MicroWeaR : A new R package for dental microwear analysis
Strani, Flavia (Universidad de Zaragoza. Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra)
Profico, Antonio (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale)
Manzi, Giorgio (Sapienza Università di Roma. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale)
Pushkina, Diana (University of Helsinki. Department of Geosciences and Geography)
Raia, Pasquale (Università di Napoli, Federico II. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra)
Sardella, Raffaele (Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana)
De Miguel, Daniel (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)

Date:	2018
Abstract:	Mastication of dietary items with different mechanical properties leaves distinctive microscopic marks on the surface of tooth enamel. The inspection of such marks (dental microwear analysis) is informative about the dietary habitus in fossil as well as in modern species. Dental microwear analysis relies on the morphology, abundance, direction, and distribution of these microscopic marks. We present a new freely available software implementation, MicroWeaR, that, compared to traditional dental microwear tools, allows more rapid, observer error free, and inexpensive quantification and classification of all the microscopic marks (also including for the first time different subtypes of scars). Classification parameters and graphical rendering of the output are fully settable by the user. MicroWeaR includes functions to (a) sample the marks, (b) classify features into categories as pits or scratches and then into their respective subcategories (large pits, coarse scratches, etc. ), (c) generate an output table with summary information, and (d) obtain a visual surface-map where marks are highlighted. We provide a tutorial to reproduce the steps required to perform microwear analysis and to test tool functionalities. Then, we present two case studies to illustrate how MicroWeaR works. The first regards a Miocene great ape obtained from through environmental scanning electron microscope, and other a Pleistocene cervid acquired by a stereomicroscope.
Grants:	Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CGL2016-76431-P
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Diet reconstruction ; Open-source software ; Paleoecology ; R package ; Tooth microwear
Published in:	Ecology and evolution, Vol. 8, Issue 14 (July 2018) , p. 7022-7030, ISSN 2045-7758

DOI: 10.1002/ece3.4222
PMID: 30073064

9 p, 1.1 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles