This project involves the development of a comprehensive, cross-platform software package for morphometric analysis. The package will provide a convenient environment for scientists to incorporate the many recently developed methods for shape analysis into their own research programs. These new methods, generally termed "geometric morphometrics", pay particular attention to the complete retention of geometric information, such as is archived in sets of point, or landmark, coordinates. Such information makes possible not only an exhaustive analysis of shape variation, shape differences, and the covariation of shape with external factors, but also allows for the visualization of original and mean forms, group differences, and hypothetical configurations based on the results of more abstract statistical analyses. The software will provide for the superimposition of configurations of homologous points using edge-matching, least-squares, and robust methods, the construction of interpolation grids mapping a reference configuration onto a target configuration, and the statistical analysis of single and multiple groups of specimens in linear spaces tangent to precisely defined, but non-Euclidean, shape spaces. Such capabilities have previously been accessible to researchers only through routines written for matrix language packages unable to easily exploit the full potential of these new methods or individual, idiosyncratic programs designed to illustrate a specific method or concept and performing only a few of the procedures that make up a complete analysis. The proposed package will not only serve as a tool for learning and implementing these new methods, but will be developed in such a way as to facilitate the addition of new methods currently being developed, such as the incorporation of outline information into the landmark-based methods. It's modular, C++ coding, and use of cross-platform interface tools will make it easy to provide versions for popular platform s, such as the MS-Windows, OS/2, and Mac environments, powerful Unix/XMotif workstations, and future computer systems. In addition to these new geometric methods, the package will also provide a complete environment for all aspects of morphometric work. This will include data acquisition, verification, and editing capabilities, through modules supporting popular 2- and 3-dimensional digitizers, modules for the construction and analysis of "traditional" types of morphometric data such as distance and angular measurements, analysis of outline data via Fourier, fractal, and eigenshape methods, export capabilities to allow for subsequent analyses using standard statistical packages, and an extensive suite of graphical capabilities for the visualization of the results of the above procedures.
