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SUMMARY:Shell Shape of Snails - Jenny Larsson (University of Sheffield)
DTSTART:20171117T110000Z
DTEND:20171117T113000Z
UID:TALK95203@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:INI IT
DESCRIPTION:The beautiful\, intricate\, and widely diverse shapes of snail
  shells have fascinated people for centuries. In particular\, shells have 
 been analysed by mathematicians wanting to understand their geometric prop
 erties. One of the greatest contributors to the field is D&#39\;Arcy Thomp
 son with his book On Growth and Form. This book celebrates one hundred yea
 rs this year\, and has played a major role in the field of morphometric an
 alysis.<br>One well established and simple way of visualising snail shells
  is built on Raup&#39\;s growth model\, using logarithmic equations with t
 hree growth parameters. However\, analysing a shell to find the correct va
 lues for the growth parameters is not always a straightforward task.&nbsp\
 ;<br><br>The goal of my research is to develop a method for obtaining the 
 growth parameters from 2D images of shells. I will test my methods with a 
 set of images of the species Littorina saxatilis. This species is biologic
 ally interesting because strong natural selection maintains different shel
 l shapes in distinct environments. It would therefore be an advantage to h
 ave a way of describing this natural shape variation\, and the shapes of l
 aboratory hybrids\, in terms of meaningful growth parameters. This is expe
 cted to give a better understanding of the operation of selection and of t
 he underlying genetic basis of shape variation\, compared to more classica
 l PCA analysis of landmarks.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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