Ricerc@Sapienza

Objectives: We present two new automatic tools, developed under the R environment, to repro-
duce the internal and external structures of bony elements. The first method, Computer-Aided
Laser Scanner Emulator (CA-LSE), provides the reconstruction of the external portions of a 3D
mesh by simulating the action of a laser scanner. The second method, Automatic Segmentation
Tool for 3D objects (AST-3D), performs the digital reconstruction of anatomical cavities.
Materials and methods: We present the application of CA-LSE and AST-3D methods to different
anatomical remains, highly variable in terms of shape, size and structure: a modern human skull, a
malleus bone, and a Neanderthal deciduous tooth. Both methods are developed in the R environ-
ment and embedded in the packages “Arothron” and “Morpho,” where both the codes and the
data are fully available.
Results: The application of CA-LSE and AST-3D allows the isolation and manipulation of the inter-
nal and external components of the 3D virtual representation of complex bony elements. In
particular, we present the output of the four case studies: a complete modern human endocast
and the right maxillary sinus, the dental pulp of the Neanderthal tooth and the inner network of
blood vessels of the malleus.
Discussion: Both methods demonstrated to be much faster, cheaper, and more accurate than
other conventional approaches. The tools we presented are available as add-ons in existing soft-
ware within the R platform. Because of ease of application, and unrestrained availability of the
methods proposed, these tools can be widely used by paleoanthropologists, paleontologists and anatomists.