The use of isotope ratios to test for seaweed eating in sheep

Journal of Zoology

Volumn 266, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 283-291

  Balasse, Marie ^a   Tresset, Anne ^a   Dobney, Keith ^b   Ambrose, Stanley H ^c  

^a MUSÉUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE   (France)

^b DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN   (United States)

Author keywords

Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios; Orkney; Prehistoric husbandry; Seaweed eating sheep; Tooth enamel

Indexed keywords

DIET; ISOTOPIC RATIO; SEAWEED; SHEEP; TOOTH;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; EUROPE; NORTH RONALDSAY; ORKNEY; SCOTLAND; UNITED KINGDOM; WESTERN EUROPE; WORLD;

ALGAE; ANIMALIA; OVIS ARIES;

EID: 22344454087     PISSN: 09528369     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0952836905006916     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. Ambrose, S. H. & Norr, L. (1993). Experimental evidence for the relationship of the carbon isotope ratios of whole diet and dietary protein to those of bone collagen and carbonate. In Prehistoric human bone. Archaeology at the molecular level: 1-37. Lambert, J. B. & Grupe, G. (Eds). Berlin Springer-Verlag.
2. Amorosi, T., Buckland, P., Edwards, K., Mainland, I., McGovern, T., Sadler, J. & Skidmore, P. (1998). They did not live by grass alone: the politics and palaeoecology of animal fodder in the North Atlantic region. Environ. Archaeol. 1: 41-54.
3. Arzel, P. (1987). Les goémoniers. Douarnenez: Le chasse-marée, éditions de l'estran.
4. Balasse, M. (2002). Reconstructing dietary and environmental history from enamel isotopic analysis: time resolution of intra-tooth sequential sampling. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 12: 155-165.
5. Balasse, M. (2003). Potential biases in sampling design and interpretation of intra-tooth isotope analysis. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 13: 3-10.
6. Balasse, M., Ambrose, S. H., Smith, A. B. & Price, T. D. (2002). The seasonal mobility model for prehistoric herders in the southwestern Cape of South Africa assessed by isotopic analysis of sheep tooth enamel. J. Archaeol. Sci. 29: 917-932.
7. Balasse, M., Smith, A. B., Ambrose, S. H. & Leigh, S. R. (2003). Determining sheep birth seasonality by analysis of tooth enamel oxygen isotope ratios: the Late Stone Age site of Kasteelberg (South Africa). J. Archaeol. Sci. 30: 205-015.
8. 13C data from water column and sediment surfaces. Deep-Sea Res. II 47: 1791-1808.
9. Cerling, T. E. & Harris, J. M. (1999). Carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bioapatite in ungulate mammals and implications for ecological and paleoecological studies. Oecologia (Berl.) 120: 347-363.
10. Chapman, V. J. (1970). Seaweeds and their uses. London: Methuen.
11. Ewbank, J. M., Phillipson, D. W. & Whitehouse, R. D. (1964). Sheep in the Iron Age: a method of study. Proc. Prehist. Soc. 30: 423-426.
12. Farquhar, G. D., Ehleringer, J. R. & Hubick, K. T. (1989). Carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis. Ann. Rev. Plant Physiol. Mol. Biol. 40: 503-537.
13. Feldmann, J., John, K. & Pengsprecha, P. (2000). Arsenic metabolism in seaweed-eating sheep from Northern Scotland. Fresenius J. Anal. Chem. 368: 116-121.
14. Fenton, A. (1978). The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland. Edinburgh: Tuckwell Press/John Donald.
15. Fleuriot, L. (1986). Les très anciennes lois bretonnes. Leur date. Leur texte. In Landévennec et le Monachisme Breton dans le Haut Moyen Age: 65-84. Bannalec: Association Landevennec.
16. Gage, J. P., Francis, M. J. O. & Triffitt, J. T. (1989). Collagen and dental matrices. London: Wright.
17. Gat, J. R. (1980). The isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in precipitation. In Handbook of environmental isotope geochemistry 1. The terrestrial environment: 21-42. Fritz, P. & Fontes, J.-C. (Eds). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
18. Gislefoss, J. S., Nydal, R., Slagstad, D., Sonninen, E. & Holmén, K. (1998). Carbon time series in the Norwegian Sea. Deep-sea Res. I 45: 433-460.
19. Hachey, D. L., Wong, W. W., Boutton, T. W. & Klein, P. D. (1987). Isotope ratio measurements in nutrition and biomedical research. Mass Spectrom. Rev. 6: 289-328.
20. Hall, S. J. G. (1975). Polymorphism of erythrocyte potassium concentration in seaweed-eating sheep. Nature (Lond.) 255: 62.
21. Hallson, S. V. (1964). The uses of seaweeds in Iceland. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Seaweeds Symposium, Biarritz 1961: 398-405. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
