Archaeologists have used isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N) of the collagen of human bones, as well as knowledge of available nutrients, to infer that the diet of the ancient Maya was drawn from the resources of the Maya forest landscape. The interpretations have focused on plant carbohydrates from maize and protein dominated by white-tail deer. The δ15N values of bone collagen suggest that most of the protein requirements of the Maya could have been satisfied with a mixture of wild animal flesh and wild and cultivated plants including beans. Chaya, Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, domesticated before the Spanish conquest, has a high-protein content and the potential to have been a significant contributor to the ancient Maya diet. Chaya is easily propagated, is grown in home gardens by the Maya today, and is a significant part of the local traditional diet. Chaya's stable isotopic composition of carbon (δ13C) resembles that of other terrestrial plants, but its values for nitrogen (δ15N) are significantly higher. Consumption of chaya would result in slightly higher δ15N values in humans than expected from the consumption of terrestrial animals. Thus, chaya is situated well as a component of the complex, diverse, and varied diets of ancient Mesoamericans.

We have analyzed atom probe tomography reconstructions of disaggregated meteoritic material containing nanodiamonds and disordered carbon to determine whether these phases formed in the solar system or whether they predate the solar system and were formed in supernovae or the interstellar medium. We developed a method to distinguish between these two carbonaceous phases in < 100 nm diameter aggregates using the ratios of various native and contaminant molecular species. We find variations in measured 12C/13C ratios between the two phases that suggest hydrides form more readily during field evaporation of the disordered C than the nanodiamonds.

High elevation plant and animal communities are considered extremely sensitive to environmental change. We investigated an exceptional fossil record of yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) specimens that was recovered from Cement Creek Cave (elev. 2860 m) and ranged in age from radiocarbon background circa 49.8 cal ka BP to ~ 1 cal ka BP. We coupled isotopic and radiocarbon measurements (δ18O, δD, δ15N, δ13C, and 14C) of bone collagen from individually-AMS dated specimens of marmots to assess ecological responses by this species to environmental change over time in a high elevation basin in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Colorado, USA. We find little change in all four isotope ratios over time, demonstrating considerable environmental stability during periods when the marmots were present. The stable ecology and the apparent persistence of the small mammal community in the cave fauna throughout the late Quaternary are in marked contrast to the changes that occurred in the large mammal community, including local extirpation and extinction, at the end of the Pleistocene.

Isotope ratios of elements such as Sr, Nd, Pb and Hf can be used as tracers of magmatic sources and processes. Analytical capabilities have evolved so that isotope ratios can now be analysed in situ, and isotopic tracers can therefore be used within single minerals to track the changing magmatic environment in which a given mineral grew. This contribution shows that Sr isotope ratios in feldspars that make up plutonic rocks will typically preserve initial isotopic variations, provided precise and accurate age corrections can be applied. Variations in initial isotope ratio can give a core-to-rim record of magmatic evolution and can be used to diagnose open system events such as contamination and magma recharge and mixing.

New single grain Sr isotope data are presented from the Dais Intrusion, Antarctica, which reflect an open system origin for the crystals. The crystal cargo appears to be aggregated and assembled during transport and emplacement. This model, as opposed to a magma body crystallising post emplacement, may be more applicable to plutonic rocks in general, and is testable using the in situ isotopic determination methods described here.

A high-resolution carbon isotope profile through the uppermost Neoproterozoic–Lower Cambrian part of the Sukharikha section at the northwestern margin of the Siberian platform shows prominent secular oscillations of δ13C with peak-to-peak range of 6–10 ‰. There are six minima, 1n–6n, and seven maxima 1p–7p, in the Sukharikha Formation and a rising trend of δ13C from the minimum 1n of − 8.6 ‰ to maximum 6p of + 6.4 ‰. The trough 1n probably coincides with the isotopic minimum at the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary worldwide. Highly positive δ13C values of peaks 5p and 6p are typical of the upper portion of the Precambrian–Cambrian transitional beds just beneath the Tommotian Stage in Siberia. A second rising trend of δ13C is observed through the Krasnoporog and lower Shumny formations. It consists of four excursions with four major maxima that can be correlated with Tommotian–Botomian peaks II, IV, V, and VII of the reference profile from the southeastern Siberian platform. According to the chemostratigraphic correlation, the first appearances of the index forms of archaeocyaths are earlier in the Sukharikha section than in the Lena–Aldan region.

Isotope ratios of elements such as Sr, Nd, Pb and Hf can be used as tracers of magmatic sources and processes. Analytical capabilities have evolved so that isotope ratios can now be analysed in situ, and isotopic tracers can therefore be used within single minerals to track the changing magmatic environment in which a given mineral grew. This contribution shows that Sr isotope ratios in feldspars that make up plutonic rocks will typically preserve initial isotopic variations, provided precise and accurate age corrections can be applied. Variations in initial isotope ratio can give a core-to-rim record of magmatic evolution and can be used to diagnose open system events such as contamination and magma recharge and mixing.

