8-12 April 2024

Introductory and intermediate geometric morphometrics.

Geometric morphometrics has become a standard in research fields as diverse as evolutionary biology, anthropology and archaeology because it combines statistical rigour and ease of interpretation. Through geometric morphometrics, biological form is quantified, analysed and the results are expressed as easily interpretable and visually impactful shape changes. This course covers the main common practices of modern geometric morphometrics, including: acquiring data, analysing it, visualizing and interpreting the results.

The course will be delivered over five days and will comprise both lectures and hands-on sessions. The lectures will cover both basic theoretical aspects and their practical implementation in research practice and software. During the hands-on sessions, the attendees will have the chance of both using example datasets and applying the knowledge acquired to their own data. The course will be focused mainly on 2D data and on easy-to-use software with graphical user interface to maximize the ability to understand concepts and apply them. However, substantial information on 3D data and on R implementations will be provided, as appropriate and depending on participants’ interests.

This course is aimed at beginners and intermediate users. In other words, it is aimed at researchers who intend to use geometric morphometrics or who have started performing geometric morphometric analyses but feel they need a more structured background.