Geometric morphometrics and cladistics: testing evolutionary relationships in mega- and microbats
TLDR
The results reflect those of earlier studies (based on both morphologic and genetic data), suggesting that the data and analytic techniques described herein may have interesting utility in cladistic analyses.Abstract:
Traditionally, morphometric data have consisted of distances, angles, or ratios, and have been considered inappropriate for cladistic analyses. Recently, geometric morphometrics, based on homologous landmark point-coordinates, has provided a number of advantages over traditional morphometric data and methods, including the possibility that phylogenetically informative characters and character-states may be extracted and used in cladistic analyses. Using two data sets of 3-dimensional point coordinates collected from skulls of bats, we empirically evaluate this possibility. Partial warps were extracted from the point-coordinate matrix, and these were then re-coded by gap-coding, for use in the cladistic analyses. In the case of samples from Eidolon helvum populations (two mainland localities and four islands in the Gulf of Guinea), analyzing males and females separately, our analyses based on these data were unable to detect consistent phylogeographic patterns among the populations. In the case of samples from plecotine bat species, these analyses produced a consensus cladogram showing considerable concordance with an earlier cladistic analysis by us of this group. In both cases, our results reflect those of earlier studies (based on both morphologic and genetic data), suggesting that the data and analytic techniques described herein may have interesting utility in cladistic analyses.read more
Citations
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A Morphometrics-Based Phylogeny of the Temperate Gondwanan Mite Harvestmen (Opiliones, Cyphophthalmi, Pettalidae)
TL;DR: A phylogenetic estimation of the temperate Gondwanan mite harvestman family Pettalidae was conducted using 143 morphological variables, using custom algorithms to do pairwise comparisons between characters and identify sets of dependent characters, which were collapsed using principal components analysis.
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Skull geometric morphometrics and paleoecology of santacrucian (late early miocene; patagonia) native ungulates (astrapotheria, litopterna, and notoungulata)
TL;DR: Three orders of South American extinct native ungulates recorded from the Santa Cruz Formation along the Atlantic coast of Patagonia are recorded, allowing characterization of notoungulates mainly as open habitats dwellers, with some taxa foraging on grass, and others on grass and leaves.
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A Morphometric Approach for Addressing Tooth-Based Species Delimitation in Fossil Mako Sharks, Isurus (Elasmobranchii: Lamniformes)
TL;DR: Geometric morphometric techniques can differentiate between the two extant species as well as the two extinct species, supporting I. xiphodon as a valid taxon and suggesting that this type of analysis is applicable for examining tooth-based species delimitations of sharks with both extant and extinct members.
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Skull Morphology of Two Cryptic Bat Species: Pipistrellus pipistrellus and P. pygmaeus — A 3D Geometric Morphometrics Approach with Landmark Reconstruction
TL;DR: The shape and size of the mandible proved to be a good characteristic for distinguishing both cryptic taxa and a procedure for estimating missing landmarks for 3D geometric morphometric purposes was created.
Journal ArticleDOI
Skull ontogeny of extant caimans: a three-dimensional geometric morphometric approach.
María Victoria Fernandez Blanco,Guillermo Hernán Cassini,Guillermo Hernán Cassini,Paula Bona +3 more
TL;DR: The inter- and intraspecific skull morphological variation in extant caiman species is quantified focusing on those areas relevant to systematics and the relation between diet and morphological changes during ontogeny is investigated.
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