How We Learned to Measure Evolution

How do you measure evolution? Morphometrics is the science of measuring biological shape, and its history tells a fascinating story about how biology, mathematics, and technology have evolved together. In this video, we explore the history of morphometrics, from the earliest days of rulers and calipers in the 19th century, through D’Arcy Thompson’s geometric vision of form, to the rise of statistical and geometric morphometrics, and finally to modern 3D modelling, CT scanning, and computational shape analysis. This video covers: • Traditional morphometrics and early biological measurement • D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson and On Growth and Form • The rise of multivariate statistics in biology • The geometric morphometrics revolution • Landmarks, Procrustes analysis, and thin-plate splines • The transition from calipers to 3D and digital shape analysis Morphometrics allows scientists to study how shape relates to function, development, ecology, and evolution, revealing patterns that simple measurements could never capture. Whether you’re interested in evolutionary biology, morphology, palaeontology, anthropology, or the mathematics of form, this video traces how scientists learned to quantify the shape of life. Support the channel: buymeacoffee.com/denisecrampton