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Tracking individual dietary choices in complex past food webs: Integrated bulk collagen and compound-specific stable isotope analysis of urban cats
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Reconstructing dietary strategies in past urban environments is challenging because of the complexity of anthropogenic impacts on food webs, in which diverse local and imported resources with variable isotopic compositions limit the interpretive power of conventional bulk-collagen stable isotope analysis. We address this problem using domestic cats as dietary proxies, exploiting their opportunistic foraging behavior to track resource partitioning within a medieval urban landscape. We present an integrated multi-isotope study of cat bone collagen from medieval Gdańsk (northern Poland) and six regional comparative sites, combining bulk collagen δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S analysis with compound-specific δ13C and δ15N analysis of amino acids. Despite apparent isotopic homogeneity in the Gdańsk assemblage within the conventional bulk collagen dual-isotope space, the expanded isotopic framework reveals substantial individual-level dietary variability. Sulfur isotopes indicate diverse food provenances, including baseline values of the marine ecosystem and grain imported from inland regions. Amino acid-based fingerprinting identifies diets spanning terrestrial C3 and C4, freshwater, and marine ecosystem baselines, while amino acid-based trophic position proxies reveal highly variable individual trophic levels uncorrelated with bulk collagen δ15N values. These findings demonstrate that isotopic homogeneity in the conventional dual-isotope space can mask substantial dietary heterogeneity. Our study highlights the potential of integrating amino acid analysis with sulfur isotope analysis to reconstruct individual-level food choices in complex past environments.
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Unusual skip and groove marks from the Carboniferous Denée Konservat‑Lagerstätte (Visean, Belgium)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
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The Consthum Lagerstätte (Luxembourg) – a window into the palaeoecology of Early Devonian marine‑terrestrial transitional facies
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In the Rhenish Massif, a vast Lower Devonian deltaic system along the southern edge of Laurussia (Old Red Continent) continues to yield exceptional fossils from marginal marine to terrestrial transitional facies. Hitherto, these occurrences are mainly known from the lower Moselle and West-Eifel regions in Germany. Here, we introduce a new Lagerstätte situated in northern Luxembourg, which extends the known geographical occurrence of this important biota further to the west. It agrees more-or-less with previously known localities from Germany in the general composition of the fossil association, which is composed of a bivalve-lingulid-arthropod-dominated association with a few associated vertebrate remains, macro-plants, and some miospores. Unique features include a mass occurrence of clam shrimp, the high abundance of scorpions and juvenile specimens of the eurypterid Adelophthalmus as well as the occurrence of supposed euthycarcinoids and (stem?) onychophorans. Analyses of the Consthum Lagerstätten and biota have great potential to further illuminate the palaeoecology and palaeogeography of marginal-marine to terrestrial transitional settings in the Ardenno-Rhenish Lower Devonian and to decipher the palaeoecological origin of various lineages of organisms, such as clam shrimp, scorpions, and onychophorans. This is of paramount importance for a holistic understanding of the biology and physiology of their modern descendants.
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Redescription of Teretoctopus alcocki Robson, 1932 (Cephalopoda: Enterotopodidae), and comments on the nomenclature of "inkless octopus" genera.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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On the presence of the phacopid trilobite Omegops in the uppermost Famennian of northern France (Avesnois)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
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A selkirkiid scalidophoran from the Lower Devonian of Belgium and the dubious merit of the concept of ‘Burgess Shale-type’ organisms
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
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A new species of the large delphinidan genus Miminiacetus from the Middle Miocene of Peru
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
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Bartoncetus wanklyni, new genus of a small dorudontine whale from the Bartonian of England; a lost skull and a forgotten postcranial skeleton
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RBINS Staff Publications 2026
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Managing subsurface geosystem services within geological limits: A sustainable scale framework
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The increasing exploitation of geological resources requires sustainable management frameworks that balance resource utilisation with the long-term conservation of the geophysical environment’s functions. Despite growing recognition of geosystem services (derived from geophysical structures and processes), the current literature lacks a comprehensive discussion of their sustainable management that integrates established ecological eco- nomics principles. This study aims to (1) systematically assess existing geosystem services management literature and (2) develop a framework for their sustainable management based on geophysical constraints. Through a systematic review of 40 publications, we find that the literature has developed foundational work on the clas- sification and mapping of geosystem services, with limited subsequent development of operational guidance for sustainable resource management. No existing framework links resource-use rates to geological regeneration capacities and defines sustainable scales in terms of geophysical constraints. To address these shortcomings, we introduce a process-based geosystem service cascade model that links geophysical structures and processes to their functional outputs and societal benefits. This cascade classifies services by function and reveals the regeneration timescales of the geophysical processes that produce them. Guided by the sustainable development principles of Daly (1990), we use this classification to develop a conceptual scheme that identifies which services are suitable for steady-state exploitation and which require pairing with renewable alternatives. The proposed scheme provides a conceptual basis for assessing the scale at which geological resource use can be sustained, grounded in the underlying geophysical structures and processes that determine geological limits and regener- ative capacity.
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Exploring Biological and Ecological Components of Sheep Astragalus Size and Shape Variation Using 3D Geometric Morphometrics: Towards A Bioarchaeological Proxy
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One of the key challenges in the archaeology of sheep domestication is reconstructing the complex history of environmental and anthropogenic transformations undergone by sheep since the beginning of the domestication process of their wild ancestors. In recent years, GMM studies of sheep astragalus bones have contributed to our understanding of morphological differences between wild and domestic caprine species. However, the respective influences of biological and ecological factors on astragalus morphological variations in sheep remain poorly documented. This limitation hinders a comprehensive understanding of its biosystematic resolution and, consequently, its use as a proxy in archaeological contexts to investigate early selective breeding and the emergence of sheep breeds in Southwest Asia. This paper presents the results of a morphological study of 96 astragali using 3D geometric morphometrics, focusing primarily on modern Eurasian and African sheep breeds and landraces. The study is based on a well-documented comparative collection encompassing phenotypical traits (breed, sex, age, presence/absence of horns, coat and tail type, weight, body length); ecological characteristics (climate, geography, environment, elevation, topography); and breeding strategies (mobility). The results demonstrate that the 3D astragalus morphological pattern is a reliable marker for distinguishing one sheep breed from another. They suggest that astragalus morphology is only slightly influenced by phenotypic markers. The study further explores the effects of environmental and climatic factors on phenotypic variation and highlights the potential of the astragalus as an ecomorphological marker. Finally, the current limitations in interpreting the relationship between astragalus morphological variation and mobility strategies in archaeological contexts are discussed.
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