QUIP lab director Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch and colleagues recently published research in the open-access journal, PLOS ONE. This paper examined isotopic values of oxygen from herbivore teeth, specifically red deer or elk (Cervus elaphus), chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) and ibex (Capra ibex). The data showed that while the degree of variability remained constant in the caprids (chamois and ibex), there was a significant change in variation in the deer from the Pleistocene into the Holocene. This suggests that the deer may have been seasonally mobile during the Pleistocene, but had a more restricted range in the Holocene, which would have influenced the movements of hunter-gatherer groups at the time. The study used material from three cave sites in Croatia and can be read online here. News outlets reporting on the study include Phys.org, ScienceDaily.com, and EurekAlert.org.
