Abstract
Advances in genomics and informatics have enabled the production of large phylogenetic trees. However, the ability to collect large phenotypic data sets has not kept pace. Here, we present a method to quickly and accurately gather morphometric data using crowdsourced image-based landmarking. We find that crowdsourced workers perform similarly to experienced morphologists on the same digitization tasks. We also demonstrate the speed and accuracy of our method on seven families of ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii). Crowdsourcing will enable the collection of morphological data across vast radiations of organisms and can facilitate richer inference on the macroevolutionary processes that shape phenotypic diversity across the tree of life.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 472-482 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Methods in Ecology and Evolution |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2016 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Actinopterygii
- Comparative methods
- Large-scale annotation
- Macroevolution
- Mechanical Turk