Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA): Paleodietary and Paleoecological Aspects

Summary

Microwear is based on the correlation between function, form, and behavior. 3D Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (3D-DMTA) combines the use of high-resolution white light scanning confocal microscope (Sensofar) with the analysis of the data using scale-sensitive fractal analysis (Sfrax, Surfract, www.surfract.com) for a new analytical tool to study dental microwear texture patterns. This method allows for statistical characterization of dental microwear features and resulted in the reduction of inter and intra observer variability, increased accuracy, and repeatability of the results. It has been demonstrated that 3D- DMTA has the potential to distinguish among diets of species that inhabit different habitats such as primates, bovids, and carnivores and it allows for a more refine distinction of diet that the distributions of pits and scratches size, commonly used in two-dimensional studies. Recently, novel research has focused on applying 3D-DMTA on micromammal (mammals smaller than 3 kg live weight). Despite the ubiquity and high quantities in archaeological sites, micromammals were not been readily studied using 3D-DMTA. Here we present a review of the use of 3D-DMTA in paleodietary and paleoecological studies in large mammals and the novel use of 3D-DMTA in micromammals as paleoecological indicators and suggest new directions for future studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Exploring the Microscale: Advances and Novel Applications of Microscopy for Archaeological Materials

Keywords