Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.

Dental topography is a widely used method for quantifying dental morphology and inferring dietary ecology in animals. Differences in methodology have brought into question the comparability of different studies. Using primate mandibular second molars, we investigated the effects of mesh preparation...

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Main Authors: Michael A Berthaume, Julia Winchester, Kornelius Kupczik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216229
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spelling doaj-bf2ec35f85e94eaa8f329511397b52e82021-03-03T20:41:56ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01145e021622910.1371/journal.pone.0216229Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.Michael A BerthaumeJulia WinchesterKornelius KupczikDental topography is a widely used method for quantifying dental morphology and inferring dietary ecology in animals. Differences in methodology have brought into question the comparability of different studies. Using primate mandibular second molars, we investigated the effects of mesh preparation parameters smoothing, cropping, and triangle count/mesh resolution (herein, resolution) on six topographic variables (Dirichlet normal energy, DNE; orientation patch count rotated, OPCR; relief index, RFI; ambient occlusion, portion de ciel visible, PCV; enamel surface area, SA; tooth size) to determine the effects of smoothing, cropping, and triangle count/resolution on topographic values and the relationship between these values and diet. All topographic metrics are sensitive to smoothing, cropping method, and triangle count/resolution. In general, smoothing decreased DNE, OPCR, RFI, and SA, increased PCV, and had no predictable effect on tooth size. Relative to the basin cut off (BCO) cropping method, the entire enamel cap (EEC) method increased RFI, SA, and size, and had no predictable effect on DNE and OPCR. Smoothing and cropping affected DNE/OPCR and surfaces with low triangle counts more than other metrics and surfaces with high triangle counts. There was a positive correlation between DNE/OPCR and triangle count/resolution, and the rate of increase was weakly correlated to diet. PCV tended to converge or decrease with increases in triangle count/resolution, and RFI, SA, and size converged. Finally, there appears to be no optimal triangle count or resolution for predicting diet from this sample, and constant triangle count appeared to perform better than constant resolution for predicting diet.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216229
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Michael A Berthaume
Julia Winchester
Kornelius Kupczik
spellingShingle Michael A Berthaume
Julia Winchester
Kornelius Kupczik
Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Michael A Berthaume
Julia Winchester
Kornelius Kupczik
author_sort Michael A Berthaume
title Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
title_short Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
title_full Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
title_fullStr Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
title_full_unstemmed Effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
title_sort effects of cropping, smoothing, triangle count, and mesh resolution on 6 dental topographic metrics.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2019-01-01
description Dental topography is a widely used method for quantifying dental morphology and inferring dietary ecology in animals. Differences in methodology have brought into question the comparability of different studies. Using primate mandibular second molars, we investigated the effects of mesh preparation parameters smoothing, cropping, and triangle count/mesh resolution (herein, resolution) on six topographic variables (Dirichlet normal energy, DNE; orientation patch count rotated, OPCR; relief index, RFI; ambient occlusion, portion de ciel visible, PCV; enamel surface area, SA; tooth size) to determine the effects of smoothing, cropping, and triangle count/resolution on topographic values and the relationship between these values and diet. All topographic metrics are sensitive to smoothing, cropping method, and triangle count/resolution. In general, smoothing decreased DNE, OPCR, RFI, and SA, increased PCV, and had no predictable effect on tooth size. Relative to the basin cut off (BCO) cropping method, the entire enamel cap (EEC) method increased RFI, SA, and size, and had no predictable effect on DNE and OPCR. Smoothing and cropping affected DNE/OPCR and surfaces with low triangle counts more than other metrics and surfaces with high triangle counts. There was a positive correlation between DNE/OPCR and triangle count/resolution, and the rate of increase was weakly correlated to diet. PCV tended to converge or decrease with increases in triangle count/resolution, and RFI, SA, and size converged. Finally, there appears to be no optimal triangle count or resolution for predicting diet from this sample, and constant triangle count appeared to perform better than constant resolution for predicting diet.
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216229
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