[Moderator's note: I am profoundly sorry for the delay in posting this announcement. Email exchanges with Dr. MacLeod were somehow shunted to a non-morphmet folder that I do not regularly check. Mea culpa.]
For my sins I am organizing a morphometrics symposium at the upcoming North American Paleontology Convention, which takes place on 19-26 June at Dalhousie University, Halifax Nova Scotia. A brief description of the symposium's concept is provided below. I'd like to get an idea of the projected program size so, if you are interested in contributing a paper to this symposium, please contact me. The NAPC is a premier venue for the presentation of paleontological results, as well as results from other fields that paleontologists would find interesting/useful. Both types of contributions are encouraged. Morphometrics also has been on the program at previous NAPC meetings and, of course, there is currently no lack of interesting morphometric research going on. The abstract deadline is 31 January so there's no time to lose. Please let me know if you intend to submit an abstract. Norm MacLeod ----------- Theory and Applications for Quantitative Models of Fossil Form: This symposium would be focused on techniques using morphometrics to address applied research issues, the modeling of fossil form, and automated approaches for fossil identification. Recent advances in the theoretical underpinning of geometric morphometrics have clarified underlying similarities between theoretical and empirical morphospaces, while advanced digital-image visualization/manipulation techniques has provided tools that can be used to both create and inspect the geometric models that lie at the heart of many analyses. These advances, in turn, have opened up new areas of shape model characterization for systematic investigation. This symposium will bring together practitioners of both applied and theoretical morphometric and automated object-recognition research programs for the purpose of (1) updating the paleontological community on recent developments in these fields, (2) exploring inter-relations among these topics, (3) encouraging further interdisciplinary research, and (4) continuing the process of forging a unified science of form that can be applied to paleontological objects and that can facilitate the integration of morphological data with other sources of geological and biological information. -- Replies will be sent to the list. For more information visit http://www.morphometrics.org
