Functional Morphology

Philosophies - Methods - Materials - Successes - Problems - References - Hooper Museum Lobby


Functional morphology is the study of the form of an organism, or part of an organism, in order to determine how it functions.

But how well can we reconstruct the appearance, movements, and behaviour of extinct organisms from studies of their bones, shells, and other more rarely preserved parts?

Where is the boundary between the scientific evidence for reconstruction and the need to resort to imagination?


So many forms, so many functions. Is there a relationship between them?





Page by: Anne Marie Rickert
Last updated 04-07-98