The influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals was investigated by analyzing animals grown in the laboratory on diets of constant nitrogen isotopic composition. 
The isotopic composition of the nitrogen in an animal reflects the nitrogen isotopic composition of its diet. The δ^(15)N values of the whole bodies of animals are usually more positive than those of their diets. Different individuals of a species raised on the same diet can have significantly different δ^(15)N values. The variability of the relationship between the δ^(15)N values of animals and their diets is greater for different species raised on the same diet than for the same species raised on different diets. Different tissues of mice are also enriched in ^(15)N relative to the diet, with the difference between the δ^(15)N values of a tissue and the diet depending on both the kind of tissue and the diet involved. The δ^(15)N values of collagen and chitin, biochemical components that are often preserved in fossil animal remains, are also related to the δ^(15)N value of the diet. 
The dependence of the δ^(15)N values of whole animals and their tissues and biochemical components on the δ^(15)N value of diet indicates that the isotopic composition of animal nitrogen can be used to obtain information about an animal's diet if its potential food sources had different δ^(15)N values. The nitrogen isotopic method of dietary analysis probably can be used to estimate the relative use of legumes vs non-legumes or of aquatic vs terrestrial organisms as food sources for extant and fossil animals. However, the method probably will not be applicable in those modern ecosystems in which the use of chemical fertilizers has influenced the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in food sources. 
The isotopic method of dietary analysis was used to reconstruct changes in the diet of the human population that occupied the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico over a 7000 yr span. Variations in the δ^(15)C and δ^(15)N values of bone collagen suggest that C_4 and/or CAM plants (presumably mostly corn) and legumes (presumably mostly beans) were introduced into the diet much earlier than suggested by conventional archaeological analysis.

Influence of Diet On the Distribtion of Nitrogen Isotopes in Animals

Beginning with Emlen (1966) and MacArthur and Pianka (1966) and extending through the last ten years, several authors have sought to predict the foraging behavior of animals by means of mathematical models. These models are very similar,in that they all assume that the fitness of a foraging animal is a function of the efficiency of foraging measured in terms of some "currency" (Schoener, 1971) -usually energy- and that natural selection has resulted in animals that forage so as to maximize this fitness. As a result of these similarities, the models have become known as "optimal foraging models"; and the theory that embodies them, "optimal foraging theory." The situations to which optimal foraging theory has been applied, with the exception of a few recent studies, can be divided into the following four categories: (1) choice by an animal of which food types to eat (i.e., optimal diet); (2) choice of which patch type to feed in (i.e., optimal patch choice); (3) optimal allocation of time to different patches; and (4) optimal patterns and speed of movements. In this review we discuss each of these categories separately, dealing with both the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions. The review is selective in the sense that we emphasize studies that either develop testable predictions or that attempt to test predictions in a precise quantitative manner. We also discuss what we see to be some of the future developments in the area of optimal foraging theory and how this theory can be related to other areas of biology. Our general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that we are optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory. We argue, however, that these simple models will requre much modification, espicially to deal with situations that either cannot easily be put into one or another of the above four categories or entail currencies more complicated that just energy.

Citation classic - optimal foraging - a selective review of theory and tests

Time is divided by geologists according to marked shifts in Earth's state. Recent global environmental changes suggest that Earth may have entered a new human-dominated geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Here we review the historical genesis of the idea and assess anthropogenic signatures in the geological record against the formal requirements for the recognition of a new epoch. The evidence suggests that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene: 1610 and 1964. The formal establishment of an Anthropocene Epoch would mark a fundamental change in the relationship between humans and the Earth system.

Defining the Anthropocene

Morphometric tools for landmark data: geometry and biology

Animal Bones in Archaeology Book of Notes and Drawings for Beginners. By Michael L. Ryder. (Mammal Society Handbooks.) Pp. xxiv + 65. (Blackwell (Scientific): Oxford and Edinburgh. Published for the Mammal Society, 1969.) 17s.

Digging up Bones

* Centro de Investigaciones del Hombre en el Desierto, Departamento de Arqueologia y Museologia, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Administrativas y Economicas, Universidad de Tarapaca, Arica, Chile. El simposio Arica, Pasado y Presente, una Vision Antropologica Multidisciplinaria tuvo por objeto reflexionar a traves de los expositores, el debate de los participantes y la evaluacion critica del comentarista acerca de la historia de las sociedades que habitaron las zonas aridas del norte de Chile y de la region de Arica, en particular. Esto, a partir de datos fragmentarios de la cultura material estudiados a traves de la arqueologia, documentos escritos generados desde la temprana administracion colonial hasta la epoca actual, descifrados e interpretados a traves de la etnohistoria, y registros antropologicos de las expresiones de los actuales descendientes de la milenaria historia que se sigue tejiendo en estos territorios.

Presentación al simposio arica, pasado y presente, una visión antropológica multidisciplinaria

An exploration of the ceramic technology of a northern Chilean community, evidence from the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex

Conoci a John Victor Murra, sin que llegaramos a cruzar palabra en julio de 1973, en plena campana de socializacion de su modelo de verticalidad y cuando pregonaba, ademas, la necesidad de his-toriar “lo andino” a partir de fuentes variadas de informacion, como la documentacion de origen colonial y, mientras mas tempranas mejor, las etnograficas y las arqueologicas. Estabamos en medio del crudo invierno de ese ano y tenia como escenario el Primer Congreso del Hombre Andino que itinero por Arica, Iquique y Antofagasta, una idea de Lautaro Nunez, presidente de la reunion, de trashumar el evento por el desierto del norte de Chile. Esto de organizar reuniones de largo aliento con observacion de campo no era ajeno a Murra. De hecho, el Congreso en Arica sirvio de nodo para una parada de un seminario de campo que llevaba a cabo junto con Luis G. Lumbreras alrededor del lago Titicaca (Murra 1984).Posiblemente la experiencia del Congreso fue integral para Murra, ya que no solo se discutio acerca de los

https://scielo.conicyt.cl/pdf/chungara/v42n1/art17.pdf

Las conversaciones siguen a pesar del ruido: dedicado a john v. murra

https://scielo.conicyt.cl/pdf/chungara/v45n4/art01.pdf

Calogero M. Santoro

Papers

Presentación al simposio arica, pasado y presente, una visión antropológica multidisciplinaria

An exploration of the ceramic technology of a northern Chilean community, evidence from the Caleta Vitor Archaeological Complex

Las conversaciones siguen a pesar del ruido: dedicado a john v. murra

Betty j. meggers y su trascendental dedicación hemisférica a la arqueología latinoamericana

Volumen Especial, 2004. Páginas 261-272 Chungara, Revista de Antropología Chilena SIMPOSIO ARICA PASADO Y PRESENTE, UNA VISIÓN ANTROPOLÓGICA