Morphometric and morphogeometric analyses in phylogenetic research

• Grant number: 19/05772-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: August 18, 2019
• End date: August 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Zoology - Morphology of Recent Groups
• Principal Investigator: José Paulo Leite Guadanucci
• Grantee: José Paulo Leite Guadanucci
• Visiting researcher: Santiago Andrés Catalano
• Visiting researcher institution: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/11985-9 - Morphological and molecular systematics and biogeography of Mygalomorph spiders of Atlantic Forest, AP.BTA.JP

Abstract

Morphometrics, in special Geometric Morphometrics, have advanced quite a lot in the last decades, although it is still scarce the use of continuous characters in phylogenies, which can be implemented with the use of morphometrics. These tools incorporate meristic and/or landmark data into matrices to be analyzed under the premises of parcimony. For those taxa that show homogeneous morphology, the use of meristic and morphogeometric characters may increase the number of characters in a matrix, and avoid the subjectiveness of discrete characters related to shape, measurements and proportions. The objective of the present proposal is to bring PhD Santiago Catalano, Conacyt researcher from Argentina, to give a course (grad level) and also act as a referee for the current projects that include morphometrics in the Laboratory of Spider Systematics of UNESP Rio Claro. The researcher is co-responsible (along with Pablo Goloboff) for developing the methods and algorithms to analyze continuous characters and implement such methodology in computer software.The activities are scheduled for two weeks. First week will be dedicated exclusively to the course "Analysis of morphometric and morphogeometric data in phylogenetic studies", which will take place at UNESP Rio Claro, with a total of 40 hours. The course serves grad students and professionals of UNESP Rio Claro, and also for those from neighboring institutions. During the second week, after the course, Santiago will help (referee) with the analysis of the projects being carried out in our lab. (AU)