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Human skeletal development and feeding behavior: the impact on oxygen isotopes

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Abstract

There is substantial room for isotopic analysis to address questions regarding human migration and interaction with the landscape. Oxygen isotopes in vertebrate tissues, which are generally thought to reflect water source, are derived from a combination of water, food and air isotopic values put through the physiology and intermediary metabolism of the animal. We highlight two additional issues in applying oxygen isotopic analysis to humans: the unique developmental regime of skeletal elements and the impact of cooking on food.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and complete comments.

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Author notes

  1. Elizabeth Harvey

    Present address: UK Medical Center, MN, 150, Lexington, KY, 40536-0298, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Noreen Tuross, Linda M. Reynard & Elizabeth Harvey

  2. Department of Environmental Biology, University of Rome La Sapienza, I-00185, Rome, Italy

    Alfredo Coppa

  3. Department of History, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Michael McCormick

Authors
  1. Noreen Tuross
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  2. Linda M. Reynard
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Correspondence to Noreen Tuross.

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Tuross, N., Reynard, L., Harvey, E. et al. Human skeletal development and feeding behavior: the impact on oxygen isotopes. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 9, 1453–1459 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0486-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-017-0486-5

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