Dental Microwear Textures of Modern Pigs from the Geophagy Hypothesis Experimentation

Read me - Dental Microwear Textures of Modern Pigs from the Geophagy Hypothesis Experimentation Margot LOUAIL and Gildas MERCERON This dataset contains dental microwear surfaces on crushing (f9, f10, f12, f13) and shearing (f1, f3, f4) facets on upper decidual premolars either right (dex) or left (sen) of controlled fed pigs at the GenESI Station at the Lusignan-Rouillé INRAe station, Nouvelle Aquitaine, France. Details are given in Louail et al. (2025). Here are provided three different files for each specimen: • Plu files: these files are the raw data extracted from the Leica DCM8 “Trident” stored at the PALEVOPRIM lab. Plµx files are also provided. • Mnt files: these files include all pre-treatments ran on the Plu files. We batch-applied with a template on the Plu files. In a few cases, we adjusted the settings manually. All changes were saved in the mnt. • Sur files: these files are the final studiables issued the mnt files. This is the data on which we can extract texture parameters. A template is provided: • Zinv200+ 100: this template is applied on the plux files obtained from dental molds, meaning the plux reproduces an inversed relief of the dental texture. A Z inverse operator is included in the template. 200 makes reference to the extraction of a 200x200 µm area and 100 to a 100x100 µm area on which analysis are run. PDF version of the template is provided so one could generate the very same procedures using open free software. Each facet was scanned using “TRIDENT”, a Leica DCM8 (Leica Microsystem) white light confocal profilometer housed at the PALEVOPRIM lab (CNRS and University of Poitiers; numerical aperture: 0.90; working distance: 0.9 mm; Leica Microsystems). Scanned surfaces were pre-treated under LeicaMap v. 8.0 (Leica Microsystems, Mountain technology; see Merceron et al., 2016 including SI for more details). A 200 × 200 μm (1551 × 1551 pixels) leveled area was generated from each surface and used for Dental Microwear Texture Analysis. Louail, M., Souron, A., Ferchaud, S., Merceron, G., 2025. Controlled and natural geophagy: how mineral particle consumption impacts dental microwear textures in pigs. Journal of Archeological Method and Theory Merceron, G., Ramdarshan, A., Blondel, C., Boisserie, J. R., Brunetiere, N., Francisco, A., ... & Pret, D. (2016). Untangling the environmental from the dietary: dust does not matter. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1838), 20161032. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2016.1032