A desert migration indicator - oxygen isotopic composition of land snail shells

Mordeckai Magaritz*, Joseph Heller

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Scopus citations

Abstract

The oxygen isotopic compositions of land snail shell carbonate may be used as environmental indicators. A study of a single species, Levantina caesareana, shows that modern snails from an arid zone (less than 300 mm rain) are enriched in 18O by 2‰ compared to the snail carbonate from a moderate climate zone. These measurements combined with those of the mean diameter of the shell are indicative of the climatic zone in which the snail lives. A comparison of the data on ancient populations with those on the modern one shows that the desert migrated northward in the early Holocene in Israel.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)153-162
Number of pages10
JournalPalaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Volume32
Issue numberC
DOIs
StatePublished - 1980
Externally publishedYes

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