Tessa Plint

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill University

This is a multi-individual (n = 11), stable carbon and nitrogen isotope study of bone collagen (δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol) from the giant beaver (genus Castoroides). The now-extinct giant beaver was once one of the most widespread Pleistocene megafauna in North America. We confirm that Castoroides consumed a diet of predominantly submerged aquatic macrop...

Large animal tracks, unequivocally attributable to terrestrial mammals, are reported for the first time in sediment from uppermost Bed I (Tuff IF; ∼1.803 million years ago) at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. One track in particular (attributed to the ichnogenus Pecoripeda) retains an exceptional level of detail, demonstrating the excellent trackway-preser...

Dolphins are mobile apex marine predators. Over the past three decades, warm-water adapted dolphin species (short-beaked common and striped) have expanded their ranges northward and become increasingly abundant in British waters. Meanwhile, cold-water adapted dolphins (white-beaked and Atlantic white-sided) abundance trends are decreasing, with evi...

[OSF Access at: https://osf.io/asxnr/?view_only=d12b51a18e7a46adbb7b50dd08377021] https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ASXNR The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) houses one of the largest archival collections of NBW skeletal specimens in the world. The goal of this research project was to collect samples from the museum’s NBW specimens for bulk st...

Cranium [Access at: https://natuurtijdschriften.nl/pub/1019983/]

Cervids living in high latitudes have evolved to thrive in ecosystems that experience dramatic seasonal changes. Understanding these seasonal adaptations is important for reconstructing cervid life histories, ecosystem dynamics, and responses in the distant and not-so-distant past to changing seasonality caused by climate change. Cervid antlers pro...

Modern beavers (Castor) are prolific ecosystem engineers and dramatically alter the landscape through tree harvesting and dam building. Little is known, however, about the evolutionary drivers of their woodcutting behaviour. Here we investigate if early woodcutting behaviour in Castoridae was driven by nutritional needs. We measured stable carbon a...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Increasingly, stable isotope measurements are being used to assign individuals to broad geographic origins based on established relationships between animal tissues and tissue-specific isoscapes. In particular, the eastern North American population of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) has been the subject of several studies using established...