Adrian Bowman

English

Research Papers in Economics

JSS Journal of Statistical Software
September 2009, Volume 31, Book Review 1. http://www.jstatsoft.org/
Reviewer: Adrian Bowman
University of Glasgow
Morphometrics with R
Julien Claude
Springer-Verlag, New York, 2008.
ISBN 978-0-387-77789-4. 316 pp. USD 59.95.
http://www.springer.com/978-0-387-77789-4
Readers who are not familiar with the term `morphometrics' may nd a denition helpful and
this book provides one in the opening page. It is `the statistical study of shape and size and
their covariations with other variables'. Those from the statistical community might more
commonly use the term `statistical shape analysis' whereas `morphometrics' is generally used
by researchers in biological applications. The title of the book therefore gives an important
and helpful cue on its orientation. It discusses a wide range of methods and approaches to
shape and size, covering the role of standard statistical methods, the more specialist tech-
niques associated with landmarks and registration methods, as well as describing some more
advanced methods including the analysis of outlines, the use of relative warps and links with
phylogenetics. R is an integral part of the development of the material throughout the book.
In terms of general statistical content, the introductory chapter begins with elementary meth-
ods of plotting and simple analysis but moves very rapidly towards more advanced techniques
which will be used later in the book. This includes MANOVA, clustering and references to
techniques such as the singular value decomposition. This gives the impression that readers
are expected to have reasonable familiarity with statistical thinking and methods, with the
introductory material providing a brief refresher. The technical content of later chapters in-
cludes Bezier polynomials, Fourier analysis and reference to shape space. Brief explanations
and references are given for these techniques but the speed of development will make the
material more suitable for those who are already familiar with these methods, as indeed is
highly likely for those working in morphometrics.
A key feature of the book is the extensive use of R, both through the direct use of code
and through references to a large number of packages relevant to the morphometrics area.
The author is a strong advocate of R and is keen to persuade his readers of its advantages.
The introductory chapter gives a brief introduction to some simple structures and syntax
while the following chapter discusses the acquisition, storage and manipulation of data, with
a particular emphasis on images, using tools available in a variety of packages. Later chapters
on dierent types of analysis make extensive reference to a wide variety of other packages,
thereby introducing readers to an extensive collection of useful tools. However, there is also2 Morphometrics with R
a strong emphasis on writing R directly, and on creating simple R functions. This gives the
reader a good opportunity to engage with data analysis directly. Some of the code sections
are substantial and new users may nd these demanding. Where tools are available in other
packages this will be the most productive route for regular data analysis. However, readers
who wish to engage with R in earnest may well nd the opportunity to review these code
sections very useful. The nal chapter of the book gives further advice on Going Further with
R through simulations, writing functions and interfacing with other systems.
This is an interesting book and I certainly learned new things by reading it. Its particular
contribution is to bring together a wide variety of tools, both statistical and computational,
which are relevant to morphometrics and to present these in a very practical manner through
R. Those who are new to the topic are likely to gain most value from the book once they have
gained some familiarity with at least some of the tools involved. However, the synthesis of tools
presented here will undoubtedly lead readers into contact with, and subsequent understanding
of, a wider array of methods at a very practical level.
Reviewer:
Adrian Bowman
Department of Statistics
The University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
E-mail: adrian@stats.gla.ac.uk
URL: http://www.stats.gla.ac.uk/~adrian/
Journal of Statistical Software http://www.jstatsoft.org/
published by the American Statistical Association http://www.amstat.org/
Volume 31, Book Review 1 Published: 2009-09-19
September 2009

Morphometrics with R

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Research Papers in Economics