This introduction to morphometrics does not rely on complex mathematics and statistics. It includes application case studies in fields ranging from paleontology to evolutionary ecology, and it discusses software for analyzing and comparing shape.

Morphometrics is concerned with the study of variations and change in the form (size and shape) of organisms or objects adding a quantitative element to descriptions and thereby facilitating the comparison of different objects and organisms. This volume provides an introduction to morphometrics in a clear and simple way without recourse to complex mathematics and statistics. This introduction is followed by a series of case studies describing the variety of applications of morphometrics from paleontology and evolutionary ecology to archaeological artifacts analysis. This is followed by a presentation of future applications of morphometrics and state of the art software for analyzing and comparing shape.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Inhalt
and Historical Review of the Subject.- Why Morphometrics?.- Morphometrics: An Historical Essay.- Methodological Approach (Quantification and Visualization of Shape, and Traditional and Geometric Morphometrics).- Controlling for Curvature in the Quantification of Leaf Form.- Discriminating Groups of Organisms.- Visual Analysis in Archaeology. An Artificial Intelligence Approach.- Evolution of the Upper Cretaceous Oysters: Traditional Morphometrics Approach.- Applications.- Combining Shape Data and Traditional Measurements with the 2B-PLS: Testing the Covariation Between Avian Brain Size and Cranial Shape Variation as an Example.- Biogeographic Analysis Using Geometric Morphometrics: Clines in Skull Size and Shape in a Widespread African Arboreal Monkey.- Stock Identification of Marine Populations.- Correlating Shape Variation with Feeding Performance to Test for Adaptive Divergence in Recently Invading Stickleback Populations from Swiss peri-alpine Environments.- Macroevolutionary Trends in the Skull of Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs The Largest Terrestrial Animals to Have Ever Lived.- The Use of Geometric Morphometrics in Studying Butterfly Wings in an Evolutionary Ecological Context.- Towards Automating Artifact Analysis: A Study Showing Potential Applications of Computer Vision and Morphometrics to Artifact Typology.- Morphometric Analysis Applied to the Archaeological Pottery of the Valley of Guadalquivir.- Some Applications of Geometric Morphometrics to Archaeology.- Scope to the Future of Morphometrics.- Prospectus: The Future of Morphometrics.- Morphometrics and Cosmology: Short Note and Future Hope.- Morphometrics in Past: Integrating Morphometrics with General Data Analysis Software.