Traits, landmarks and outlines: Three congruent sides of a tale on coral reef fish morphology.

ABSTRACT: Quantifying the morphology of organisms remains fundamental in ecology given the form-function relationship. Morphology is quantifiable in traits, landmarks, and outlines, and the choice of approach may influence ecological conclusions to an unknown extent. Here, we apply these three approaches to 111 individual coral reef fish of 40 species common in Micronesia. We investigate the major dimensions of morphological variability among individuals, families, and predefined feeding functional groups. We find that although the approaches are complementary, they coincide in capturing elongation as the main dimension of variability. Furthermore, the choice of approach led to different interpretations regarding the degree of morphological differentiation among taxonomic and feeding functional grou

SUBMITTER: Quitzau M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9021933 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature