> 45% ADF). These findings demonstrate that forage quality varies across the landscape in ways not captured by simple landcover classifications. The discrepancy between high forage quality in wetlands and observed reindeer avoidance of some areas suggests that non-nutritional factors such as insect harassment, infrastructure disturbance, or predation risk—may override nutritional considerations in habitat selection. This work provides foundational data for understanding ranging decisions by semi-domesticated reindeer and for informing husbandry decisions by the herders whose livelihoods depend on herd productivity.

ABSTRACT Collagen is a vital archaeological material, preserving biochemical signatures that provide insights into past environments, diets, and human–animal interactions. However, diagenetic processes can lead to rapid and often inconspicuous degradation of collagen. Given the variability in collagen preservation and its significance for analyses such as radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis, and ZooMS, researchers have developed various prescreening techniques to assess collagen preservation before destructive sampling. In this study, we applied near‐infrared (NIR) spectroscopy to rapidly and nondestructively prescreen collagen preservation using a previously validated partial least squares regression model. To assess its effectiveness, we analyzed 830 bones from the Cooper's Ferry/Nipéhe site, a dodo and Rodrigues solitaire collection, and a collection of ancient to modern bison. NIR spectroscopy demonstrated high effectiveness in identifying samples suitable for radiocarbon dating, with success rates of 80% (4/5) for Cooper's Ferry/Nipéhe and 91% (10/11) for the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire specimens. Additionally, NIR spectroscopy effectively selected bison samples for ZooMS at a lower collagen yield threshold, with a success rate of 92% (34/37). The results demonstrate that NIR spectroscopy is a viable, nondestructive alternative for collagen prescreening in archaeological bone before destructive analyses, minimizing unnecessary destructive sampling of irreplaceable archaeological materials.

Collagen is a vital archaeological material, preserving biochemical signatures that provide insights into past environments, diets, and human-animal interactions. However, diagenesis can lead to rapid and inconspicuous collagen degradation. Given the variability in collagen preservation and its significance for analyses such as radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analysis, and ZooMS, researchers have developed prescreening techniques to assess collagen preservation before destructive sampling. Current prescreening approaches, including %N and C:N ratios, typically require sample destruction and access to equipped laboratories. Spectroscopic techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy have been explored as alternatives, but they are limited in penetration depth, generalizability (at present at least), and are often still destructive, if minimally. Here, we further develop single-point near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a fully non-destructive, rapid, and field-portable method for prescreening bone for collagen preservation. Unlike FTIR and Raman spectroscopic techniques, NIR light penetrates below the surface of bone, enabling assessment of internal collagen preservation without destructive sample preparation. Using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) and Random Forest (RF) modeling, we trained predictive models on whole bones with known collagen yields and validated the models on an independent archaeological collection. Both PLSR and RF models, when restricted to the 2030-2060 nm range, demonstrate strong and comparable performance while avoiding wavelengths associated with consolidants in our reference library. The models outperform traditional % N-based methods in identifying suitable samples for radiocarbon dating. These models enable the high-throughput screening of large collections of bone, improving sample selection and minimizing unnecessary destructive analysis.

Arctic rodents influence tundra plant communities by altering species diversity, structure, and nutrient dynamics. These dynamics are intensified during rodent population peaks. Plants are known to induce defenses in response to rodent herbivory. However, changes in plant tissue digestibility may also play a role in deterring rodents or impacting their survival. This study presents a first look at the impacts of rodent herbivory on crude protein (CP) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) of two of the most common graminoid species ( Carex nigra and Deschampsia cespitosa ) and graminoid genus ( Calamagrostis spp . ) in the tundra meadows of the Varanger Peninsula, Norway. We selected 32 experimental plots representing both rodent-disturbed and adjacent, undisturbed control graminoid patches. In the summer of a rodent population peak, the disturbed plots had higher ADF (28.5%) values than less disturbed ones (26.6%), controlling for plant species. We also found differences between species, with Carex nigra having the lowest fiber content (24.3%, ADF) and highest protein content (18.2% CP)—making it the most palatable species. These results show that rodent activity can potentially alter plant food quality, suggesting that increasing fiber content may be a defensive response to herbivory.

