Books related to geometric morphometrics

* Bookstein, F. L. 1991.
Morphometric tools for landmark data: geometry and biology. Cambridge Univ. Press: New York. 435 pp.
Comprehensive text on geometric morphometrics -- from shape coordinates to relative warps.

*Claude, Julien. 2008.
Morphometrics with R. Springer: New York. 316 pp. ISBN: 978-0-387-77789-4 $59.95. Contents Links to files

*Costa, Luciano Da Fontoura and Roberto Marcondes Cesar Jr. 2000.
Shape Analysis and Classification: Theory and Practice. CRC Press: New York. 659 pp. ISBN: 0849334934. $89.95. Contents

*Dryden, I. L. and K. V. Mardia 1998.
Statistical shape analysis. Wiley: New York. 347 pp. ISBN 0-471-95816-6.
Comprehensive book on statistical analysis of shape data.

*Elewa, Ashraf M. T. (editor) 2004.
Morphometrics–Applications in Biology and Paleontology. Springer-Verlag Publishers, Heidelberg, Germany. 263 pp.
An edited book with many applications. Contents, Cover, Publisher's web page.

*Elewa, Ashraf M. T. (editor) 2010.
Morphometrics–Morphometrics for Nonmorphometricians. Springer-Verlag Publishers, Heidelberg, Germany. 367 pp.
This edited volume provides an introduction to morphometrics in a clear and simple way without recourse to complex mathematics and statistics. This introduction is followed by a series of case studies describing the variety of applications of morphometrics from paleontology and evolutionary ecology to archaeological artifacts analysis. This is followed by a presentation of future applications of morphometrics and state of the art software for analyzing and comparing shape. . Contents, Publisher's web page.

*Kendall, D. G., D. Barden, T. K. Carne, and H. Le. 1999.
Shape and shape theory. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., New York. 306 pp. ISBN: 0-471-96823-4.
A comprehensive (but very technical) account of Kendall's shape spaces.

*Lele, S. R.,and J. T. Richtsmeier. 2001.
An invariant approach to statistical analysis of shapes. Chapman & Hall/CRC. 308 pp. ISBN: 0-8493-0319-2.
An exposition of the EDMA approach to morphometrics. Link to errata and some datasets.

*Lestrel, P. E. 1997.
Fourier descriptors and their applications in biology. Cambridge Univ. Press. 466 pp. ISBN: 0-521-45201-5.
A description of Fourier methods. Check the reviews.

*MacLeod, N.,and P. L. Forey. 2002.
Morphology, shape, and phylogeny. Taylor & Francis. 304 pp. ISBN: 0-415-24074-3.
Several chapters are relevant to applications of geometric morphometrics to phylogeny. Includes chapter by Bookstein on creases and a chapter by Rohlf on estimation of ancestral landmark configurations and images.

*Marcus, L. F., E. Bello, and A. Garica-Valdecasas. (eds.) 1993.
Contributions to morphometrics. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain. 264 pp.
Papers concerned with data acquisition and various aspects of geometric morphometrics. Order from: Luis Gomez Arguero, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, c/Jose Gutierrez Abascal, 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain. FAX: (1)5.64.50.78, e-mail: MCNHV00@CC.CSIC.ES. Can also try: La Tienda del Museo, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, C/Jose Gutierrez Abascal, 2, 28006-Madrid, Spain. Price is 3120 pesetas plus 2500 pesetas p. & p. (airmail). Make check payable to La Tienda del Museo de Ciencias S. L.

It is now freely available in PDF and other electronic formats from the Internet Archive.


