The descriptive use of neighborhood limited classification in functional morphology: An analysis of the shoulder in primates

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Abstract
A series of dimensions of the shoulder girdle of primates has previously been chosen as being related to function in that anatomical region. Their examination by canonical analysis suggests that they do indeed reflect aspects of the use of the shoulder in locomotion in the different primates.Further analysis is here performed using the technique of neighborhood limited classification and this confirms the basic picture presented by the previous analysis. The new method also gives more detailed information about the grouping of the specimens; thus it endorses the reality of functional divisions that appear to exist in the data. And in addition the groupings reflect differences in the structure of the shoulder that correlate well with certain taxonomic subdivisions of the order. The method maintains contact with individual specimens throughout the analysis and is capable of placing them within groups, at the boundaries of groups, within the interfaces between groups, or as satellites to groups.The new method appears to have a part to play in the description of the relationships between biological objects that is complementary to that of canonical analysis. As the mathematical concepts upon which the two techniques are based differ totally, the risk that the results might be inherent in statistical assumptions is thus averted.

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