Geometric Morphometrics Workshop

Title: “Methods in Geometric Morphometrics” Organizers: Mark Belk, BYU Dates: June 2006 Location: Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

Summary:

This workshop was an introduction the methods and applications of geometric morphometrics in testing biological hypotheses. Participants learned how to collect data, create landmarks, quantify differences, and apply statistical testing to generate analyses. Lastly, this workshop addressed how geometric morphometrics could be used to test phylogeography.

Topics Covered:

• History of morphometrics
• Obtaining data and creating landmarks
• Descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing

Schedule

Definition and short history (.ppt) – 30 min.

General Morphometric Protocol

• Data acquisition - procedures and problems (.ppt) – 45 min.
• Remove nonshape variation, generate shape variables – 30 min.
• Statistical analyses to test biological hypotheses (.ppt) – 45 min.
• Graphical depiction of results – 30 min.

Introduction to software

• TPS series - SUNY website – 60 min.
• Others – 15 min.

Example analyses

• Utah chub - semilandmarks, MANOVA, ordination, NMDS – 45 min.
• Mountain sucker - regression, – 20 min.

Summary and questions