New single grain Sr isotope data are presented from the Dais Intrusion, Antarctica, which reflect an open system origin for the crystals. The crystal cargo appears to be aggregated and assembled during transport and emplacement. This model, as opposed to a magma body crystallising post emplacement, may be more applicable to plutonic rocks in general, and is testable using the in situ isotopic determination methods described here.

Carbon isotopic data from the Selinde section in the southeastern part of the Siberian platform area are correlated with the reference isotopic profile from the Lower Cambrian stratotype sections of the Lena–Aldan region, but also show additional δ13C excursions unrecognized there. The chemostratigraphic correlation suggests that the geological and fossil record of the lower Pestrotsvet Formation in the Selinde section has a deeper history than the stratotype region. This conclusion is important for both constraining the age of the earliest Cambrian marine transgression on the Siberian platform and providing a clearer understanding of the pace and order of early Cambrian geochemical and biological events.

New U–Pb zircon dating yields a crystallization age of 458±3 Ma for the largely gabbroic Grøndalsfjell Intrusive Complex in the Gjersvik Nappe of the Caledonian Upper Allochthon in Scandinavia. This is identical, within error, to the age of the adjacent Møklevatnet Complex that is dominated by quartz monzodiorite (456±2 Ma), and the two intrusive suites may be regarded as members of a composite intrusion here referred to as the Nesåa Batholith. Mafic members of this calc-alkaline batholith are characterized by slightly positive εNd–εSr values, marked enrichment of the light rare earth elements and high Th/Yb ratios suggestive of a subduction-modified mantle source. The I-type granitoids have similar isotope values and highly fractionated rare earth element patterns, and are interpreted as products from partial melting of garnet-bearing mafic rocks. The Nesåa Batholith intruded a previously deformed, 483 Ma or older, metavolcanic sequence of oceanic arc affinity. The margins of the pluton show evidence for synkinematic emplacement, which is tentatively interpreted in terms of magma ascent controlled by deep-seated shear zones. Further uplift and exhumation of the crystallized plutons was followed by rapid deposition of batholith-derived conglomerates and arkoses in a marginal basin represented by the Limingen Group. The age of the Nesåa Batholith fills the gap in reported ages for Caledonian magmatism, between the Early to Middle Ordovician, oceanic to continental margin type, arc sequences of Laurentian palaeotectonic affinity, and the Late Ordovician–Early Silurian batholith complexes of interpreted Laurentian margin affinity. It is interpreted as an early phase of the more extensive plutonism recorded in the Bindal Batholith of the Uppermost Allochthon to the west. Our model implies that the Early Ordovician oceanic arc sequences of the Gjersvik Nappe were deformed and accreted on to Laurentian margin lithologies prior to Late Ordovician times. This composite crustal assemblage was the source for the voluminous quartz monzodioritic intrusions of the Nesåa Batholith, which formed by partial melting due to ponding of subduction-related mantle derived mafic magmas either within or at the base of the active continental margin.

New geochemical, isotopic and age data from igneous rocks complement earlier models of a long-lived and complex accretionary history for East African Orogen lithologies north of the Blue Nile in western Ethiopia, but throw doubt on the paradigm that ultramafic complexes of the region represent ophiolites and suture zones. Early magmatism is represented by a metavolcanic sequence dominated by pyroclastic deposits of predominantly basaltic andesite composition, which give a Rb–Sr whole-rock errorchron of 873±82 Ma. Steep REE patterns and strong enrichments of highly incompatible trace elements are similar to Andean-type, high-K to medium-K calc-alkaline rocks; εNd values between 4.0 and 6.8 reflect a young, thin continental edge. Interlayered basaltic flows are transitional to MORB and compare with mafic rocks formed in extensional, back-arc or inter-arc regimes. The data point to the significance of continental margin magmatism already at the earliest stages of plate convergence, in contrast with previous models for the East African Orogen. The metavolcanites overlap compositionally with the Kilaj intrusive complex dated at 866±20 Ma (U–Pb zircon) and a related suite of dykes that intrude thick carbonate-psammite sequences of supposedly pre-arc, continental shelf origin. Ultramafic complexes are akin to the Kilaj intrusion and the sediment-hosted dykes, and probably represent solitary intrusions formed in response to arc extension. Synkinematic composite plutons give crystallization ages of 699±2 Ma (Duksi, U–Pb zircon) and 651±5 Ma (Dogi, U–Pb titanite) and testify to a prolonged period of major (D1) contractional deformation during continental collision and closure of the ‘Mozambique Ocean’. The plutons are characterized by moderately peraluminous granodiorites and granites with εNd values of 1.0–2.0. They were coeval with shoshonitic, latitic, trachytic and rare trachybasaltic intrusions with very strong enrichments of highly incompatible trace elements and εNd of 0.4–8.0. The mafic end-member is ascribed to partial melting of enriched sub-continental mantle that carried a subduction component inherited from pre-collision subduction. Contemporaneous granodiorite and granite formation was related to crustal underplating of the mafic magmas and consequent melting of lower crustal material derived from the previously accreted, juvenile arc terranes of the East African Orogen.