FrogEyes
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From: Print Clock - A method for dating early books and prints a website from a herpetological lab [Dr. S. Blair Hedges] which found a need to identify the date of publication of undated antique books:
Among the many features of this public domain software, I will focus only on the one group of HUGE relevance here (from “features”):
Presumably all of these tools and features are of great use to the NIH, because they help the analysis of tissue images [of note - the late head of NIDDK at NIH was Dr. John Daly, who collaborated in the study and descriptions of many poison frogs, including Phyllobates terribilis]. The image analysis can show organ or tumor size, composition based on color, etc. For US...the benefits are similar...
I commented some time ago about the difficulties identifying Pachytriton species. Many incorrect assumptions have been made about identifying the species based on color and pattern. While there are colors and patterns typical of one species or another, there is often so much overlap as to be highly unreliable. However, each species does have reliable morphometric characters - lengths and widths of body parts and their relative proportions. We discussed the fact that one could photograph animals with something measurable in the picture [such as a ruler], and then analyze the pictures in Photoshop or PSP. It's doable, but laborious. So now we have access to free imaging software that provides those measurement tools! Collect the data, plug it into a spreadsheet [I have one which includes known data for all Pachytriton], and then compare! This should help with other morphometrically defined species, such as H.fudingensis, H.orientalis, and the confusing animals which look like H.fudingensis, but SEEM to have H.orientalis proportions. “Seem” meaning that I can't be sure how accurate my photo measurements were, made as they were without measuring tools.
Among the many features of this public domain software, I will focus only on the one group of HUGE relevance here (from “features”):
Presumably all of these tools and features are of great use to the NIH, because they help the analysis of tissue images [of note - the late head of NIDDK at NIH was Dr. John Daly, who collaborated in the study and descriptions of many poison frogs, including Phyllobates terribilis]. The image analysis can show organ or tumor size, composition based on color, etc. For US...the benefits are similar...
I commented some time ago about the difficulties identifying Pachytriton species. Many incorrect assumptions have been made about identifying the species based on color and pattern. While there are colors and patterns typical of one species or another, there is often so much overlap as to be highly unreliable. However, each species does have reliable morphometric characters - lengths and widths of body parts and their relative proportions. We discussed the fact that one could photograph animals with something measurable in the picture [such as a ruler], and then analyze the pictures in Photoshop or PSP. It's doable, but laborious. So now we have access to free imaging software that provides those measurement tools! Collect the data, plug it into a spreadsheet [I have one which includes known data for all Pachytriton], and then compare! This should help with other morphometrically defined species, such as H.fudingensis, H.orientalis, and the confusing animals which look like H.fudingensis, but SEEM to have H.orientalis proportions. “Seem” meaning that I can't be sure how accurate my photo measurements were, made as they were without measuring tools.
