Technical note: Performance of semi and fully automated approaches for registration of 3D surface coordinates in geometric morphometric studies.

Objectives: One of the biggest challenges in the study of complex morphologies is to adequately describe shape variation. Here, we assess how the random sampling of surface points automatically obtained performs, when compared with observer-guided sampling procedures, and also evaluate the effect of sliding surface points by bending energy and minimum Procrustes distance.

Material And Methods: Three datasets comprising structures with disparate levels of complexity and intrasample variation are as follows: mouse molars, mouse brains, and primate endocasts.