The evidence of fossil carbon isotopes of the climatic event at the beginning of Quaternary

Tooth enamel of mammalian fossils can efficiently preserve the original carbon isotopic mposition when they lived. The ungulate fossils, especially equids in the early Early Pleistocene Bajiazui fauna from Qingyang, Gansu are studied. According to the enriched relation of carbon isotopes between mammalian tooth enamel and grass diets, the fractions of C₃ and C₄ plants in this region at that time are reconstructed, which indicates that C₃ grass occupied a dominant position. Because C₃ grass adapts itself to cold and clamp climates, cur analytic results show that the time of the Bajiazui fauna was in a critical state between a glacial stage beginning and a summer monsoon retreat, and it was a reflection to the turning cold event of the global climate at the beginning of the Quaternary.