Brian P. Murphy

Subjectivity of tooth wear and replacement (i.e., Severinghaus technique) for estimating ages of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is sometimes questioned. To further quantify Severinghaus's description of tooth wear, we used digital photographs and computer-assisted technologies to measure dentine and enamel widths on molars of 67 wild, known-aged deer from South Carolina. Accurate measurements of dentine: enamel ratios did not clearly separate 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5-year-old deer because of excessive variability within age classes. Therefore, we used K-nearest neighbor [KNN] analysis...