22. Hansen, H. R., Hector, B. L. & Feldmann, J. (2003). A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the seaweed diet of North Ronaldsay sheep. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 105: 21-28.
23. Hansen, H. R., Raab, A., Francesconi, K. A. & Feldmann, J. (2003). Metabolism of arsenic by sheep chronically exposed to arsenosugars as a normal part of their diet. 1. Quantitative intake, uptake, and excretion. Environ. Sci. Technol. 37: 845-851.
24. Haywood, S., Müller, T., Heinz-Erian, P., Tanner, M. S. & Ross, G. (2001). Copper-associated disease in North-Ronaldsay sheep: a possible animal model for non-Wilsonian hepatic copper toxicosis of infancy and childhood. J. Pathol. 195: 264-269.
25. Hedges, R. E. M. (2004). Isotopes and red herrings: comments on Milner et al. and Liden et al. Antiquity 78: 34-37.
26. Indergaard, M. & Minsaas, J. (1991). Animal and human nutrition. In Seaweed resources in Europe: 21-64. Guiry, D. & Blunden, G. (Eds). Chichester: Wiley.
27. Kelly, F. (1997). Early Irish farming. A study based on the law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries AD. School of Celtic Studies. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press.
28. Krueger, H. W. & Sullivan, C. H. (1984). Models for carbon isotope fractionation between diet and bone. In Stable isotopes in nutrition: 205-220. Turnlund, J. R. & Johnson, P. E. (Eds). American Chemical Society Symposium Series 258.
29. Lee-Thorp, J. & van der Merwe, N. J. (1987). Carbon isotope analysis of fossil bone apatite. S. Afr. J. Sci. 83: 712-715.
30. Lidén, K., Eriksson, G., Nordqvist, B., Gotherstrõm, A. & Bendixen, E. (2004). 'The wet and the wild followed by the dry and the tame' - or did they occur at the same time? Diet in Mesolithic-Neolithic southern Sweden. Antiquity 78: 23-33.
31. MacLachlan, G. (1988). Sheep saga - the North Ronaldsays. Caithness Field Club Bull. Oct. 1988.
32. MacLachlan, G. & Johnston, W. S. (1982). Copper poisoning in sheep from North Ronaldsay maintained on a diet of terrestrial herbage. Vet. Rec. 111: 299-301.
33. Mainland, I. L. (2000). A dental microwear study of seaweed-eating and grazing sheep from Orkney. Int. J. Osteoarchaeol. 10: 93-107.
34. Martin, M. (1703). A description of the Western Islands of Scotland circa 1695. London: Andrew Bell.
35. Milner, N., Craig, O. E., Bailey, G. N., Pedersen, K. & Andersen, S. H. (2004). Something fishy in the Neolithic? A re-evaluation of stable isotope analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic coastal populations. Antiquity 78: 9-22.
36. O'Leary, M. H. (1988). Carbon isotopes in photosynthesis. Bioscience 38: 328-335.
37. Orpin, C. G., Greenwood, Y., Hall, F. J. & Paterson, I. W. (1985). The rumen microbiology of seaweed digestion in Orkney sheep. J. appl. Bacteriol. 59: 585-596.
38. Raven, J. A., Johnston, A. M., Kübler, J. E., Korb, R., McInroy, S. G., Handley, L. L., Scrimgeour, C. M., Walker, D. I., Beardall, J., Vanderklift, M., Fredriksen, S. & Dunton, K. H. (2002). Mechanistic interpretation of carbon isotope discrimination by marine macroalgae and seagrasses. Funct. Plant Biol. 29: 355-378.
39. Richards, M. P., Schulting, R. J. & Hedges, R. E. M. (2003). Sharp shift in diet at the onset of the Neolithic. Nature (Lond.) 425: 366.
40. Soulonia, N., Fortelius, M. & Freeman, P. (1994). Molar wear rates in ruminants: a new approach. Ann. Zool. Fen. 31: 219-227.
41. 2 penetration. Mar. Chem. 69: 237-251.
42. Tieszen, L. L. (1991). Natural variations in the carbon isotope values of plants: implications for archaeology, ecology and palaeoecology. J. Archaeol. Sci. 18: 227-248.
43. Tieszen, L. L. & Boutton, T. W. (1988). Stable carbon isotopes in terrestrial ecosystem research. In Stable isotopes in ecological research: 167-195. Rundel, P. W., Ehleringer, J. R. & Nagy, K. A. (Eds). New York: Springer-Verlag.
44. 2, bone collagen, bioapatite and soft tissues. In Prehistoric human bone. Archaeology at the molecular level: 121-155. Lambert, J. B. & Grupe, G. (Eds). Berlin Springer-Verlag.
45. Van Klinken, G. J., Richards, M. P. & Hedges, R. E. M. (2000). An overview of causes for stable isotopic variations in past European human populations: environmental, ecophysiological and cultural effects. In Biogeochemical approaches to paleodietary analysis: 39-63. Ambrose, S. H. & Katzenberg, M. A. (Eds). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
46. Weinreb, M. M. & Sharav, Y. (1964). Tooth development in sheep. Am. J. Vet. Res. 25: 891-908.