Principal Investigators Kitchell and Fink propose to organize and run a 2-week workshop/short course on modern methods of morphometrics. Morphometrics goes beyond multivariate approaches to morphology, in that it attempts to capture and analyze the geometrical entirety of a specimen, rather than a sampling of that morphology as embodied in an arbitrary set of measurements chosen by an investigator. Morphometrics usually involves direct capture of images onto computers using video cameras, followed by selection of point coordinates for study. Up to roughly 25 supported participants will have lectures and hands-on tutorials from the leading developers of analytical approaches. Hardware and software will be made available throughout the course, and research problems will be conducted as practical exercises. Morphometrics is a relatively new approach to an old discipline. It holds promise for greater objectivity and repeatability. These new procedures have not been widely applied, but the proposed workshop will greatly increase the pool of practitioners who can then train others and submit proposals for their own instruments for data acquisition and analysis. The proposed workshop/short course addresses several of the explicit initiatives of the Systematic Biology Program: new technologies, graduate training, and centers for inter-disciplinary research.
