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Identifying the Impact of Soil Ingestion on Dental Microwear Textures Using a Wild Boar Experimental Model

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Abstract

Dental microwear has been widely used to reconstruct mammals’ past diet and to understand their dental evolution. In archaeology, it can help reconstruct anthropogenic herd-feeding systems. However, deciphering the impact of exogenous mineral particles on dental wear is an ongoing challenge since studies have shown that soil ingestion can generates microwear traces that interfere with the dietary signals. To bridge this gap, this study relies on the first large-scale controlled-food experiment on wild boars (Sus scrofa) to test how soil ingestion can affect the dietary signal recorded in dental microwear. It provides the opportunity to investigate the impact of natural soil ingestion over microwear traces by comparing penned boars that were able to root with stalled boars that were not. We performed 3D Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) on 22 controlled-fed boars kept captive either in an indoor stall with no soil ingestion, or in a wooded pen with natural soil ingestion. We analysed shearing and crushing facets on upper and lower first and second molars using standard texture parameters. We also conducted particle size distribution analyses of the ingested soil. In line with previous works, the consumption of exogenous abrasives in rooting boars leads to less rough, less complex and more anisotropic wear surfaces than in stall-fed boars, even though they received the same diet. Thus, we highly recommend studying DMT when investigating ancient pig husbandry systems, particularly local changes in food management. Overall, this study contributes to a better comprehension of how exogenous abrasives impact DMT among mammals.

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Acknowledgements

We are most grateful to the staff of the Réserve Zoologique de la Haute-Touche (C. Audureau, J. Bernard, C. Jubert, S. Laloux, E. Marechal, R. Rabier, P. Roux, and C. Vion) for their help during the setup of the experimental structures and the care they provided to the experimental specimens. Without their dedication and expertise, this research project would not have been possible. We warmly thank G. Merceron for our discussions and his valuable advices on the study and on the manuscript. We also thank A.E.C. Walker (PALEVOPRIM) and C. Jubert for their enthusiastic help in collecting the soil samples, as well as G. Reynaud and L. Painault (PALEVOPRIM) for administrative guidance. This study was funded by the ANR project Domexp (ANR-13-JSH3-0003-01, French Agency for Research). M. Louail was funded by the ALIHOM project (project n◦210389, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France) and the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur, de la Recherche et de l’Innovation (France). We thank the three anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved the initial version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. PALEVOPRIM, UMR 7262 CNRS & Université de Poitiers, 86073, Poitiers Cedex 9, France

    Margot Louail & Dimitri Neaux

  2. UMR CNRS 7285 IC2MP, HydrASA, Université de Poitiers, 86073, Poitiers Cedex 9, France

    Laurent Caner

  3. AASPE, UMR 7209 Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle & CNRS, 75005, Paris, France

    Dimitri Neaux & Thomas Cucchi

  4. Réserve Zoologique de La Haute-Touche, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Obterre, France

    Katia Ortiz & Yann Locatelli

  5. Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle CNRS UPMC EPHE UA, Paris, France

    Katia Ortiz

  6. Physiologie de La Reproduction Et Des Comportements, UMR 7247, INRAE CNRS Université de Tours IFCE, Nouzilly, France

    Yann Locatelli

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  1. Margot Louail
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Correspondence to Margot Louail.

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Louail, M., Caner, L., Neaux, D. et al. Identifying the Impact of Soil Ingestion on Dental Microwear Textures Using a Wild Boar Experimental Model. J Archaeol Method Theory 30, 855–875 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-022-09574-6

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