-------- Original Message -------- Subject: agent based approach to GM Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2011 13:13:52 +0100 From: Milos Blagojevic <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Dear Morphometricians, Geometric morphometrics sometimes seem so encompassing that I can say it to be a sort of magical toolbox. But recently, besides the main course of GM studies I became interested in the possibility of agent based modelling approach to simulate dynamic processes such as sexual selection it the light of phenotypic variability of cranial shape. For me this is more like a hobby than the main course but it seems challenging in its own right. Surely sexual selection can guide the change in the overall integration and covariation structure of the cranium and could be interpreted in the light of shape differences between male and female skull. Is there a certain female preference for the specific male cranial shape or not? for example. But in agent based modeling it is difficult to show skulls as separate entities but rather as class male or female characteristics. The other area of modeling is of course the multitude of sexual selection mathematical models, but if the agent based approach is from a Logo viewpoint some of them at least should be emergent, but some of the math must underlie future models, also. I mentioned the tool that I seek to use for this purpose and it is NetLogo (ccl.northwestern.edu/*netlogo*/), and R (that I use in more common GM analyses). There is http://netlogo-r-ext.berlios.de/ package that links NetLogo to R and makes a good environment for both modeling and analysis of results. But in order to make this message shorter I would like just to invite anyone interested in Logo agent based modeling and geometric morphometric to contact me or possibly hand me some initial advice on where to start because this is just an idea far from any practice. Best regards, Milos Blagojevic Faculty of Science, Kragujevac Serbia
