Figure 3. Geometric morphometrics results. A in The Woodcock's head: Resolving a morphological oddity using geometric morphometrics

Figure 3. Geometric morphometrics results. A. Procrustes residuals (shape data) of the 160 superimposed configurations. The configuration of the woodcock is plotted inside to show how its skull shape maps compared to the rest of birds. B. Isolated average configuration (grey, left) and woodcock (black, right). C. Average and woodcock superimposed to show that the largest difference is in the position of the facial skeleton compared to the neurocranium. D. Same as C yet using the Thin Plate Spline deformation to further stress the craniofacial differences between the woodcock and the average. Notice how craniofacial differences are due to the "rotation" of the face and the neurocranium. E. Thin plate spline deformation of the woodcock compared to the rest of the sample within morphospace (summary of shape variance of Fig. 3A using Relative Warps Analysis, i.e., PCA). Black/thick arrow points to woodcock, Thin arrow points to Snipe, whose skull shape is definitely similar to that of the woodcock.