Reconstructing the diets of fossil vertebrates
(PHYSorg.com Archaeology & Fossils)

Paleodietary studies of the fossil record are impeded by a lack of reliable and unequivocal tracers. Scientists from the MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, the MPI for Chemistry and the Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU) in Mainz have now tested a new method, the isotope analysis of zinc isotopes from the tooth enamel of fossil mammals, and found it to be well suited to expand our knowledge about the diets of fossil humans and other Pleistocene mammals.