ABSTRACT
The previous chapter presented our notation and method for representing the form of an object and mean form for a sample. In this chapter, we turn to the comparison of forms and introduce our method, Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis, or EDMA (pronounced ed.ma). To clarify our approach, we consider other methods for the comparison of forms, all of which can be classified as either superimposition techniques or deformation techniques. We then present the EDMA approach to the comparison of forms, providing suggestions for interpreting the output of these analyses and statistical approaches. Statistical testing of the equality of shapes is provided in keeping with traditional aspects of statistics. Since the testing of similarity in shapes provides little in the way of biological information, we deemphasize that aspect of statistical testing and stress the importance of exploring and demonstrating local differences between forms using EDMA output (i.e., the form difference matrices) and confidence interval methods. Finally, we provide analyses of our example data sets in order to clarify and solidify the ideas presented.
