This glossary provides definitions for terms, concepts, and methods frequently encountered in morphometric literature and discussions. It includes entries for technical terms with more-or-less special meaning in shape analysis and biological morphometrics (e.g., preshape, warps, anisotropy) and some of the casual jargon that may be completely foreign to newcomers to the field (e.g., books of various color - Red, Blue, Orange, and Black). Many definitions provide the general idea behind each entry instead of a technically or mathematically rigorous treatment. As such, they are intended to give readers an intuitive understanding of a particular entry that will allow them to follow the main ideas in the literature without becoming unduly distracted, at first, with technical details. Unless otherwise indicated, the following general notation has been used: n - number of specimens, p - number of points/landmarks, k - number of dimensions, a superscript t will refer to the transpose of a matrix (e.g., At, but that may not be displayed properly by all WWW browsers). Members of the morphometrics community, especially the subscribers to the MORPHMET electronic mailing list, have helped greatly in the selection of terms to be included in the glossary.
