Computed Tomography as a Method for Age Determination of Carnivora and Odontocetes with Validation from Individuals with Known Age

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 4.27 MB, PDF document

  • Sina Baier-Stegmaier
  • Carsten Gundlach
  • Mariann Chriél
  • Hansen, Mette Sif
  • Christina Vedel-Smith
  • Charlotte Vikkelsø Hansen
  • Daniel Klingberg Johansson
  • Louise Birgitte Henriksen
  • Magnus Wahlberg
  • Charlotte Bie Thøstesen
  • Aage Kristian Olsen Alstrup
  • Kristian Murphy Gregersen
  • Cino Pertoldi
  • Sussie Pagh

Traditional methods for age determination of wildlife include either slicing thin sections off or grinding a tooth, both of which are laborious and invasive. Especially when it comes to ancient and valuable museum samples of rare or extinct species, non-invasive methods are preferable. In this study, X-ray micro-computed tomography (µ-CT) was verified as an alternative non-invasive method for age determination of three species within the order of Carnivora and suborders Odontoceti. Teeth from 13 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 2 American mink (Neogale vison), and 2 harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) of known age were studied using µ-CT. The number of visible dental growth layers in the µ-CT were highly correlated with true age for all three species (R2 = 96%, p < 0.001). In addition, the Bland–Altman plot showed high agreement between the age of individuals and visible dental layers represented in 2D slices of the 3D µ-CT images. The true age of individuals was on average 0.3 (±0.6 SD) years higher than the age interpreted by the µ-CT image, and there was a 95% agreement between the true age and the age interpreted from visible dental layers in the µ-CT.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1783
JournalAnimals
Volume13
Issue number11
ISSN2076-2615
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

    Research areas

  • American mink, carnivore age, computed tomography, harbor porpoise, micro-CT, museum collections, Neogale vison, Phocoena phocoena, red fox, toothed whale age, Vulpes vulpes, X-ray, µ-CT

ID: 357847240