Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-30-2019
Publication Title
South African Journal of Science
Volume
115
Issue
7/8
Publisher Name
Academy of Science of South Africa
Abstract
Previous research provides a method for reducing the subjectivity in taxonomic identification of species in the family Bovidae by quantifying the occlusal surface of molar teeth using elliptical Fourier analysis. In this current study, we specifically test what effect medium to late tooth wear has on the identification of bovids when using the form (size and shape) of the occlusal surface to classify specimens. To achieve this, the classification results of teeth with ≥85% of their occlusal surface (training data set) were compared with the results of teeth with <85% of their occlusal surface (test data set) due to wear. In the training data set, all tribes classified correctly >87% of the time with both Alcelaphini and Reduncini classifying correctly >90% of the time. The worn teeth in the test data set classified correctly at lower rates, but all tribes still collectively had a good classification accuracy (>60%) with classification of Alcelaphini and Tragelaphini at >75% and Reduncini at >65%. Hippotragini classified correctly 50% of the time and Neotragini 42%. The one worn Bovini tooth in the test data set was classified as that of a Hippotragini. The classification rates of teeth with medium to late wear were lower than the unworn teeth, but not so low as to suggest that this methodology for identifying bovid teeth is inappropriate for worn teeth, especially when supplementary to other methods.
Recommended Citation
Brophy, Juliet K.; Matthews, Gregory J.; and Thiruvathukal, George K.. An Analysis of the Effect of Tooth Wear on Bovid Identification. South African Journal of Science, 115, 7/8: , 2019. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, Mathematics and Statistics: Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/5496
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright Statement
© The Authors, 2019.
Comments
Author Posting © The Authors, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of The Authors for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in South African Journal of Science, Volume 115, Issue 7/8, July 2019, https://doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2019/5496