Dental tissue proportions and enamel thickness in Rangifer tarandus: testing the potential of intra-tooth measurements for identifying subspecies

• Main Author: Valentini, Marco
• Other Authors: De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie (PACEA), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université de Bordeaux, ANR-18-CE03-0007,DeerPal,Groupes humains et cervidés au Paléolithique: intégrer la variabilité de l'écologie et de l'éthologie des proies dans l'étude des interactions homme-environnement dans le passé(2018)
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: Dental tissue proportions; enamel thickness; palaeoecology; reindeer; Palaeolithic; Master 2 thesis; [SHS.ARCHEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Archaeology and Prehistory; Canada; Norway; Renne; Rangifer tarandus; renne
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03911589

The remains found in a large number of archaeological sites attest to the essential role that the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) had in the economic system of European hunter-gatherer societies during several periods of the Palaeolithic. When examining present-day Rangifer populations, a great deal of variability between different subspecies can be observed in terms of ecology, genetics, behaviour and morphology. However, very little information is known to date about the past ecological plasticity of this species, and how its ethological traits might have influenced the hunting dynamics of prehistoric human groups.Within the framework of the DeerPal project, we have attempted to access this information by studying the internal tooth morphology. Indeed, the study of the of dental tissues proportions and enamel thickness has already provided numerous results allowing the study of taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships, and a better understanding of adaptive strategies in extinct and present-day primates. However, to our knowledge, these parameters are little or not studied in other taxa. In this work, we have, for the first time, explored the information contained within the molars of two present-day Rangifer populations, one from Canada and the other from Norway, by studying the proportions of dental tissues in two (2D) and three (3D) dimensions. The results show differences in the 3D data between the two populations and, to a lesser extent, between the sexes within the same population, which could result from the adaptative response to possible ecological constraints. Additional samples andmethodological developments on the 2D protocol will be added before applying this method to fossil samples. Les restes trouvés dans un grand nombre de sites archéologiques attestent du rôle essentiel que le renne (Rangifer tarandus) avait dans le système économique des sociétés de chasseurs-cueilleurs européenes, lors de plusieurs périodes du Paléolithique. En examinant les populations actuelles de Rangifer, une ...