Hartebeest, Alcelaphus buselaphus (Adult, Female, Maxilla, Occlusal view ). Photograph courtesy of Zelalem Assefa, Smithsonian Institution, Archaeobiology Program.

Museums in most African countries lack systematically organized osteological collections, which are necessary for proper taxonomic identification of archaeological and paleontological findings. This project was designed to develop a digital catalogue of dentitions of East African large mammals, as an alternative solution to such shortcomings and also to provide researchers with an easily accessible reference collection that can be used both in the lab and the field.

The digital catalogue uses a series of still images organized under seven hierarchical categories. Each species of large mammal is represented in the catalogue by three major age-classes: juvenile, adult, and old. The adult age-class further includes, male and female representatives as a control for sexually dimorphic morphometric differences. Both the upper and lower jaw images of each taxa show five views of the dentition, including the buccal, lingual, and occlusal views as well as profiles of the complete dentition and a close-up of the cheek teeth. Following this procedure, every single taxon of large mammal included in the catalogue is represented by a minimum of forty image entries that are interrelated to each other through a database-driven image cataloguing and publishing software, known as Visual Catalogue (VC).

The software allows the creation of image catalogues organized under a series of taxonomic categories and sub-categories. Entries under each category or sub-category include a list of keywords. The searchable feature of the program allows retrieving images using detailed or loose descriptions. Images organized in such formats can be easily published to any external media - CD-Rom, intranet, or the internet to be viewed using a free viewer that comes with the program.

The first phase of the digital catalogue project, which incorporates all East African extant ungulates is now completed and the data is accessible from the SI website-http://ripley.si.edu/hop/dentition/dentition.htm. CD copies of the catalogue will be avaialble by request to Zelalem Assefa. The completed catalogue incorporates 56 species that come from 36 genera of ungulates. Documentation of carnivore dentitions is currently underway.