USING 3D SCANNING AND GEOMORPHIC MORPHOMETRICS TO CONDUCT A PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS ON THE ORDER CARNIVORA

Comparative anatomy is one criterion in which a phylogeny can be constructed. In this study, 3D scanning was conducted on representative crania of every family within the Order Carnivora, with the exceptions of Eupleridae and Otobeniidae. Mandibles were disassociated from the crania to enable unobstructed scanning of the palatine regions. ScanStudio HD was the software used to conduct the scans with a NextEngine 3D scanner. The scanning procedure involved two scans, with the cranium positioned in different oblique orientations, which were then aligned and fused together to create a final composite. A series of standardized landmarks were chosen using the Landmark software program to compare the homology of skull morphology using Procrustes and tangent space analyses. From these analyses, a phylogeny was constructed and compared against the known, accepted phylogeny of the order Carnivora.