Quantitative Approaches to Primate Morphology

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Abstract
Quantitative morphometric methods are focused mainly on dental morphology, skull shape, shapes of body segments, body proportions and overall size. In the majority of cases simple measurements of linear dimensions or angles have been used. Only rarely are the possibilities inherent to a quantitative description of shape fully exploited. Nevertheless, the utility of morphometrics for taxonomic studies is now generally accepted, in particular if the measurements provide the data base for multivariate statistics. For an understanding of the selective value of the characters studied, a different kind of quantitative data is necessary. As most of the observed variation is in locomotor and jaw structures, which serve to fulfil mechanical functions, quantitative data from the field of mechanics are required: moments of force, moments of resistance, velocities, accelerations, forces, stresses. Even more important than these empirical data is precise knowledge of the way in which these factors are connected in mathematical equations which describe the mechanical laws governing the animal and its motions. If the basic constraint which directs the phylogenetic development of forms is indeed the saving of energy as is commonly accepted, the mechanical approach will open up a causal understanding of evolution.

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