Momocs: Outline Analysis Using R

Abstract

We introduce here Momocs, a package intended to ease and popularize modern morphometrics with R, and particularly outline analysis, which aims to extract quantitative variables from shapes. It mostly hinges on the functions published in the book entitled Modern Morphometrics Using R by Claude (2008). From outline extraction from raw data to multivariate analysis, Momocs provides an integrated and convenient toolkit to students and researchers who are, or may become, interested in describing the shape and its variation. The methods implemented so far in Momocs are introduced through a simplistic case study that aims to test if two sets of bottles have different shapes.