Dear Zooarchers;

I am recently attempting to develop a geometric morphometric method (GMM) aiming to separate the molar of different domestic equids (i.e. donkeys, horses, and mules, hinnies should be included, but they are extremely rare.). As a pilot attempt, I have used the V-shaped and U-shaped criteria, as well as the level of buccal fold penetration to test the potential. Both works well, however, I only used 5 horses and 9 donkeys for this pilot attempt. (I have also used 38 E. hydruntis, but they didn’t display any meaningful pattern.)

In order to take this method further, I hope to increase the sample size significantly. And this is where I need help from everyone. The advantage of GMM is that the analysis is mainly based on images, instead of physical measurements. As long as the photo/image has a scale, the measurements can be calculated using computer software. Therefore if you have pictures/image of equids of known species with a scale (for mules, it will be great to known the parent species as well), I will be really grateful if you can allow me to use them for developing this method. I am open to all domestic equids, but only need first or second lower molars at this stage. The image will need to include a scale of some sort (a ruler, a penny, things with universal measurement), so I can calibrate the scale using software.

There are two ways that you can provide your image(s).

1.      1. Through direct e-mail. It’s very straight forward, and I think I still have enough space in my gmail account.

2.      2. Upload to my Dropbox using this online form: ( http://www.jotformeu.com/rc7g10/GMMforEquids ). By using this form, you don’t need to give me any personal information if you don’t want to, and the file allowance will be much bigger than using e-mail (as long as it’s less than 300MB). Multiple files allowed (by pressing ctrl key when you click on the selecting file).

All uploaded from (using the form) can be viewed in this shared Dropbox folder:

https://www.dropbox.com/l/xFIzwW1VRctqSHEBJO8F3s

So you can check if your files have been uploaded correctly. (please let me know if any of these links didn’t work)

I have provided a little bit extra information on this project in this shared folder, and hopefully will be updated once more samples are collected.

Thank you all for your time, and hope that there will be enough samples to develop a new method.

It’s a bit early, but wish you all a happy new year!

Best wishes, 

Richard Chuang

PhD Student, Department of Archaeology

University of Southampton