Interactive comment on “Chemical composition of modern and fossil Hippopotamid teeth and implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions and enamel formation – Part 2: Alkaline earth elements as tracers of watershed hydrochemistry and provenance” by G. Brügmann

in view of using them as markers of environmental changes. It concludes that two elements preserved in fossil hippo enamel, Ba and Sr, are reliable, interesting sources of data for documenting environmental conditions and trends, given the moderate effect of diagenetic processes and the lack of physiological control of their internal concentrations. To a lesser extant, Mg could be also somewhat useful in some conditions. The work presents also other interesting results and further tracks of investigations: some enlightening of the process of amelogenesis and the environmental evolution that occurred during the late Neogene in the western Branch of the Eastern Africa Rift System. The analyses are properly documented. The effects of diagenesis are investigated and discussed. The discussion is thorough. The results of the study have in my opinion significant implications for a diverse array of methods and indicate that the method could be suitable to obtain novel data on environmental evolution in various African basins with important Cenozoic fossil records. To this extent, the paper appeared quite convincing to me. However, with regard to the biology of the group used in this study, the Hippopotamidae, the authors somewhat overlooked some details that may potentially alter their results (see below), and tended to make statements without citing the available literature. In addition, there should be room to present a bit more of the sampling procedures and to further investigate intra-individual variations.