Is the geometric morphometrics technique a valuable tool for classifying skulls of living species of Felidae?

Abstract

A sample of 40 adult specimens of different genera belonging to the family Felidae was studied according to geometric morphometric (GM) analysis, based on 14 homologous landmarks obtained from the lateral aspect of the skull. Multivariate statistics were applied to visualize the patterns and assess the significance of size and shape variation between species. Procrustes and tangent space distances between all specimens were compared and the correlations between these distances demonstrated a low redundancy in the original data. Size was revealed as the most identifiable component of species dimorphism. But although GM tools can depict similarities in form with accuracy, it is necessary to say that there is no necessary phylogenetic meaning to the results but rather biomechanical conclusions only, although the results reflected here depend on the choice of landmarks and specimens.