Date of Award

Fall 2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MSc)

Department

Biology

Supervisor

Jonathon Stone

Co-Supervisor

Chris Wood

Language

English

Committee Member

Mike O'Donnell

Abstract

Geometric morphometrics (GM) provides a complementary method for studying morphology. Snails have been analyzed in the field of morphometrics since the 1960s because their shells serve to record information about their life histories and environmental habitats. In this thesis, we present an annotated bibliography for advancements in GM, using applications to snail shells as a representative case study. We categorize 30 publications into four fields, morphology, ecology, taxonomy and evolution, and show that developments have been unequal among them. We conclude by predicting that GM applications on snail shells will increase, especially in hybrid fields, such as, ecotoxicology, which currently are underrepresented. As a demonstration, we describe an experiment wherein we applied GM as a complementary morphological method to study the garden snail species Cepea nemoralis in an organophosphatepesticide, ecotoxicological setting. We conclude by showing that GM reveals subtle morphological differences among treatment groups with no relation to pesticide dosage.

McMaster University Library


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