Objectives: The overarching goal for this project is to reconstruct the tropic level of southern African Australopithecus and how much meat – compared to plant-based resources – these early hominins consumed in the Pleistocene. These essential deficits of knowledge can be addressed by nitrogen isotopes (15N) studies, because it can inform about the individuals position in the (paleo)food chain. Until now, determination of 15N data was only possible on (hominin) specimens younger than 100,000 years due to the need of large quantities of fossil collagen which were only insignificantly geochemically changed due to postmortem alteration. In recent years, a new biogeochemical method measures 15N values with high precision on extremely small sample sizes, which finally permits to analyze Pleistocene samples, e.g., fossil (hominin) enamel. In cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) in Mainz (Germany), A baseline 15N values of faunal elements which were potentially available to Australopithecus will be established to then ultimately analyze the hominin tooth enamel itself. The new 15N results will be unique and, for the first time, allow the reconstruction of trophic level and meat consumption of hominins from the Pleistocene.
