Judging a reindeer by its teeth: A user-friendly tooth wear and eruption pattern recording scheme to estimate age-at-death in reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)

Abstract

Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) have shaped the cultures and provided livelihood to peoples of the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years. They are still the socio-economic cornerstone of many northern cultures. Insight into reindeer mortality patterns is important for understanding past human–reindeer interactions and reindeer population fluctuations in relation to climatic and environmental change. Beyond archaeology, assessing the age structures of modern reindeer populations is important for developing wildlife management strategies. This paper presents a quick, non-destructive and cheap method to estimate age in reindeer in both modern and ancient populations based on tooth wear and eruption patterns of mandibular teeth. We devised the method using a large sample of Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) of known age. We blind-tested the method and tested its applicability on another known-age Svalbard reindeer mandible assemblage. The tests demonstrate our methods' user-friendliness and reliability to generate reproducible, reusable datasets and accuracy in estimating reindeer age-at-death.