Landmark Based Thin Plate Spline Relative Warp Analysis of Gastropod Shells

In the analysis of organismal form, landmark based geometrical morphometrics now are preferred to traditional morphometrics by many systematists. However, certain forms have eluded geometrical morphometric analysis because landmarks on them are difficult to define; this situation is a problem of logistics rather than an inadequacy of the landmark based approach. In this article, a landmark based geometrical morphometric analysis is performed on one such form the gastropod shell, and the results obtained are compared to those obtained using more traditional methods of morphometric analysis.