Designing a common protocol to combine various analyses on the same teeth: the example of the DeerPal project

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DeerPal is a multi-disciplinary project that seeks to acquire new knowledge on the (palaeo)ecology of cervids facing climate changes, and increase our understanding of how human societies coped with these changes in the past. To achieve its objectives and better describe the past ecology and ethology of prey communities, members of the DeerPal project have tested the large-scale and simultaneous application of several analytical techniques on the same specimens: lower teeth and mandibular fragments of reindeer and red deer. Combining dental microwear texture analysis, stable isotopic studies, cementochronology, geometric morphometrics, analysis of internal structures, paleogenomics and radiocarbon dating on the same remains raised a variety of practical issues, notably when destructive sampling is involved. After several attempts, a “step-by-step” protocol was thus designed to facilitate inter-proxy comparisons.