THE SPIRIT OF THOMPSON,DARCY DWELLS IN EMPIRICAL MORPHOSPACE

Applications of the concept of a morphological space to the study of b iological form during the past three decades are reviewed. Common feat ures of the various types of morphological spaces constructed by morph ometricians during this period are identified and used to construct a space of morphological spaces. This semiquantitative analysis reveals that the use of empirical morphospace by contemporary researchers is s imilar to Thompson's classic method of coordinate grid transformations , in the description of biological form. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 19 97.