Morphometry

Morphometry characterises shapes by numerical measurements. In the field of micropaleontology the applications of morphometry range from simple measurements of length to the reconstruction of growth parameters during ontogenetic development via high resolution 3D data. More a research topic than infrastructure we mainly work in two fields of morphometry in our working group.

The introduction of digital microscopy and powerful software analysis tools allowed new approaches in of working with microscopic images of microfossils. Our microscopy laboratory allows us to take large scale, high resolution, semi 3D images of our samples. We work on the automation of data treatmeant, that is the segmentation of obejcts and their measurement as well as using the available elevation data.

A different aspect of our morphometric work is the reconstruction of ontogenetic trajectories. High resolution 3D data derived of CT scans allow the morphometric analysis of all individual test chambers of a foraminifer. By comparison of morphometric parameters calculated for the stages of ontognetic development of different species one can draw conclusions about the relationship of species. These results are then combined with findings from our genetic analyses.

Animated 3D model of Candeina nitida

Animated 3D model of Candeina nitida