The application of a genetic algorithm in the correlation of intra‐individual isotopic Sr dental records for archaeological and palaeontological reconstruction of years‐long mobility

Abstract Methodological correlation of biogeochemical records is a common challenge in studies of animal and human palaeoecology. The correlation of datasets needs a repeatable mathematical method and statistical control of the strength of achieved correlation. To address it, we applied GenCorr software, a genetic algorithm designed for correlating the stable isotope records in speleothems, to correlate the intra‐individual high‐resolution strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric profiles in horse teeth from an archaeological context. We found GenCorr to provide very good correlation for both high‐resolution profiles and profiles with the resolution selectively reduced. The method can be applied to other data as well, such as stable isotope or trace element profiles.