Dear colleagues,
There are a couple of slots available for the course “Introduction to the Analysis of Morphological Disparity” If you are working with morphological data, this course will provide you with the tools to analyze and compare the morphological differences quantitatively. Instructor: Dr. Thomas Smith <https://www.transmittingscience.com/instructors/thomas-smith/> (University of Oxford, UK). Schedule: *Online live sessions* on October 1st, 3rd, 8th, and 10th, 2024, from 13:00 to 18:00 (Madrid time zone). Course overview *Analyses of morphological disparity* provide unique perspectives of evolutionary history, quantifying the anatomical variety of clades and their fluctuation through time. This course will provide an in-depth overview of the different types of data and methods underpinning these analyses and give participants the necessary skills and understanding to apply them to their research questions. Across five days, we will cover the advantages and disadvantages of different types of *morphological data* *in analyses of disparity*, the range of *distance metrics* that can be used to quantify intertaxon dissimilarity, and the *ordination methods* that can be used to reduce dimensionality and facilitate interpretation. How the resulting *patterns in disparity* can be *visualised*, *quantified*, and *interpreted* with nuance will also be covered at length. This course will be *predominantly practical* but will include some *theoretical lectures* to provide a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of distance metric calculation and ordination. How different types of morphological data are derived will also be discussed but will not be included in the practical component of the course. All analyses will be conducted in *R*, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics ( https://www.r-project.org/). These analyses will use functions from a variety of packages including *ape*, *geiger*, *phytools*, *phangorn*, *Claddis*, *dispRity*, *vegan*, and *geomorph*. We will provide a selection of model datasets for participants to use during the practical components of the course. However, we encourage attendees to bring their own datasets so that they can gain experience tailoring the techniques this course will introduce to their own analytical needs right away. You can check the full information (and registrations) here: https://www.transmittingscience.com/courses/evolution/introduction-to-the-analysis-of-morphological-disparity/ Or write to cour...@transmittingscience.com if you have any questions. Best wishes -- Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Morphmet" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to morphmet2+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/morphmet2/CAAkK8p3h4WZgXmFFt%2BR4%3D4AKKEU_wDw9m5F-nh9fJ9jJhFGCNA%40mail.gmail.com.