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THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Eric Snively A ... - Ohio University

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PC3 1.026%. Other wmponents contribute negligible amounts to overall<br />

variation. Because PC3 also accounts for so Iiffle variance, it yields Iittle<br />

information about significant differences in shape or size. Therefore, this section<br />

concentrates on PCI and PC2.<br />

Variable loadings for each principal component (Table 2.4a) inform the type of<br />

variance the components represent. Ali loadings on PC1 are positive, which<br />

indicates that this component primarily describes overall size variation. PC2, on<br />

the other hand, shows a pattern of positive and negative loadings. Values for<br />

measurements representing proximal width are al1 negative, while loadings for<br />

other measurements are positive. This indicates that PC2 describes shape<br />

variation in the frontal plane, and that proximal width scales negatively compared<br />

with overall length in many specimens,<br />

Loadings on variables for PC2 show that proximal constriction plays a<br />

quantitatively significant role in overall variation in theropod third metatarsals.<br />

The high negative loading of W75%TU-DE (-0.517) reveals that relative width, at<br />

about 75% of the distance from the phalangeal to mesotarsal articulations, is the<br />

most important contributor to frontal shape variation. The proximal width, and<br />

width about half way along the metatarsal (WSO%TU-DE), are about equal in<br />

their contribution (with loadings of -0.328 and 4.335, respectively).<br />

The percentage contribution of PC1,2 and 3 to the variance of each<br />

measurement (Table 2.4b) corroborates the relative significance of these<br />

proximal width measurernents. PC2 accounts for 17.7% of variation in<br />

W75%TU-DE, 6.2% for WPROX, and 9.6% for WSO%TU-DE. More distal

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