Application of artificially intelligent systems for the identification of discrete fossiliferous levels

• Main Authors: David M. Martín-Perea, Lloyd A. Courtenay, M. Soledad Domingo, Jorge Morales
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: PeerJ Inc. 2020-03-01
• Series: PeerJ
• Subjects: Machine Learning; Archaeological site; Palaeontological site; Spatial data; Archaeostratigraphy; Palaeostratigraphy
• Online Access: https://peerj.com/articles/8767.pdf

The separation of discrete fossiliferous levels within an archaeological or paleontological site with no clear stratigraphic horizons has historically been carried out using qualitative approaches, relying on two-dimensional transversal and longitudinal projection planes. Analyses of this type, however, can often be conditioned by subjectivity based on the perspective of the analyst. This study presents a novel use of Machine Learning algorithms for pattern recognition techniques in the automated separation and identification of fossiliferous levels. This approach can be divided into three main steps including: (1) unsupervised Machine Learning for density based clustering (2) expert-in-the-loop Collaborative Intelligence Learning for the integration of geological data followed by (3) supervised learning for the final fine-tuning of fossiliferous level models. For evaluation of these techniques, this method was tested in two Late Miocene sites of the Batallones Butte paleontological complex (Madrid, Spain). Here we show Machine Learning analyses to be a valuable tool for the processing of spatial data in an efficient and quantitative manner, successfully identifying the presence of discrete fossiliferous levels in both Batallones-3 and Batallones-10. Three discrete fossiliferous levels have been identified in Batallones-3, whereas another three have been differentiated in Batallones-10.