Registration is open for the course:  “From Phenotype to Genotype: The Genetic Bases of Shape – 3rd Edition”; September 6-9, 2016. 
Instructors: Dr. Neus Martínez-Abadías (Centre for Genomic Regulation, Spain) and Dr. Nicolas Navarro (École Pratique des Hautes Études, France).
Site: Premises of Sabadell of the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (Barcelona, Spain).
Course Webpage: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/gen/quant-gen-shape/

This course will provide a basic introduction to geometric morphometric analyses, with an emphasis on using this tool kit to address questions related to growth, development, and evolution. Simple characterizations of multivariate ontogeny will give way to more complicated methods for visualizing and comparing different patterns of growth and development.

From here, we will take up the idea of changes in ontogeny as a mechanism for producing evolutionary change. Using landmark data, it is possible to address many of the issues related to evolutionary development, but it will also become clear that the basic formulation of traditional evo-devo models lose relevance in the complex datasets available through modern digitisation and morphometric analysis. We will end by discussing the difficulties and misconceptions in interpreting morphometric analyses of ontogeny, and introduce some of the advanced topics in ontogeny that morphometricians are beginning to address.

This course is co-organized by Transmitting Science and the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia M. Crusafont. Place are limited and will be covered by strict registration order.