TY - JOUR A1 - Berio, Fidji A1 - Bayle, Yann A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Goudemand, Nicolas A1 - Debiais-Thibaud, Mélanie T1 - Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula populations JF - PeerJ - Aquatic Biology N2 - Shark populations that are distributed alongside a latitudinal gradient often display body size differences at sexual maturity and vicariance patterns related to their number of tooth files. Previous works have demonstrated that Scyliorhinus canicula exhibits distinct genetic structures, life history traits, and body size differences between populations inhabiting the North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. In this work, we sample more than 3,000 S. canicula teeth from 56 specimens and provide and use a dataset containing their shape coordinates. We investigate tooth shape and form differences between a Mediterranean and an Atlantic S. canicula population using two approaches. Classification results show that the classical geometric morphometric framework is outperformed by an original Random Forests-based framework. Visually, both S. canicula populations share similar ontogenetic trends and timing of gynandric heterodonty emergence but the Atlantic population has bigger, blunter teeth, and less numerous accessory cusps than the Mediterranean population. According to the models, the populations are best differentiated based on their lateral tooth edges, which bear accessory cusps, and the tooth centroid sizes significantly improve classification performances. The differences observed are discussed in light of dietary and behavioural habits of the populations considered. The method proposed in this study could be further adapted to complement DNA analyses to identify shark species or populations based on tooth morphologies. This process would be of particular interest for fisheries management and identification of shark fossils. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13575 SP - 10:e13575 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Berio, Fidji A1 - Bayle, Yann A1 - Agret, Sylvie A1 - Baum, Daniel A1 - Goudemand, Nicolas A1 - Debiais-Thibaud, Mélanie T1 - 3D models related to the publication: Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula T2 - MorphoMuseuM N2 - The present dataset contains the 3D models analyzed in Berio, F., Bayle, Y., Baum, D., Goudemand, N., and Debiais-Thibaud, M. 2022. Hide and seek shark teeth in Random Forests: Machine learning applied to Scyliorhinus canicula. It contains the head surfaces of 56 North Atlantic and Mediterranean small-spotted catsharks Scyliorhinus canicula, from which tooth surfaces were further extracted to perform geometric morphometrics and machine learning. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18563/journal.m3.164 ER -