TY - JOUR
T1 - Dental microwear texture analysis
T2 - technical considerations
AU - Scott, Robert S.
AU - Ungar, Peter S.
AU - Bergstrom, Torbjorn S.
AU - Brown, Christopher A.
AU - Childs, Benjamin E.
AU - Teaford, Mark F.
AU - Walker, Alan
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the curators of the U.S. National Museum of Natural History and the Tappen Collection at the University of Minnesota. This project was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Copyright:
Copyright 2016 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006/10
Y1 - 2006/10
N2 - Dental microwear analysis is commonly used to infer aspects of diet in extinct primates. Conventional methods of microwear analysis have usually been limited to two-dimensional imaging studies using a scanning electron microscope and the identification of apparent individual features. These methods have proved time-consuming and prone to subjectivity and observer error. Here we describe a new methodological approach to microwear: dental microwear texture analysis, based on three-dimensional surface measurements taken using white-light confocal microscopy and scale-sensitive fractal analysis. Surface parameters for complexity, scale of maximum complexity, anisotropy, heterogeneity, and textural fill volume offer repeatable, quantitative characterizations of three-dimensional surfaces, free of observer measurement error. Some results are presented to illustrate how these parameters distinguish extant primates with different diets. In this case, microwear surfaces of Cebus apella and Lophocebus albigena, which consume some harder food items, have higher average values for complexity than do folivores or soft fruit eaters.
AB - Dental microwear analysis is commonly used to infer aspects of diet in extinct primates. Conventional methods of microwear analysis have usually been limited to two-dimensional imaging studies using a scanning electron microscope and the identification of apparent individual features. These methods have proved time-consuming and prone to subjectivity and observer error. Here we describe a new methodological approach to microwear: dental microwear texture analysis, based on three-dimensional surface measurements taken using white-light confocal microscopy and scale-sensitive fractal analysis. Surface parameters for complexity, scale of maximum complexity, anisotropy, heterogeneity, and textural fill volume offer repeatable, quantitative characterizations of three-dimensional surfaces, free of observer measurement error. Some results are presented to illustrate how these parameters distinguish extant primates with different diets. In this case, microwear surfaces of Cebus apella and Lophocebus albigena, which consume some harder food items, have higher average values for complexity than do folivores or soft fruit eaters.
KW - Diet
KW - Microwear
KW - Scale-sensitive fractal analysis
KW - Texture
KW - White-light confocal microscope
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.04.006
DO - 10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.04.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 16908052
AN - SCOPUS:33749059392
SN - 0047-2484
VL - 51
SP - 339
EP - 349
JO - Journal of Human Evolution
JF - Journal of Human Evolution
IS - 4
ER -