A SEMIAUTOMATED IMAGE-ANALYSIS PROCEDURE FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF DENTAL MICROWEAR .2.

Paleontologists often examine microscopic scratches and pits that form on teeth for indications of the diets of past animals. Most researche rs count and measure scratches and pits from photomicrographs to ident ify microwear patterns for comparison among samples. This paper descri bes an affordable, available semiautomated image analysis procedure fo r microwear quantification. An image is downloaded from a scanning ele ctron microscope frame buffer to a microcomputer, and the user identif ies microwear features with a mouse-driven pointer. Microwear feature density, dimensions, and orientations are then computed and stored as ASCII files for subsequent data analysis.