When Dart recognised the fossilised skull of the Taung Child as a hominin ancestor, he also observed that its "sere environment" produced few foods preferred by African apes in equatorial forests. He thus set in motion an inquiry into the dietary and environmental proclivities of fossil hominins. His observations ultimately led him to suggest a strong reliance on meat-eating, later elaborated into a hunting model. Subsequent investigations into the diets of the South African australopithecines led to the development of new approaches including dental microwear, stable light isotopes, and trace element analyses, which together led to a new focus on the prime importance of plant foods, for which there had been little direct behavioural evidence. Here we review why and how stable and radiogenic isotope approaches to hominin diet and residence patterns were developed in South Africa, the problems that had to be addressed, and the subsequent outcomes. Significance: We outline how a distinctive set of circumstances in South Africa combined to produce world-leading progress in palaeoanthropological and archaeological research based on fossil isotope biogeochemistry. They include a unique natural and fossil heritage, investment in scientific infrastructure and researchers well- versed in cross-disciplinary science. Together they played leading roles in addressing important questions about African fossil heritage. We point to where we believe future progress is required and we suggest that closer attention is paid to the role of plants because, as the basis of all ecosystems, they represent the most important element in the diets of most primates and hominins.

Recent findings have transformed our thinking about early hominin diets. Most notably, evidence from dental microwear, carbon isotopes, and dental chipping has challenged notions of hard object feeding in “Nutcracker Man”, Paranthropus boisei Leakey, 1959. Less attention has been paid to its likely ancestor, Australopithecus afarensis Johanson, White & Coppens, 1978. Yet, there are reasons to suspect that disruptive ideas about P. boisei diet are highly relevant for Lucy and her kin. These reasons include: 1) the dental microwear of Au. afarensis and P. boisei is virtually identical, and shows no evidence of variation linked to habitat change; 2) the carbon isotope ratios of Au. afarensis are similar to those of early Paranthropus Broom, 1938 in the Omo; and 3) Au. afarensis manifests an early stage of a masticatory trend that reaches its quintessence in P. boisei, making it reasonable to argue that these taxa experienced similar selective pressures regarding diet. In this paper, we discuss the dietary ecology of Au. afarensis in light of lessons gleaned from its highly derived and enigmatic descendant P. boisei.

We present the first open-access, island-wide isotopic database (IsoMad) for modern biologically relevant materials collected on Madagascar within the past 150 years from both terrestrial and nearshore marine environments. Isotopic research on the island has increasingly helped with biological studies of endemic organisms, including evaluating foraging niches and investigating factors that affect the spatial distribution and abundance of species. The IsoMad database should facilitate future work by making it easy for researchers to access existing data (even for those who are relatively unfamiliar with the literature) and identify both research gaps and opportunities for using various isotope systems to answer research questions. We also hope that this database will encourage full data reporting in future publications.

Science, engineering, and society increasingly require integrative thinking about emerging problems in complex systems, a notion referred to as convergence science. Due to the concurrent pressures of two main stressors-rapid climate change and industrialization, Arctic research demands such a paradigm of scientific inquiry. This perspective represents a synthesis of a vision for its application in Arctic system studies, developed by a group of disciplinary experts consisting of social and earth system scientists, ecologists, and engineers. Our objective is to demonstrate how convergence research questions can be developed via a holistic view of system interactions that are then parsed into material links and concrete inquiries of disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature. We illustrate the application of the convergence science paradigm to several forms of Arctic stressors using the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic as a representative natural laboratory with a biogeographic gradient from the forest-tundra ecotone to the high Arctic.

Strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr) analysis with reference to strontium isotope landscapes (Sr isoscapes) allows reconstructing mobility and migration in archaeology, ecology, and forensics. However, despite the vast potential of research involving 87Sr/86Sr analysis particularly in Africa, Sr isoscapes remain unavailable for the largest parts of the continent. Here, we measure the 87Sr/86Sr ratios in 778 environmental samples from 24 African countries and combine this data with published data to model a bioavailable Sr isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa using random forest regression. We demonstrate the efficacy of this Sr isoscape, in combination with other lines of evidence, to trace the African roots of individuals from historic slavery contexts, particularly those with highly radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr ratios uncommon in the African Diaspora. Our study provides an extensive African 87Sr/86Sr dataset which includes scientifically marginalized regions of Africa, with significant implications for the archaeology of the transatlantic slave trade, wildlife ecology, conservation, and forensics.

