Ontogenic tracks and evolutionary vestiges in morphospace

Strombid shells were used to exemplify how to construct ontogenic tracks and evolutionary vestiges in morphological space (morphospace). Parameters in a mathematical model of shell form were used to construct morphospaces. Ontogenic information was mapped into these morphospaces to form ‘tracks.’ Ontogenic tracks showed that the predominant trend of morphological evolution of strombid species consisted of an increase of vertical dimensions of whorls (apertures). Integrating information extracted from cladograms with ontogenic tracks in morphospace, ‘evolutionary vestiges’ were determined and used to infer and reconstruct ancestral shell forms.