Morphological variations and asymmetry

From head to tail: does habitat use drive morphological variation in snakes?

This study examines how habitat use influences morphological variation in snakes, finding that habitat groups exhibit distinct morphologies with limited convergence in fossorial and aquatic species.

Complex interplay of biomechanics and ecology influenced crab claw morphology evolution

This study investigates the evolution of crab claw morphology by integrating biomechanics, ecology, and phylogeny across 80 crab species, revealing that ecological and biomechanical factors drive diversity rather than phylogenetic relatedness.

Whole body elongation drives coordinated vertebral shape evolution in Lake Malawi cichlid fishes

The paper examines how vertebral morphology evolves in Lake Malawi cichlids, finding strong integration between precaudal and caudal vertebrae shapes during body elongation.

LizardMorph: A generalizable machine learning framework for automated anatomical landmark detection in digital images

LizardMorph automates anatomical landmark detection in biological images, achieving high accuracy and efficiency compared to manual methods.

Macroevolutionary shifts in post-hatching ontogeny and the origin of craniofacial disparity in fowl (Aves: Galloanserae)

This study investigates ontogenetic changes in cranial morphology across Galloanserae to understand the developmental basis of cranial disparity between anseriforms and galliforms.

Connecting crowns: Analyzing morphological covariation in the modern human postcanine dentition

This study analyzes 3D shape covariation in modern human postcanine teeth using geometric morphometrics, finding high correlations within dental arches and notable differences between antagonist teeth.

Static allometry of the horn and pronotal depression in adult Oryctes rhinoceros supports continuous nonlinearity, sexual dimorphism, and size-independent covariation

The paper analyzes allometry in Oryctes rhinoceros, finding continuous nonlinear scaling and size-independent covariation between horn length and pronotal depression width.

A new reference-invariant consensus template generation method in ALPACA

This paper introduces a consensus atlas generation method to reduce reference bias in automated landmarking, showing improved reproducibility and reduced variance across datasets.

A probabilistic and phylogenetic principal component analysis for modelling high-dimensional trait evolution

This paper introduces P3CA, a probabilistic and phylogenetic PCA method for high-dimensional trait evolution, showing improved accuracy in parameter estimation and missing data reconstruction.

Cephalo-pelvic covariation and sexual dimorphism are disrupted in hybrid mice: implications for the human obstetrical dilemma

This study shows hybrid mice exhibit disrupted cephalo-pelvic covariation and reduced pelvic sexual dimorphism, suggesting these traits are genetically structured and sensitive to hybridization.

Scaling and ecomorphology of lagomorph body shape and appendicular skeleton

This study quantifies body shape and appendicular skeleton traits in lagomorphs to identify key skeletal components driving shape diversity and how body size, ecotype, and locomotion influence morphology.

Phylogenetics, trait covariance analysis, and the evolution of fin and body shape in the surgeonfishes

The paper introduces a novel Pagels λ adjustment to model phylogenetic signal in trait covariance analysis, revealing ecological associations and evolutionary shape covariation in surgeonfishes.

Morphological integration of the avian beak facilitates evolution along lines of least resistance

The paper evaluates macroevolutionary patterns in avian beak morphology using 3D landmarks and a supertree, finding that integration promotes phenotypic evolution by reducing developmental constraints.

Age-related morphological changes in the C57BL/6J mouse calvaria: implications for stereotaxic neurosurgery

This study examines age-related changes in the calvarial geometry of C57BL/6J mice, showing significant spatial and sexual dimorphism that affects stereotaxic neurosurgery.

Decoding Anadara shell morphology with deep learning

This paper introduces Morpho-VAE, a deep learning framework for analyzing shell morphology, which outperforms traditional methods in species classification and reveals morphological patterns in Anadara shells.

Decoding Diets: Applying Non-Linear Machine Learning Models to Geometric Morphometric Analysis of Bovid Dental Mesowear Signatures

This study uses non-linear machine learning models to improve dietary classification of bovids based on geometric morphometric analysis of dental mesowear.

From Pixel to Wave: A Geometric Complementary Code for Hierarchical Pixel-Based Morphometry

This paper introduces a geometric complementary code that bridges digital pixel graphics with continuous wave mechanics in morphometrics, revealing a hierarchical expansion of FCC patterns.

bifrost: an R package for scalable inference of phylogenetic shifts in multivariate evolutionary dynamics

The paper introduces bifrost, an R package for detecting shifts in multivariate trait evolution across phylogenetic trees, using a greedy search and information-criterion weights.

Genetic architecture of cichlid brain morphology

The paper investigates the genetic architecture of brain morphology in cichlid fish, showing modular genetic control of brain components and weaker genetic correlations in hybrids.

Disentangling shape and size in a population of unusually large Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from Vancouver Island, British Columbia

The paper examines a population of large threespine stickleback in Sarita Lake, finding they are larger and have distinct shape variations compared to other populations, influenced by developmental and sexual factors.

Regionally specific and highly pleiotropic loci together mediate skeletal evolution in tropical and temperate house mice

This study identifies QTL driving skeletal divergence in temperate and tropical house mice, revealing both small-effect and pleiotropic loci involved in adaptive evolution.

Extreme disparity in the appendicular skeleton of domestic dogs (Canis familiaris)

This study quantifies postcranial skeletal shape variation in dogs, finding extreme disparity in Dachshunds and no significant link between bone shape and body mass or age.

The phylogenetic signal in primate ontogenies, with special attention to dental development

The paper quantifies phylogenetic signal in primate ontogeny, finding dental development is most conserved, with later-developing traits showing stronger conservation than earlier ones.

Procrustean pseudo-landmark methods in Python to measure massive quantities of leaf shape data

The paper introduces a Python-based method using pseudo-landmarks and Procrustes analysis to compare leaf shapes across species and development, showing shape transitions and genetic correlations.

Evolution of crop phenotypic spaces through domestication

This study examines how domestication shapes multivariate phenotypic spaces across species, finding convergence, reduced phenotypic space, and a new index for cross-species comparison.

Diffeomorphic Independent Contrasts for Ancestral Reconstruction of Shapes

This paper introduces DICAROS, a method for ancestral shape reconstruction that outperforms existing methods by combining LDDMM and Felsensteins Independent Contrasts, and applies it to swallowtail butterflies.

Dietary specialization drives adaptation, convergence, and integration across the cranial and appendicular skeleton in Waterfowl (Anseriformes).

The paper shows dietary ecology drives morphological convergence and integration across multiple skeletal structures in waterfowl.

Developmental underpinnings of morphological disparity in the avian bony palate

The paper quantitatively assesses avian palate ontogeny across 70 species to determine the developmental mechanisms behind morphological disparity, finding no evidence of neoteny but highlighting the role of developmental mode.

Benchmarking Geometric Morphometric Methods: A Performance Evaluation for Gastropod Shell Shape Analyses

This study benchmarks three geometric morphometric methods for analyzing gastropod shell shape, finding that each method has distinct strengths in clustering, interpretability, and efficiency for different research goals.

3D shell asymmetry of Testudines as a potential biomarker for environmental stress

This study analyzes shell asymmetry in turtles using 3D scans to show ecological influences on shell shape and asymmetry, suggesting FA as a biomarker for environmental stress.