Rhinocerotid tooth enamel 18O/16O variability between 23 and 12 Ma in southwestern France

Ilham Bentaleb (1) , Cyril Langlois (1, 2) , Céline Martin (1) , Paula Iacumin , Matthieu Carré (1) , Pierre-Olivier Antoine (3) , Francis Duranthon , Issam Moussa (1) , Jean-Jacques Jaeger (1) , Nicholas Barrett , Ron Kandorp

1 UMR ISEM - Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier
2 PEPS - PaleoEnvironnements et PaleobioSphere
3 LMTG - Laboratoire des Mécanismes et Transfert en Géologie

The relationship between the oxygen isotope ratio of mammal tooth enamel and that of drinking water was used to reconstruct changes in the Miocene oxygen isotope ratio of rainfall (meteoric water δ18OMW). These, in turn, are related to climatic parameters (temperature, precipitation and evaporation rate). δ18O values of rhinocerotid teeth from the Aquitaine Basin (southwestern France) suggest a significant climatic change between 17 and 12 Ma, characterized by cooling together with precipitation increase, in agreement with other terrestrial and oceanic records.

Mots clés: Oxygen isotopes; Enamel; Mammal; Miocene; Aquitaine; Palaeoclimate

Domaines: Paléontologie; Géochimie

Ilham Bentaleb, Cyril Langlois, Céline Martin, Paula Iacumin, Matthieu Carré, et al.. Rhinocerotid tooth enamel 18O/16O variability between 23 and 12 Ma in southwestern France. Comptes Rendus Géoscience, 2006, 338, pp.172-179. ⟨10.1016/j.crte.2005.11.007⟩. ⟨hal-00133086⟩