Thompsonian Transformations

Tim Horder, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Published online: January 2006

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0004179

Thompsonian transformations are a graphical method for studying the relations of the morphologies of organisms in terms of overall patterns of modifications to their shared geometries.

Keywords: morphometrics; biomathematics; homology; allometry; biomechanics

Figure 1. Transformation diagram showing how one fish species (the sunfish Orthagoriscus, on the right) can be derived by geometric deformation of the morphology of another (the porcupine fish Diodon, on the left). From Thompson (1917).
Figure 2. A Thompsonian transform relating the skull of a chimpanzee (left) to the skull of a baboon (right). From Thompson (1917).
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 References
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 Further Reading
    book Brown JH and West GB (2000) Scaling in Biology. New York: Oxford University Press.
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    book Horder TJ (2005) "D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, on growth and form". In: Gratton–Guiness I (ed.) Landmarks Writings in Western Mathematics, 1640–1940, pp. 823–832. Amsterdam: Elsevier
    book Keller EF (2002) Making Sense of Life. Explaining Biological Developments with Models, Metaphors, and Machines. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

Macroevolution | Evolution: Theories and Ideas | History
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Article Title: Thompsonian Transformations
 
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Horder, Tim(Jan 2006) Thompsonian Transformations. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0004179]