Gutenberg Open Science: Post-mortem enamel surface texture alteration during taphonomic processes : do experimental approaches reflect natural phenomena?

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8183

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DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Weber, Katrin	-
dc.contributor.author	Winkler, Daniela E.	-
dc.contributor.author	Schulz-Kornas, Ellen	-
dc.contributor.author	Kaiser, Thomas M.	-
dc.contributor.author	Tütken, Thomas	-
dc.date.accessioned	2022-11-10T10:15:25Z	-
dc.date.available	2022-11-10T10:15:25Z	-
dc.date.issued	2022	-
dc.identifier.uri	https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8198	-
dc.description.abstract	Experimental approaches are often used to better understand the mechanisms behind and consequences of post-mortem alteration on proxies for diet reconstruction. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) is such a dietary proxy, using dental wear features in extant and extinct taxa to reconstruct feeding behaviour and mechanical food properties. In fossil specimens especially, DMTA can be biased by post-mortem alteration caused by mechanical or chemical alteration of the enamel surface. Here we performed three different dental surface alteration experiments to assess the effect of common taphonomic processes by simplifying them: (1) tumbling in sediment suspension to simulate fluvial transport, (2) sandblasting to simulate mechanical erosion due to aeolian sediment transport, (3) acid etching to simulate chemical dissolution by stomach acid. For tumbling (1) we found alteration to be mainly dependent on sediment grain size fraction and that on specimens tumbled with sand fractions mainly post-mortem scratches formed on the dental surface, while specimens tumbled with a fine-gravel fraction showed post-mortem formed dales. Sandblasting (2) with loess caused only negligible alteration, however blasting with fine sand quartz particles resulted in significant destruction of enamel surfaces and formation of large post-mortem dales. Acid etching (3) using diluted hydrochloric acid solutions in concentrations similar to that of predator stomachs led to a complete etching of the whole dental surface, which did not resemble those of teeth recovered from owl pellets. The experiments resulted in post-mortem alteration comparable, but not identical to naturally occurring post-mortem alteration features. Nevertheless, this study serves as a first assessment and step towards further, more refined taphonomic experiments evaluating post-mortem alteration of dental microwear texture (DMT).	en_GB
dc.description.sponsorship	Open Access-Publizieren Universität Mainz / Universitätsmedizin Mainz	de
dc.language.iso	eng	de
dc.rights	CC BY	*
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject.ddc	560 Paläontologie	de_DE
dc.subject.ddc	560 Paleontology	en_GB
dc.title	Post-mortem enamel surface texture alteration during taphonomic processes : do experimental approaches reflect natural phenomena?	en_GB
dc.type	Zeitschriftenaufsatz	de
dc.identifier.doi	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8183	-
jgu.type.contenttype	Scientific article	de
jgu.type.dinitype	article	en_GB
jgu.type.version	Published version	de
jgu.type.resource	Text	de
jgu.organisation.department	FB 09 Chemie, Pharmazie u. Geowissensch.	de
jgu.organisation.number	7950	-
jgu.organisation.name	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz	-
jgu.rights.accessrights	openAccess	-
jgu.journal.title	PeerJ	de
jgu.journal.volume	10	de
jgu.pages.alternative	e12635	de
jgu.publisher.year	2022	-
jgu.publisher.name	PeerJ, Inc	de
jgu.publisher.place	London	de
jgu.publisher.issn	2167-8359	de
jgu.organisation.place	Mainz	-
jgu.subject.ddccode	560	de
jgu.publisher.doi	10.7717/peerj.12635	de
jgu.organisation.ror	https://ror.org/023b0x485	-
Appears in collections:	JGU-Publikationen

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