Estimating age and season of death of pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana Ord) by means of tooth eruption and wear

Age and season of death information for prey animals at archaeological site s can address issues such as season of site occupation and prey hunting or harvesting strategies. Unfortunately, adequate reference information for es timating age and season is lacking for many wild species, including prongho rn antelope. To address this problem, new methods of scoring tooth eruption and wear have been developed and have been applied to a sample of over 500 pronghorn mandibles to obtain improved eruption and wear schedules. One im plication of this study is that 'age class discreteness' provides a much la rger comparative sample than previously available, although larger known-ag e mandible samples are still needed for pronghorn and many other wild speci es.