Detection of shape changes in biological features

The question of analysing shape changes over time, such as during growth an d during the progress of disease, is an important fundamental issue for man y applications. Recent mathematical developments in the understanding of th e detailed structure of shape spaces have made possible the quantitative st udy of shape variation. In this paper, we combine the classical multidimens ional scaling technique with knowledge of the geometry of shape spaces to e xamine the role played by the geodesics in shape spaces. We present some pr omising early results answering questions about shape changes over time.