古生物学中形态空间分析的原理与应用
摘要
<p indent="0mm">Biological information is quintessentially encapsulated by the intricate relationship between genotype—the genetic makeup of an organism—and phenotype, which encompasses the tangible attributes and morphology of the organism. In the realm of paleontology, the genetic information is often difficult to obtain, so the phenotypic traits, specifically the morphology or anatomical shape of organisms, serve as the cornerstones for explicating taxonomic classifications, evolutionary relationships, and functional adaptations of extinct animals. Initial attempts at morphological quantification in paleontology were predominantly qualitative, hinging on non-numeric descriptors of form and structure. When quantitative approaches were applied, they were rudimentary at best, commonly relying on simplistic measurements such as linear distances, angles, or area calculations to provide a semblance of the organism’s morphology. These simplistic metrics often fell short of capturing the full complexity of biological shapes, potentially glossing over the subtle variations and nuances that are critically informative about an organism’s ecology and evolutionary history. In recent decades, the field of paleontology has witnessed a transformative shift in the way researchers study and quantify organismal form with the advent of the morphometrics revolution. Beginning in earnest in the 1980s, this innovation in analytical techniques infused the discipline with new methodologies for more precise and nuanced morphological quantification. The inception of geometric morphometrics marked a significant milestone in this trajectory. The appearance of these quantitative indicators, such as (semi) landmarks for continuous variables, and character states for discrete variables, alongside the evolution of multivariate analytical techniques—like principal component analysis (PCA), principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) has led to the developme