A multidisciplinary academic journal supervised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-sponsored by the CAS and the National Natural Science Foundation of China shows that AI is a highly effective tool to know which species of extinct carnivores acted on the fossil bones found at paleontological sites. The paper published in Science Bulletin focused on the site of Venta Micena, Orce, Spain.
The archaeological zone known as ‘Cuenca de Orce’ is located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in the province of Granada in Spain. It is included in the Guadix Baza Basin, one of the areas with the greatest archeo-paleontological potential of the Early Pleistocene, together with the Nihewan Basin (China). Among the species found in Orce were herbivores and carnivores.
Experts state that one of the characteristics of certain carnivores is that during the process of consuming the carcasses they feed, accidentally leave tooth marks. The more present these will be, the more the carnivores try to finish the meat.
For the first time in history, the tooth marks of an extinct carnivore can be characterized by using a robust computational protocol based on 3D Geometric Morphometrics and AI. Using Deep Learning, computers are taught to learn. AI is used to understand the tooth marks of current species and to find which of them most resemble those found at the Venta Micena site. According to Lloyd Courtenay, one of the lead authors of the research, “Machine Learning involves complex mathematical calculations and a high degree of programming knowledge. But big claims require Big Data and this cutting-edge technology”.
Source: indiaai.gov.in
