The annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists was held last week in Buffalo, NY. Yet again, modern morphometric methods played an important role in an increasing number of presentations. A list of some of the presentations using these methods is given below. These titles were culled from a search of the meeting abstracts using the word "morphometric" while omitting presentations that seemed to involve what were once called "traditional" morphometrics. Such lists are increasingly hard to assemble as what were "new" morphometric methods become more-and-more familiar and authors are less compelled to mention them in titles and abstracts. That's good, I guess. The list is intended only to give a sense of the extent of the use of methods of interest to the morphmet community. It is in no way meant to reflect on the quality of individual presentations through either inclusion or omission. A searchable database of all of the abstracts of the meeting is available via the AAPA website - http://www.physanth.org You just have to follow the link about half-way down the page that says (surprise) "Search the Meeting Abstracts". I know search terms like "morphometry", "landmark", and "asymmetry" would bring up titles not listed below. Finally, there was a symposium on "Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology" (Session 28) in which a number of talks on applications, theory, and extensions of morphometric methods were presented. I think it would be of interest to the morphmet community if someone who attended the symposium, but not directly involved with the presentations, would write up a summary/review of it for posting. Of course, anyone could write such a review and post it, but that fact alone could lead to no one doing it. I would like one volunteer that I could harass, cajole, embarrass, or bribe until it was completed. Other commentaries will, of course, also be welcome. Perhaps, we can archive such things in a separate topic on the morphometrics forum (http://morph.bio.sunysb.edu/forum/index.php) for this as well.

-ds

Morphogenetic determinants of the mandibular ramus breadth: A test in modern human populations.
M. Bastir(1), A. Rosas(1), K. Kuroe(2).

Combining Procrustes Superimposition and Fourier descriptors: Analysis of midsagittal cranial outlines.
M. Baylac(1), F. Martin(2).

Using Singular Warps to Study Morphological Integration.
F. Bookstein(1), P. Gunz(2), H. Ingeborg(2), P. Mitteroecker(2), H. Prossinger(2), K. Schaefer(2), C. Unteregger(2), B. Wimmer(2), H. Seidler.

Assessment of quantitative characters in the distal humerus among hominids (great apes and hominins).
E. Delson(1), M. Friess(2), L.F. Marcus(3), D.P. Reddy(4).

Experimental test of the effects of masticatory forces on facial growth.
M. Devlin(1), D. Lieberman(2), G. Krovitz(1).

Craniofaciometric diversity in Iraqi Males
W. Gharaibeh.

Using Semilandmarks on surfaces to analyze a Neolithic hydrocephalus.
P. Gunz(1), P. Mitteroecker(1), M. Teschler-Nikola(2), H. Seidler(1).

Analysis of the posterior cranial profile morphology in Neanderthals and modern humans using geometric morphometrics.
K. Harvati(1), D. Reddy(2), L. Marcus(3).

Morphometric shape variations associated with retroflexion of the human fetal midline cranial base.
N. Jeffery(1), F. Spoor(2).

Parameterized reference models for morphological comparison of fossil and modern skulls.
J. Kim(1), G. Weber(1), A. Neumaier(2).

Temporal bone morphology and earliest Homo.
C. Lockwood, W. Kimbel, J. Lynch.

Mode and tempo of the hominid pelvis evolution.
F. Marchal.

Comparing traditional craniometric and non-traditional landmark based methods for investigating cranial variation
A.H. McKeown(1), R.L. Jantz(2).

A morphometric approach to quantifying between-sample differences in joint shapes.
W. Niewoehner.

Geometric morphometric approaches to the study of soft tissue growth and expression in the human face.
P. O'Higgins(1), N. Jones(1), A. Ghattaura(1), P. Hammond(2), T. Hutton(2), M. Carr(1).

The Limitations of landmark-based morphometrics: fractal models of frontal sinus ontogeny.
H. Prossinger.

An interactive database for primate morphometric studies.
D. Reddy(1), S. Frost(2), M. Friess(2), L. Marcus(3), E. Delson(3).

Geometric morphometric analysis of extant hominoid mandibles - using mandibular morphology to differentiate hominoid species.
C. Robinson.

Consistency and bias in morphometric methods.
F. Rohlf.

Does Dental Arch Asymmetry in Adriatic Island Populations reflect Developmental Instability?
K. Schaefer(1), T. Lauc(2), P. Mitteroecker(1), P. Gunz(1).

Morphological Integration 2: Developmental Interactions during Ontogeny and Phylogeny in the Human Cranium.
H. Seidler(1), K. Schaefer(1), H. Prossinger(1), P. Mitteroecker(1), P. Gunz(1), G.W. Weber(1), F.L. Bookstein(2).

Applications of geometric morphometrics to the study of growth in the facial skeleton: partial and full faces.
U. Strand Vidarsdottir(1), P. O'Higgins(2).

Prepared by:

Dennis E. Slice, Ph.D.
Department of Medical Engineering
Division of Radiologic Sciences
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA 27157-1022
Phone: 336-716-4855
Fax: 336-716-2870

Last modified: April 20, 2002