Fiona, I'm in NZ at the moment and thus far from comparative material.
Bear is reasonable suggestion and often variable, especially the smaller
black bear. You can get variability in the roots, so I would not go too
much by that; roots can be fused together. Secondly, you should check
mustelids, if nobody has previously suggested that to you. There were
whopping big "noble martens" in Ireland, and/or badgers that could be as
big as dogs (though not as big as a bear).
As to why your camera focuses on the wrong thing: the automatic focus
mechanism in most digital cameras is highly sensitive to gridlines. I
learned this when trying to shoot pictures of horses grazing in fields: my
own eye may have ignored the wire fence, but the camera's never did! So
the fence would come out in perfect crisp focus while the horse behind it
would be fuzzy.
To defeat this, you can do two things: either shoot on black velvet or
else gray paper that has no background lines; or else look in the camera's
operation manual and find out how to bypass the auto-focus. With the
camera set this way, you'll be focusing manually. It helps then if your
camera has a bigger-sized viewscreen, and you will be well advised to
check each picture in "review" mode, because you still may need to shoot
two or three times before you get one that's just right.
You'll also find out that setting the camera to manual focus makes
shooting in a museum (where the museum permits photography) far easier as
well -- the electric eye will often "see" the glass but not see through
the glass to the thing you're trying to image. Or ditto at the zoo: your
consciousness sees the monkey in the cage but the camera will inevitably
only see the cage, until you disable the blinkin' thing.-- Dr. Deb
> Hi folks,
> Sorry the pictures are a bit out of focus - for some reason the camera
> decided to focus on the paper not the teeth! I will try again tomorrow
> (without the dog tooth) - I think the camera decided to focus on the space
> between the two teeth. I am out of the office today and not able to get
> to the bones or a camera.
>
> Bear - this has been suggested a couple of times now and yes, Ireland did
> have bears in the prehistoric.
> Pig - It is a bit like maxillary deciduous dp2 and dp3, but it is very big
> - about twice the size of my domestic piglet, but mine is more worn than
> this so it is hard to tell, but I think the mystery tooth is more curved
> on the convex face than for pig - if it is pig it would have to be wild.
> Seal - Could be? The site is 1.5km from the sea.
> As Sheila said, the roots are very straight - not splayed out.
>
> Anyway, I will have another go with the camera and hopefully someone will
> have a brainwave.
> Thank you all
> Fiona
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: fiona beglane
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 2:42 PM
> Subject: [ZOOARCH] Help with a tooth
>
> Hello Zooarchers,
> See the link below for images of a tooth I am having problems with. I
> would be very grateful for any help - it is quite possible that I am being
> dense and this is blindingly obvious.
>
> http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/icazForum/viewtopic.php?t=1093
>
> All the best and thanks in advance
>
> Fiona
>
>
>
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