几何形态学方法及其在动物发育与系统进化研究中的应用

简要回顾了几何形态学的发展历史,介绍了30多年来该领域使用的主要方法及其在生物发育与进化研究中的实际应用。除目前应用最为广泛的标点法和轮廓线法外,基于三维数据的表面特征分析和有限元分析也在该领域得到推广。这些方法可运用于分析两性分化、异速生长、种群分化、种上进化以及复杂功能结构的形态集成等科学问题。几何形态学与生物信息学的综合运用还将有利于探讨表型变化与遗传物质变化的相关性。随着生物成像技术和海量数据计算技术的进步,几何形态学将由目前以二维数据为主的研究向三维重建和分析的方向发展。

METHODS IN GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRICS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS IN ONTOGENETIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY OF ANIMALS

Geometric morphometrics has been recognized as one of the most important tools in Biology.Investigations referring to the ontogeny and evolution of several animal groups have been fascinated by development of new theories and methods in this field,while those theories and methods are poorly known to China so far.Here,we give a brief introduction on the methodologies proposed in the last thirty years,and the application of geometric morphometrics in studying on the development and evolution of animals.The most frequently used methods are landmarks,outlines,while surface analysis and finite element analysis have been proposed based on 3-dimentional data in the last decade.The ontogenetic,intraspecific,interspecific shape variation and the morphological integration of complex structure could be investigated by geometric morphometrics.Combining geometric morphometrics with bioinformatics probably will promote a better understanding on the ontogeny and evolution of different animals.With the development of technologies in biological imaging and mass data processing,the 3-D geometric analysis probably will replace the 2-D dominated methods.