Nicholas Rodgers
Research Mentor: Miriam Zelditch
Mentor Department: University of Michigan, LSA
Author(s): Nicholas Rodgers, Donald Swiderski, Miriam Zelditch
Session: Session 5 (2:00 PM – 2:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 100
Abstract
Given the relatively incomplete picture of squirrel tooth morphology, particularly pertaining to unexpected conservation therein, this study attempts to assess the extent to which occlusal surface morphology of various species is explained by ecology. Several hypotheses were assessed about the evolution of squirrel tooth shape and the effects of numerous factors such as diet. The lower occlusal surfaces of the teeth of ~1000 squirrel specimens were imaged using a slightly-offset two-camera setup and then the resulting parallax was exploited to evaluate the location of relevant anatomical landmarks in 3D space. The squirrel specimens represented both large intraspecific and interspecific groups. Upon the extraction of their 3D coordinates, these occlusal surfaces were analyzed using statistical methods in the context of other known traits recorded by their respective museums, such as size, diet, climate, etc. These analyses have yet to be performed, and accordingly, results are yet to be obtained.