Few studies have addressed the nutritional ecology of galagos. Observations of galagos in the wild reveal that they rely on fruits and invertebrates to varying degrees depending on their availability. We conducted a 6-week comparative dietary analysis of a colony of captive-housed northern greater galagos (Otolemur garnettii), which included five females and six males with known life histories. We compared two experimental diets. The first was fruit dominated and the second was invertebrate dominated. For each diet, we examined dietary intake and apparent dry matter digestibility over the course of 6 weeks. We found significant differences between the apparent digestibility of the diets, with the "invertebrate" diet being more digestible than the "frugivorous" diet. The lower apparent digestibility of the "frugivorous" diet was driven by the higher fiber contents of the fruits provided to the colony. However, variation in apparent digestibility of both diets was found among individual galagos. The experimental design used in this study may provide useful dietary data for the management of captive colonies of galagos and other strepsirrhine primates. This study may also be helpful for understanding the nutritional challenges faced by free-ranging galagos through time and across geographic space.

The assessment of the preservation status of archaeological and palaeontological tooth enamel is of vital importance in the interpretation of isotopic and elemental analyses that underpin chronological, dietary, and mobility studies. Transmission and ATR Fourier Transform Infra-red Spectroscopy (FTIR) have provided an important means of studying the presence and crystallographic context of key structural groups in tooth enamel. However, differences in sample preparation and measurement methods prevent the setting of absolute references to assess tooth enamel preservation. Here, we present TOOTHFIR, a dataset of FTIR indices developed to study the crystal-chemical properties of enamel bioapatite, from Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Holocene, and modern samples. Using collected data, we conducted a preliminary statistical meta-analysis to assess inter-lab measurement variability (relying on modern samples) and the extent to which the mixed data remains useful in revealing diagenetic patterns. Our results confirmed significant variations with measurement methodology although it remained possible to observe broad relationships between the values for FTIR indices and environmental parameters. In this respect, we introduced the use of principal component analysis to summarize FTIR data. To improve data comparability and interpretation of preservation status, we suggest several measures.

Carbon isotopic analysis has been challenging our ideas about hominin diet for nearly 30 years.The first study in 1994 revealed that Paranthropus robustus from South Africa consumed principally C 3 foods (e.g., tree fruits and leaves) but also about 25% C 4 /CAM resources (e.g., tropical grasses and sedges).This result was largely consistent with morphological and dental microwear evidence suggesting P. robustus had a diet which included hard objects like nuts and seeds.Decades later, however, P. boisei from eastern Africa was shown to have eaten nearly 80% C 4 /CAM plants like the contemporaneous grass-eating primate Theropithecus.Moreover, dental microwear revealed no evidence of hard object consumption in P. boisei, suggesting a diet of tough foods such as grass or sedge leaf and stem.So Paranthropus presents us with two central problems: 1) Why do dietary proxies suggest different diets for the two robust australopiths despite their morphological congruity; and 2) How could P. boisei have consumed tough foods with teeth that seem unsuited to the task.Here we review these questions and more with a particular focus on new isotopic data from the Omo and insights that can be gleaned from mammals outside the haplorrhine primates.We argue that extant Primates do not capture the ecomorphological diversity of P. boisei and other extinct primates and should not narrowly circumscribe the behaviors we ascribe to extinct taxa.We also discuss possible digestive strategies for P. boisei in light of its morphology, dietary proxy data, food mechanical properties, and comparative data on mammalian digestive kinetics.

The timing and character of the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas are measured by the discovery of unequivocal artifacts from well-dated contexts. We report the discovery of a well-dated artifact assemblage containing 14 stemmed projectile points from the Cooper's Ferry site in western North America, dating to ~16,000 years ago. These stemmed points are several thousand years older than Clovis fluted points (~13,000 cal yr B.P.) and are ~2300 years older than stemmed points found previously at the site. These points date to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 2 when glaciers had closed off an interior land route into the Americas. This assemblage includes an array of stemmed projectile points that resemble pre-Jomon Late Upper Paleolithic tools from the northwestern Pacific Rim dating to ~20,000 to 19,000 years ago, leading us to hypothesize that some of the first technological traditions in the Americas may have originated in the region.