Reconstructing the paleoenvironment of East Central Europe in the Late Pleistocene using the oxygen and carbon isotopic signal of tooth in large mammal remains

Abstract

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope values (δ13C, δ18O) of structural carbonate were determined in the bioapatite component of fossil teeth from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Oxygen isotope compositions of enamel and dentin samples provide new quantitative records of the Late Pleistocene climate in East Central Europe (ECE). These δ18O data were combined with records of oxygen isotope values of recent and paleogroundwaters to study the spatial patterns and temporal variations in the oxygen isotope composition of precipitation and the thermal climate over ECE. The new isotopic data suggest that surface air temperatures in the study region between 33 and 12 ka were 2–9 °C colder than present. Specimens of woolly mammoth, rhino and horse from the Late Pleistocene were primarily C3 grazers.