TY - JOUR
T1 - Retrodeformation of fossil specimens based on 3D bilateral semi-landmarks
T2 - Implementation in the R package “Morpho”
AU - Schlager, Stefan
AU - Profico, Antonio
AU - Vincenzo, Fabio Di
AU - Manzi, Giorgio
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - Many fossil specimens exhibit deformations caused by taphonomic processes. Due to these deformations, even important specimens have to be excluded from morphometric analyses, impoverishing an already poor paleontological record. Techniques to retrodeform and virtually restore damaged (i.e. deformed) specimens are available, but these methods genenerally imply the use of a sparse set of bilateral landmarks, ignoring the fact that the distribution and amount of control points directly affects the result of the retrodeformation. We propose a method developed in the R environment and available in the R-package “Morpho” that, in addition to the landmark configurations, also allows using a set of semi-landmarks homogeneously distributed along curves and on surfaces. We evaluated the outcome of the retrodeformation, regarding the number of semi-landmarks used and its robustness against asymmetric noise, based on simulations using a virtually deformed gorilla cranium. Finally, we applied the method to a well-known Neanderthal cranium that exhibits signs of taphonomically induced asymmetry.
AB - Many fossil specimens exhibit deformations caused by taphonomic processes. Due to these deformations, even important specimens have to be excluded from morphometric analyses, impoverishing an already poor paleontological record. Techniques to retrodeform and virtually restore damaged (i.e. deformed) specimens are available, but these methods genenerally imply the use of a sparse set of bilateral landmarks, ignoring the fact that the distribution and amount of control points directly affects the result of the retrodeformation. We propose a method developed in the R environment and available in the R-package “Morpho” that, in addition to the landmark configurations, also allows using a set of semi-landmarks homogeneously distributed along curves and on surfaces. We evaluated the outcome of the retrodeformation, regarding the number of semi-landmarks used and its robustness against asymmetric noise, based on simulations using a virtually deformed gorilla cranium. Finally, we applied the method to a well-known Neanderthal cranium that exhibits signs of taphonomically induced asymmetry.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044246085&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0194073
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0194073
M3 - Article
C2 - 29554122
AN - SCOPUS:85044246085
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 13
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
IS - 3
M1 - e0194073
ER -