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Morphology (biology)
 
 
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The term morphology in biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape
Shape

The shape of an object located in some space is the part of that space occupied by the object, as determined by its external boundary ? abstracting from other properties such as colour, content, and material composition, as well as from the object's other spatial properties ....
, structure
Structure

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature , and stability of patterns and relationships of entities....
, colour, pattern
Pattern

A pattern, from the French language patron, is a type of theme of recurring events of or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set....
) as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs. This is in contrast to physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
, which deals primarily with function.

Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of gross structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts.






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Encyclopedia


The term morphology in biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
 refers to form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape
Shape

The shape of an object located in some space is the part of that space occupied by the object, as determined by its external boundary ? abstracting from other properties such as colour, content, and material composition, as well as from the object's other spatial properties ....
, structure
Structure

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature , and stability of patterns and relationships of entities....
, colour, pattern
Pattern

A pattern, from the French language patron, is a type of theme of recurring events of or objects, sometimes referred to as elements of a set....
) as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs. This is in contrast to physiology
Physiology

Physiology is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. Physiology has traditionally been divided between plant physiology and animal and all living things physiology but the principles of physiology are universal, no matter what particular organism is being studied....
, which deals primarily with function.

Morphology is a branch of life science dealing with the study of gross structure of an organism or taxon and its component parts. It can be subdivided into two distinct branches: anatomy
Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology that is the consideration of the body plan. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy ....
 is the study of the structure and internal organs of an organism. The study of the external appearance of an organism is called eidonomy, but while predominant early in the history of biology
History of biology

The history of biology traces the study of the life from ancient to modern times. Although the concept of biology as a single coherent field arose in the 19th century, the biological sciences emerged from history of medicine and natural history reaching back to ancient Egyptian medicine and the works of Aristotle and Galen in the ancien...
 it is little studied in particular anymore as it is ripe with the effects of convergent evolution
Convergent evolution

Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action....
. It thus yields less new information about organisms than anatomy, and therefore the external appearance of lifeforms is usually studied as part of general investigations in morphology, e.g. in the context of phylogenetic research.

Also in use is the term "gross morphology", which refers to the prominent or principal aspects of an organism or taxon's morphology. A description of an organism's gross morphology would include, for example, its overall shape, overall colour, main markings etc. but not finer details.

Most taxa differ morphologically from other taxa. Typically, closely related taxa differ much less than more distantly related ones, but there are exceptions to this. Cryptic species are species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
 which look very similar, or perhaps even outwardly identical, but are reproductively isolated. Conversely, sometimes unrelated taxa acquire similar appearance through convergent evolution
Convergent evolution

Convergent evolution describes the acquisition of the same biological trait in unrelated lineages.The wing is a classic example of convergent evolution in action....
 or even through mimicry. A further problem with relying on morphological data is that what may appear, morphologically speaking, to be two distinct species, may in fact be shown by DNA analysis to be a single species.

See also

  • Apomorphy
  • Comparative anatomy
    Comparative anatomy

    Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny ....
  • Morphometrics
    Morphometrics

    Morphometrics is a field concerned with studying variation and change in the form of organisms or objects. There are several methods for extracting data from shapes, each with their own benefits and weaknesses....
  • Phenetics
    Phenetics

    In biology, phenetics, also known as numerical taxonomy or taximetrics, is an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in Morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary relation....
  • Plant morphology
    Plant morphology

    Plant morphology is the general term for the study of the morphology of plants. This is usually considered distinct from plant anatomy, which is the study of the internal Anatomy of plants, especially at the microscopic level....
  • Plesiomorphy