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Updated: Jul 16, 2025

Sampling and Pretreatment of Tooth Enamel Carbonate for Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis
Published on: August 15, 2018
Zanadamu: An African hominin isotopic dataset
Victor Iminjili1,2, Ricardo Fernandes1,3,4
1Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745, Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
The present article introduces Zanadamu, a comprehensive geo-temporal-referenced dataset that amalgamates all published stable isotope carbon and oxygen measurements on tooth enamel from African hominins, dated between 4.4 and 0.005 Ma. Zanadamu serves as a research tool for investigating hominin evolution by facilitating the examination of how different hominin species explored food resources and interacted with their local paleoenvironments. The dataset is structured in a machine-readable format, and its metadata organization allows for facile statistical analyses and comparisons with other types of isotopic records, including ancient and modern humans and other primates. Zanadamu is part of the AfriArch data initiative, which aims at compiling datasets for the study of ancient Africa. This an active initiative, and we strive to update Zanadamu as novel data becomes available.
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