Description
Geometric Morphometrics for Biologists: A Primer, Third Edition explores how these geometric methods allow for the study of biological shape by incorporating the geometry of organisms throughout data analyses. Novel content on phylogenetic comparative methods, evolutionary morphology, analyses of disparity, genetics of shape, and simulating shape data is included. This edition delivers step-by-step guidance on how to effectively utilize updated analytical software while also providing guidance on important methodologies that remain relevant to the field to ensure clear and effective instruction to audiences new to this branch of data analysis.It succeeds the second edition as the primary resource for teaching modern geometric methods of shape analysis to students, researchers, and practicing scientists in the field of organismal biology. Users will find it to be an immensely valuable introduction for students and practicing biologists interested in learning applications of multivariate statistics and matrix algebra to organismal biology.- Introduces geometric, morphometric analyses to researchers and students of organismal biology- Presents updated coverage of emerging methods- Provides detailed instructions for conducting analyses with free, easy-to-use software- Delivers graphical presentations of key concepts and demonstrations of alternative modeling approaches
Table of Contents
1. IntroductionPart I: Basics of Shape Data2. Landmarks3. Simple Size and Shape Variables: Shape Coordinates4. Theory of Shape5. The Thin-Plate Spline: Visualizing Shape Change as a DeformationPart II: Analyzing Shape Variables 6. Ordination Methods7. Partial Least Squares8. Statistics9. General Linear Models10. Phylogenetic Comparative MethodsPart III: Applications11. Ecological Morphology12. Evolutionary Morphology13. Allometry14. Variational Properties and their Evolutionary Outcomes15. Systematics16. Temporal, Geographic and Evolutionary Analyses of Disparity17. Genetics of Shape Chapter 18: Simulating Shape Data
