Dietary isotopes of Madagascar's extinct megafauna reveal Holocene browsing and grazing guilds

Abstract

Megafauna play a disproportionate role in developing and maintaining their biomes, by regulating plant dispersal, community structure and nutrient cycling. Understanding the ecological roles of extinct megafaunal communities, for example through dietary reconstruction using isotope analysis, is necessary to determine pre-human states and set evidence-based restoration goals. We use δ 13 C and δ 15 N isotopic analyses to reconstruct Holocene feeding guilds in Madagascar's extinct megaherbivores, which included elephant birds, hippopotami and giant tortoises that occurred across multiple habitats and elevations. We compare isotopic data from seven taxa and two elephant bird eggshell morphotypes against contemporary regional floral baselines to infer dietary subsistence strategies. Most taxa show high consumption of C 3 and/or CAM plants, providing evidence of widespread browsing ecology. However, Aepyornis hildebrandti , an elephant bird restricted to the central highlands region, has isotope values with much higher δ 13 C values than other taxa. This species is interpreted as having obtained up to 48% of its diet from C 4 grasses. These findings provide new evidence for distinct browsing and grazing guilds in Madagascar's Holocene megaherbivore fauna, with implications for past regional distribution of ecosystems dominated by endemic C 4 grasses.