Assessment of traditional versus geometric morphometrics for discriminating populations of the Tropheus moorii species complex (Teleostei: Cichlidae), a Lake Tanganyika model for allopatric speciation
By M. Maderbacher, C. Bauer, J. Herler, Lisbeth Postl, L. Makasa, C. Sturmbauer. 2008
104 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Lake Tanganyika harbours the oldest and ecologically, morphologically and behaviourally most diverse species flock of cichlid fishes. Its species are excellent subjects for the study of explosive speciation and adaptive radiation. Many species are subdivided into numerous genetically and phenotypically distinct populations, often classified as distinct geographical races or colour morphs, which mostly differ in colour and much less in terms of morphology. This study for the first time quantifies morphological differences among such morphs by studying three populations of Tropheus moorii. We compared traditional morphometrics (TM) and geometric morphometrics (GM) to explore their potential for discriminating populations. So far species description and population discrimination are almost solely based on TM in the form of standardized measurements, although specialists are aware of their lack of diagnostic power for discrimination of closely related entities. Moreover, comprehensive TM measurements are time consuming and can best be done on dead specimens which have to be preserved in the case re-measuring is necessary. In contrast, GM can also be based on photographs and computer scans of anaesthetized fish, so that the same individual can be repeatedly analysed during its ontogeny. Here, we show that GM is more flexible in data acquisition and more powerful in the discrimination of species and closely related populations. While TM is restricted to distances and ratios of distances, GM not only includes these measurements indirectly, but also allows for body shape analysis using a semi-landmark approach. It can be equally standardized as TM by defining diagnostic landmarks. Data description by canonical variate analysis was most informative using GM data including semi-landmarks, whereas differences between populations were significant (p < 0.05) based on both morphological approaches.
Subfields: Ecology, Geometry and Topology, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/500d85187d5dd317a06f94ab7a161c8a9842c784
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Citations in the corpus
- Dealing with allometry in linear and geometric morphometrics: a taxonomic case study in the Leporinus cylindriformis group (Characiformes: Anostomidae) with description of a new species from Suriname (2011, methodology): “Most studies, however, employ only one method, and empirical comparisons amongst methods have been uncommon (see however Birch, 1997; Fink & Zelditch, 1997; Parsons, Robinson & Hrbek, 2003; Maderbacher et al., 2008).”