Morphometric approaches are used to characterize size and shape variation within populations of individuals or to identify features that correlate with some measurement of interest.
Three morphometric facilities are housed at the ISEM:
- The Vertebrate morpho-anatomy facility carries out fresh and fixed biological sample preparation and observation: dissection of large specimens and dissection under binocular magnifiers; formalin/paraformaldehyde fixation; staining; fresh tissue sampling for RNA extraction.
- The Morphometry facility houses several workstations (microscopes, stereomicroscopes, digital cameras) allowing the taking of pictures and measurements of seeds, teeth, skulls and wood anatomy.
- The X-ray microtomography facility is devoted to the study of the internal structure of biological and non-biological objects in a non-destructive way.