-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: How to eliminate the effect of sexual dimorphism? Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2011 08:24:06 -0500 From: Carmelo Fruciano <[email protected]> To: [email protected] morphmet <[email protected]> ha scritto:
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: How to eliminate the effect of sexual dimorphism? Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2011 04:03:49 -0500 From: tina klenovsek <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Dear All! I hope you can help me! The thing is that I would like to compare mandibles of five populations of two different mammal species. The problem is I also have sexual dimorphism both in shape and size and small samples. Therefore I was thinking if I could somehow eliminate the part of variation that is the effect of gender and in subsequent analysis of phylogeny use pooled sexes. I know how to get the 'allometry-free' shape data and do the test for common slopes. But what about sexual dimorphism? Is it possible? Thank you in advance! Tina Klenovšek
Dear Tina, I agree with others about the possible way to "partition out" the effect of sexual dimorphism (which can be extremely useful in many practical situations). However, what happens, for example, if the effect of the other variable you want to test for (say, phylogeny) is different in males and females? Eliminating the effect of sex you would "hide" an interesting pattern...So if at all possible I would do some at least preliminary analyses using separate sexes and, if possible, I would also test for the interaction of sex x the other variable... All the best Carmelo -- Carmelo Fruciano Dipartimento di Biologia University of Catania Tel. +39 095 7306023 Cell. +39 349 5822831 e-mail [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------- Universita' di Catania - A.P.Se.Ma. Servizio di Posta Elettronica
