A New Era of Morphological Investigations: Reviewing Methods for Comparative Anatomical Studies

K L Ford; J S Albert; A P Summers; B P Hedrick; E R Schachner; A S Jones; K Evans; P Chakrabarty

doi:10.1093/iob/obad008

A New Era of Morphological Investigations: Reviewing Methods for Comparative Anatomical Studies

Integr Org Biol. 2023 Mar 17;5(1):obad008. doi: 10.1093/iob/obad008. eCollection 2023.

Authors

K L Ford^{1

2

3}, J S Albert⁴, A P Summers⁵, B P Hedrick⁶, E R Schachner⁷, A S Jones⁸, K Evans⁹, P Chakrabarty^{8

10

11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA.
² EAWAG Aquatic Research Institute, Luzern, Switzerland.
³ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁴ Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana, USA.
⁵ Department of Biology, Friday Harbor Labs, University of Washington, Washington, USA.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
⁷ Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Louisiana, USA.
⁸ Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University, Louisiana, USA.
⁹ BioSciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
¹⁰ American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA.
¹¹ Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA.
¹² Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottowa, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

The increased use of imaging technology in biological research has drastically altered morphological studies in recent decades and allowed for the preservation of important collection specimens alongside detailed visualization of bony and soft-tissue structures. Despite the benefits associated with these newer imaging techniques, there remains a need for more "traditional" methods of morphological examination in many comparative studies. In this paper, we describe the costs and benefits of the various methods of visualizing, examining, and comparing morphological structures. There are significant differences not only in the costs associated with these different methods (monetary, time, equipment, and software), but also in the degree to which specimens are destroyed. We argue not for any one particular method over another in morphological studies, but instead suggest a combination of methods is useful not only for breadth of visualization, but also for the financial and time constraints often imposed on early-career research scientists.

Publication types

Review