Small mammal carbon isotope ecology across the Miocene–Pliocene boundary, northwestern Argentina

The late Miocene expansion of plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway in South America has been documented by tooth enamel carbon isotope ratios (δ13Cen). However, a more detailed understanding of this ecological event is hampered by poor chronological control on the widespread fossil localities from which isotopic data are derived. This study develops a δ13Cen record from a single 2500 m-thick stratigraphic section in subtropical South America. Strata at Puerta de Corral Quemado (PCQ), northwestern Argentina, span 9 to 3.5 Ma in age, and existing paleosol carbonate data (δ13Cpc) document C4 expansion across the Miocene–Pliocene boundary. Comparison of δ13Cen data with δ13Cpc data at high stratigraphic resolution refines understanding of this ecological event in South America. Small mammal δ13Cen data in particular are complementary to that of large mammal and paleosol δ13C data. Small mammal teeth integrate isotopic data over much shorter temporal and spatial scales than large mammal teeth, providing a sensitive measure of local vegetation and placing constraints on the landscape distribution of C3 and C4 plants. Explicit consideration of the distinctive carbon isotope enrichment factor between enamel and diet for rodents (ε*en–diet = 11‰, as opposed to 14‰ for large mammals) allows for unequivocal inference of C4 vegetation ~ 1 Ma prior to that inferred from large mammal δ13Cen data, and ~ 2 Ma prior to δ13Cpc data. This multiproxy record demonstrates that C4 plants were a stable component of the ecosystem hundreds of thousands of years prior to their major ecological expansion, and that the expansion of C4 plants was pulsed at PCQ. Two periods of ecological change are demonstrated by δ13C and δ18O data at ~ 7 Ma and 5.3 Ma (coincident with the Miocene–Pliocene boundary). Development of small mammal δ13Cen records on other continents may provide similar insight into the early stages of the global C4 event.