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Cementum deposits on mammalian teeth contain layered microstructures associated with the chronological age of an animal and other details of their life history. Hard X-ray tomography data captured this record contained within the cementum deposits from whole teeth without sectioning. We investigated three teeth of African bovids, namely gemsbok (Oryx gazella), eland (Taurotragus oryx), and African or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) using the laboratorybased system nanotom m for measuring each complete tooth to identify relevant regions, which were scanned at the ANATOMIX beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL, France. Using microtomography in archaeological materials such as teeth, eliminates the need for tooth sectioning, making it a desirable alternative for archaeologists and museum curators. Synchrotron measurements enabled the application of pixel sizes as low as 0.65µm, which generated around 40 TB of data. The three adult bovids investigated here, have a known day of death and season of death, and come from regions with distinct seasonal patterns in temperature and/or rainfall. They also have an estimated age at death based on occlusal wear. The known information serves as a control to determine the applicability of microtomography on whole teeth of large bovids. Preliminary results show that microtomography can successfully replace the need of sectioning in cementum dental analysis. Our future goal is to develop a protocol to standardize procedures of tooth cementum analysis in bovids using microtomography.
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