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Interesting new paper that might have gone overlooked



Hi,

I can't remember seeing this on list. I presume the approach works with 
nonavians too:

Piotr Jadwiszczak / Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche
Distinguishing between two Antarctic species of Eocene Palaeeudyptes penguins: 
a statistical approach using tarsometatarsi
Polish Polar Research Vol 34(3): 237–252 DOI: 10.2478/popore-2013-0020

Defining species boundaries, due to morphological variation, often represents a 
significant challenge in paleozoology. In this paper we report results from 
multi− and univariate data analyses, such as enhanced clustering techniques, 
principal coordinates ordination method, kernel density estimations and finite 
mixture model analyses, revealing some morphometric patterns within the Eocene 
Antarctic representatives of Palaeeudyptes penguins. These large−sized birds 
were represented by two species, P. gunnari and P. klekowskii, known mainly 
from numerous isolated bones. Investigations focused on tarsometatarsi, crucial 
bones in paleontology of early penguins, resulted in a probability−based 
framework allowing for the “fuzzy” partitioning the studied specimens into two 
taxa with partly overlapping size distributions. Such a number of species was 
supported by outcomes from both multi− and univariate studies. In our opinion, 
more reliance should be
 placed on the quantitative analysis of form when distinguishing between 
species within the Antarctic Palaeeudyptes.

http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/popore.2013.34.issue-3/popore-2013-0020/popore-2013-0020.xml

Paper is open access.



Regards,

Eike