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Size, shape, and form: concepts of allometry in geometric morphometrics
1Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK. cpk@manchester.ac.uk.
Development Genes and Evolution
|April 3, 2016
Summary
This review compares allometric methods in geometric morphometrics, highlighting two schools of thought for analyzing size-related trait changes in evolution and development.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Developmental biology
- Morphometrics
Background:
- Allometry, the study of size-related changes in traits, is crucial for understanding evolution and development.
- Geometric morphometrics offers advanced tools for analyzing biological shape.
- Existing allometric methods vary, necessitating a systematic comparison.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically compare allometric methods within geometric morphometrics.
- To analyze the structure of morphological spaces and their impact on allometry characterization and size correction.
- To clarify the relationships between different schools of allometric thought.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review and comparison of allometric methodologies.
- Analysis of morphological spaces in geometric morphometrics (Procrustes form space, conformation space).
- Examination of multivariate regression and principal component analysis for allometry.
Main Results:
- Identified two main schools of allometric thought: Gould-Mosimann (shape-size covariation via regression) and Huxley-Jolicoeur (covariation among size-informed features via PCA).
- Demonstrated how these concepts are implemented in geometric morphometrics using different shape spaces.
- Showed the equivalence of methods under specific conditions (small isotropic variation) up to scaling.
Conclusions:
- Different allometric methods offer flexible tools for evolutionary and developmental studies.
- All frameworks are logically compatible, suggesting non-contradictory results.
- Understanding morphological space structure is key to effective allometry analysis.
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