Advances in insectivore and rodent systematics due to geometric morphometrics |
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Authors: | LENKA BARIOVÁ |
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Institution: | Department of Biological Disciplines, Faculty of Agriculture, University of South Bohemia, Studentská13 and Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská31, 370 05 ČeskéBudějovice, Czech Republic |
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Abstract: | - 1 Morphometrics, the study of the variation and change in form amongst organisms, serves as a basic methodological tool in various fields of biological research, including systematics. Because it includes information about spatial relationships amongst anatomical landmarks, geometric morphometrics is more suitable for analyzing morphometric variation than methods based on distance measurements.
- 2 Geometric morphometrics allows us to answer general ecological and evolutionary questions about shape.
- 3 In this paper, landmark‐based methods are described and illustrated, based on a dataset of measurements from 295 Apodemus mandibles, and the applications of such methods in the systematics of insectivores (Eulipotyphla) and rodents (Rodentia) are summarized.
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Keywords: | Eulipotyphla geographic patterns landmark phylogeny Rodentia |
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