Small sample sizes in the study of ontogenetic allometry; implications for palaeobiology.

ABSTRACT: Quantitative morphometric analyses, particularly ontogenetic allometry, are common methods used in quantifying shape, and changes therein, in both extinct and extant organisms. Due to incompleteness and the potential for restricted sample sizes in the fossil record, palaeobiological analyses of allometry may encounter higher rates of error. Differences in sample size between fossil and extant studies and any resulting effects on allometric analyses have not been thoroughly investigated, and a logical lower threshold to sample size is not clear. Here we show that studies based on fossil datasets have smaller sample sizes than those based on extant taxa. A similar pattern between vertebrates and invertebrates indicates this is not a problem unique to either group, but common to both. We inve

SUBMITTER: Brown CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4358694 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature