The timing, cause, and magnitude of mammalian extinctions during the African Middle Pleistocene remain largely unresolved. The demise of Elephas/Palaeoloxodon recki, a lineage that had a great geographic and temporal span, represents a particularly enigmatic case of megafaunal extinction. Previous studies of Early Pleistocene fossil material have proposed that this lineage was a strict C₄-grazer, with its dietary specialization causing its extinction during a period of climatic instability that coincided with the Late Acheulean. Others have associated its disappearance with overhunting by hominins during the same period. We contribute to this debate by analyzing carbon and oxygen isotope data from the tooth enamel of late Early and Middle Pleistocene Palaeoloxodon specimens from various localities in the Afar Rift. To contextualize the isotopic data of Palaeoloxodon within its broader ecosystem, we also provide data from non-elephant species. Carbon isotope values indicate that while C₄ plants dominated diets, varying amounts of C₃ vegetation were also consumed throughout this period. Oxygen isotope values reflect an initial focus on stable water sources that were later broadened to include transient sources. Serially sampled teeth of P. cf. recki recki from Late Acheulean contexts in the Megenta research area show no significant seasonal shifts in δ¹³C or δ¹⁸O values, even during a period of heightened climatic instability regionally. Taken together, our results suggest that Palaeoloxodon was capable of flexibility in diet and drinking habits which belies its morphological specializations. Our results do not support the idea that an inability to adapt to climatic instability caused the extinction of P. recki recki during the Late Acheulean. There is also currently no solid evidence that hominin hunting activities were the cause. However, we cannot discount the potential cumulative impact of climatic-induced environmental pressures and advancements in hominin hunting technologies during the early Middle Stone Age on the eventual extinction of the Palaeoloxodon lineage during the Middle–Late Pleistocene interface.

Analyses of dental microwear and mesowear shed light on dietary ecology in extinct species and contribute to paleoenvironmental reconstructions. Interpreting dietary signals in extinct taxa requires calibration with data from extant species. In taxa with high dietary plasticity, collecting baseline data is complicated by potential dietary variation across space. We assembled a dataset of over 100 springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) samples to test whether dental microwear and mesowear vary intraspecifically across biomes. We compared dental wear in Pleistocene Antidorcas specimens to our modern dataset and simulated random sampling to test how dietary interpretations change with sampling strategy. We find that microwear and mesowear vary across and within biomes: fynbos microwear suggests more browse consumption, grassland microwear is consistent with more grass consumption, and savanna specimens show high variability in dental microwear, which is partially explained by ecoregion. Savanna specimens show the most wear in mesowear analysis. Dietary interpretations differ by biome, with some samples showing primarily a browser/frugivore signal and others a more ambiguous signal. Random subsampling produces similar results, with most subsamples consistent with browsers/frugivores, and many subsamples also consistent with browser-grazers/generalists. Fossil specimens share microwear patterns with the fynbos sample. Our results reveal that dietary signals in mixed feeders can vary intraspecifically within and between biomes, emphasizing the importance of diverse reference collections and careful subsampling strategies. Mixed-feeding species are valuable sources of palaeoecological data, providing insights into vegetation composition and environmental conditions via their realized diets, as inferred by dental microwear and mesowear analyses.