Dental microwear texture analysis: technical considerations

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of human evolution 2006-10, Vol.51 (4), p.339-349
Main Authors: Scott, Robert S., Ungar, Peter S., Bergstrom, Torbjorn S., Brown, Christopher A., Childs, Benjamin E., Teaford, Mark F., Walker, Alan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alouattinae
Animals
Anisotropy
Cebidae
Cebus apella
Cercopithecinae
Diet
Environmental studies
Fauna
Fractals
Human biology
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Lophocebus albigena
Methodology and general studies
Microscopy, Confocal - methods
Microwear
Paleodontology - methods
Prehistory and protohistory
Primates
Scale-sensitive fractal analysis
Teeth
Texture
Tooth - pathology
Tooth Attrition
White-light confocal microscope
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0047-2484
1095-8606
DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2006.04.006