International course on Geometric Morphometrics and Ontogeny, May 30-June 1, Barcelona (Spain).

[soledad.esteban]

Dear Colleagues,
 
Registration is open for the course “Studying Ontogeny at Different Levels Using Geometric Morphometrics - 3rd Edition”.
 
Dates: May 30-June 1, 2016.
 
Instructor:  Dr. Kieran McNulty (University of Minnesota, United States of America).
 
This course will provide a basic introduction to geometric morphometric analyses, with an emphasis on using this tool kit to address questions related to growth, development, and evolution. Simple characterizations of multivariate ontogeny will give way to more complicated methods for visualizing and comparing different patterns of growth and development. From here, we will take up the idea of changes in ontogeny as a mechanism for producing evolutionary change. Using landmark data, it is possible to address many of the issues related to evolutionary development, but it will also become clear that the basic formulation of traditional evo-devo models lose relevance in the complex datasets available through modern digitisation and morphometric analysis. We will end by discussing the difficulties and misconceptions in interpreting morphometric analyses of ontogeny, and introduce some of the
advanced topics in ontogeny that morphometricians are beginning to address.
 
A basic knowledge in statistics, Geometric Morphometrics and personal computers is required. All participants must bring their own personal laptop with some software installed.
 
More information and registration: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/gm/ontogeny-and-gm/).
 
The course will be held in the Sabadell facilities of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (Barcelona, Spain) and is co-organized by Transmitting Science and the Institut Català de Paleontologia M. Crusafont. Places are limited and will be covered by strict registration order.
 
Please feel free to distribute this information between your colleagues if you consider it appropriate.

With best regards,
 Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno
Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)

Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona). Spain
www.icp.cat