Comment on “Isotopic insight on paleodiet of extinct Pleistocene megafaunal Xenarthrans from Argentina” by H. Bocherens et al

Abstract

Recently, Bocherens et al. (2017) studied the diet of extinct giant xenarthrans through the difference between the carbon isotopic composition of carbonate and collagen, so contending to have settled the debate on the alimentary preferences of the Pleistocene sloth Megatherium americanum as an exclusive herbivore, against proposals of a more diverse diet that could have included flesh to some extent based on ecological (Fariña, 1996), biomechanical (Fariña and Blanco, 1996), morphological (Bargo and Vizcaíno, 2008) and even biogeochemical (Bocherens et al., 2016 - see below for discussion) evidence. Here we intend to show that, based on the data in the commented paper, such interpretation can hardly be claimed as fully demonstrated.