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Dear zooarchers: An off-list discussion between myself and Deb Bennett has got me thinking: some in this community might find it useful to have an example of a fairly easy and accessible method for deciding if you can tell similar critters apart (and maybe why they are different). I have plonked an un-refereed 'worked example' of this, using scallop shells, on my academia.edu page, for anybody to download (considered criticisms gratefully received): http://www.academia.edu/8078473/Great_Scallops_Pecten_maximus_exhibit_phenotypic_plasticity An academically-refereed example (and one that is in many ways better) is Eisenmann and Baylac on discriminating palaeontological horses using skull measurements: Eisenmann, V & Baylac, M (2000): Extant and fossil Equus (Mammalia, Perissodactyla): a morphometric definition of the subgenus Equus. Zoologica Scripta 29, 89-100. -it's free to download, from Vera Eisenmann's website : http://www.vera-eisenmann.com/125-extant-and-fossil-equus-mammalia-perissodactyla-skulls-a-morphometric-definition-of-the-subgenus-equus My 'worked example' borrows from a paper influential in palaeontology (although I have reservations about the later stages of the method shown there): Michal Kowalewski, Eric Dyreson, Jonathan D. Marcot, Jose A. Vargas, Karl W. Flessa, and Diana P. Hallman (1997): Phenetic discrimination of biometric simpletons: paleobiological implications of morphospecies in the lingulide brachiopod Glottidia. Source: Paleobiology 23, 444-469. -it's not free to download, and is quite 'statistic-y', but presents a useful 'mental templaste' to sets of measurements. Greg Campbell The Naive Chemist