{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,14]],"date-time":"2026-02-14T10:04:34Z","timestamp":1771063474478,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]],"date-time":"2025-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1747785600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["MAKE"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Although the manual classification of microfossils is possible, it can become burdensome. Machine learning offers an alternative that allows for automatic classification. Our contribution is to use machine learning to develop an automated approach for classifying images of Pectinodon bakkeri teeth. This can be expanded for use with many other species. Our approach is composed of two steps. First, PCA and K-means were applied to a numerical dataset with 459 samples collected at the Hanson Ranch Bonebed in eastern Wyoming, containing the following features: crown height, fore-aft basal length, basal width, anterior denticles, and posterior denticles per millimeter. The results obtained in this step were used to automatically organize the P. bakkeri images from two out of three clusters generated. Finally, the tooth images were used to train a convolutional neural network with two classes. The model has an accuracy of 71%, a precision of 71%, a recall of 70.5%, and an F1-score of 70.5%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/make7020045","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]],"date-time":"2025-05-21T13:59:43Z","timestamp":1747835983000},"page":"45","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Machine Learning Classification of Fossilized Pectinodon bakkeri Teeth Images: Insights into Troodontid Theropod Dinosaur Morphology"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Jacob","family":"Bahn","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computing, Southern Adventist University, 4881 Taylor Cir, Collegedale, TN 37315, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9668-1132","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Germ\u00e1n H.","family":"Alf\u00e9rez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computing, Southern Adventist University, 4881 Taylor Cir, Collegedale, TN 37315, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Keith","family":"Snyder","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Southern Adventist University, 4881 Taylor Cir, Collegedale, TN 37315, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1671\/0272-4634(2007)27[87:ANTDTF]2.0.CO;2","article-title":"A new troodontid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Cenomanian of Uzbekistan, with a review of Troodontid records from the territories of the former Soviet Union","volume":"27","author":"Averianov","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. 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