Abstract
Morphometrics, the measurement and statistical analysis of organismal form, has always been a core tool in evolutionary biology. With the advancement of 3D imaging technology and geometric morphometric methodology, it is also increasingly applied in developmental biology. At the interface of these two disciplines, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) seeks to understand how organismal development affects evolutionary change by sha** the phenotypic variation that is subject to selection. Quantification of morphological variation thus is an important part of evo-devo research and bridges the field to quantitative evolutionary theory. Likewise, modern morphometrics enables the quantitative comparison of developmental trajectories across individuals, populations, or environments. Here, I review the current state of the art in morphometrics and provide examples from vertebrate development. I discuss advantages and limitations of current methods and outline directions for future developments.
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PM is supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF P29397).
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Mitteröcker, P. (2021). Morphometrics in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. In: Nuño de la Rosa, L., Müller, G.B. (eds) Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_119
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_119
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