Analysis of Organismal Form, a Web-based course

Analysis of Organismal Form

An introduction to morphometrics, delivered as a Web-based course

9 November – 18 December 2009

Instructor: Chris Klingenberg

Dear morphometricians

I am pleased to announce this year's morphometrics course from the University of Manchester. This year's course will run in the six weeks from 9 November to 18 December 2009.

The course information can be found on the following we site:
http://www.flywings.org.uk/MorphoCourse

Course content:

• * Data acquisition: the kinds of data and the equipment used to collect them.
• * Definitions of size and shape
• * Geometric methods to characterise shape from a configuration of landmark points (Procrustes superimposition)
• * Statistics of variation, scatter plots, basic multivariate statistics
• * Principal component analysis
• * Measurement error and outliers
• * Shape transformations and 'warping' -- the thin plate spline
• * Analysis of outline shapes
• * Distinguishing between groups (taxonomy, clinical diagnosis, etc.)
• * Allometry and size correction
• * Influence of external factors on shape (ecomorphology, dose-response studies)
• * Symmetric forms and measurement of asymmetry.
• * Morphometric inferences on developmental processes, morphological integration, modularity
• * Genetics of shape: analyses of resemblance between relatives, QTL analyses.
• * Phylogeny: reconstructing the evolution of shape

Practice examples:
As far as possible, practical exercises are provided to accompany the course content. These practice exercises consist of data sets and explanations on how to run the respective analyses using the MorphoJ software (http://www.flywings.org.uk/MorphoJ_page.htm). Participants who already have their own data are encouraged to use those and to discuss them as part of the course. I hope there will be a bit of a 'workshop' feel to the course unit.

Group work:
Participants will work in small groups to prepare web presentations of possible morphometric studies. This activity stimulates discussion and provides a broad overview of questions that can be addressed with morphometric methods.

The fee for the course is GBP 190.00 (I'm afraid it's gone up a bit from last year -- but the UK pound has dropped against most other currencies...).

All prospective participants need to pre-register for the course. The deadline for this is the *31 August 2009*.

For further details, see the course web page:
http://www.flywings.org.uk/MorphoCourse

Best wishes,
Chris

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Christian Peter Klingenberg
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester
Michael Smith Building
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PT
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 161 275 3899
Fax: +44 161 275 5082
Web: http://www.flywings.org.uk
Skype: chris_klingenberg
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