* Marcus, L. F., M. Corti, A. Loy, G. J. P. Naylor and D. E. Slice. (eds.) 1996.
Advances in Morphometrics. NATO ASI Series A: Life Sciences vol. 284. Plenum: New York. x1v+587 pp. ISBN 0-306-45301-0
Collection of papers resulting from the NATO ASI in Il Ciocco, Italy in 1993. Topics include: traditional morphometrics, data acquisition, landmark methods, outlines with or without landmarks, comparing shapes of organisms, low taxonomic level and intraspecific comparisons, and higher taxonomic level comparisons. There will also be an extensive glossary. Cost: $231.50 (US) or 224.50 EUR. Link to publisher
Note: in the past qualifying orders for five or more copies of NATO volumes (can be of the same or different titles) are charged only $40/ volume. Contact the publisher to see if this is still possible. Link to the publisher's home page.


*Monteiro, Lenadro and Sergio Furtado dos Reis 1999.
Principios de morfometria geometrica. Holos Editora (holos@highnet.com.br). 188 pp. ISBN: 85-86699-10-1.
This is the first morphometrics primer in portuguese language. It has 188 pages and covers topics such as basic multivariate analysis, Outline methods, Superimposition methods and thin plate splines. It has also a worked example and a chapter exposing the matrix algebra needed to understand the text.


*Reyment, R. 1991.
Multidimensional paleobiology. Pergamon Press: New York, 377 pp + 39 p. supplement by Les Marcus.
Applications of multivariate statistical methods. Also discusses thin-plate splines and fractals. Supplement by Marcus provides programs written in SAS IML.


*Rohlf, F. J. and F. L. Bookstein. (eds.) 1990.
Proceedings of the Michigan Morphometrics Workshop. Special Publ. No. 2, The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. 380 pp.
Collection of papers resulting from the Michigan workshop. Topics include data acquisition, multivariate methods, methods for outline data, methods for landmark data, and the problem of homology. Order from: Publications, Museum of Zoology, The Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079. Soft cover $17.50 + shipping. List of corrections as html or a 36K PDF file. A few copies are still available (as of 12/22/06) for $25. Email fpaper@umich.edu, call 734-764-0470, or FAX 734-763-4080. Click here to access download site for the 27MB PDF file.


*Slice, Dennis E. (ed.) 2005.
Modern Morphometrics in Physical Anthropology. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 383 pp. ISBN: 0306486989.
Provides a comprehensive sampling of the applications of modern, sophisticated methods of shape analysis in anthropology, and serves as a starting point for the exploration of these practices by students and researchers. This text is a resource for the general morphometric community that includes ecologists, evolutionary biologists, systematists, and medical researchers.


*Small, C. G. 1996.
The statistical theory of shape. Springer: New York. 227 pp. ISBN: 0-387-94729-9.
A technical discussion of the geometry and statistics of Kendall's shape space.

*Weber, G. W. and F. L. Bookstein. 2011.
Virtual Anthropology: a guide to a new interdisciplinary field. Springer: New York. 423 pp. ISBN: 978-3-211-48647-4.


*Zelditch, M. L., D. L. Swiderski, H. D. Sheets, and W. L. Fink. 2004.
Geometric Morphometrics for biologists: a primer. Elsevier Academic Press: London. 443 pp. £44.95 ISBN: 0-12-77846-08.
The first book-length primer for geometric morphometrics.

*Zollikofer, Christoph P. E. and Marcia S. Ponce de León. 2005.
Virtual Reconstruction: A Primer in Computer-Assisted Paleontology and Biomedicine. Wiley Interscience: Hoboken, New Jersey. 333 pp. $89.95. ISBN: 0-471-20507-9. Publisher's site Author's site.
Note1: By tradition, some of the above books are referred to by color. Thus: Bookstein et al. (1985) is the "red book", Rohlf and Bookstein (1990) is the "blue book", Bookstein (1991) is the "orange book", and Marcus et al. (1993) is the "black book." The book by Zelditch et al. (2004) is known as the "green book".

Note2: Please check the reviews before investing in one of the books listed above. The list is intended to be comprehensive and not a list of recommended readings.

Thanks to John M. Lynch for putting together the initial list of reviews for the above publications.

Updated May 31, 2012 .
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